Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-35252

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to Glasgow City Council to renegotiate its reported £449 million in lender option borrower option loans with commercial banks, which have reportedly higher average rates of interest than public works loan board rates.

Local Authority borrowing decisions are a matter for the individual local authority and Scottish Ministers have no locus or powers to intervene.

Local authorities are required by statute to ensure effective and prudent management of their resources, to deliver best value to local residents and to have regard to the CIPFA Prudential and Treasury Management codes of practice which require a local authority to ensure that all borrowing is prudent, affordable and sustainable.

In having regard to the Prudential and Treasury Management codes of practice, local authorities are expected to develop and publish an annual integrated borrowing and treasury management strategy. The CIPFA Treasury Management Code of practice sets out the importance of a local authority having an effective strategy to manage and control risk and specifically advises on the requirement for a local authority to ensure that its treasury management strategy adequately addresses credit and counterparty risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, and refinancing risk.

Question reference: S6O-04475

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what recent assessment it has made of the resources given to the Legislation team.

Question reference: S6O-04479

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what measures it is taking to support any LGBTQ+ staff whose welfare may be negatively impacted by any increase in the use of language in the Chamber and committees that may be perceived as trans-exclusionary.

Question reference: S6O-04477

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions it has had with the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme trustees about investments in Tesla and any other companies that may conflict with the scheme's Statement of Investment Principles.

Question reference: S6O-04474

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what information it has on for what reason stamps that are issued in the Parliament’s Post Office are not Scotland Country Definitive stamps by default.

Question reference: S6O-04478

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consider removing from its catering outlets any products made by companies identified by the UN Human Rights Office as being involved in activities related to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Question reference: S6O-04476

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S6W-34464, what its position is on whether MSPs should be able to participate in the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, in addition to the Armed Forces Visits Programme, should they wish to do so, in light of it being a structured 15-day course with one of the armed services, and it also offering the opportunity to enrol on a Royal College of Defence Studies postgraduate degree level course in strategic leadership and international strategic studies, and it therefore being different in nature.

Question reference: S6W-35436

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce a decision on the review into banning lead ammunition, and whether it plans to provide an update and information to the Parliament or the relevant committee on (a) how the decision was reached and (b) its rationale for the decision.

The Scottish Government recognises that the use of lead in ammunition continues to pose risks to both human health and the environment. We prioritised work under assimilated law in 2021 to propose a restriction for lead in ammunition, in agreement with the Welsh and UK Governments, to address these ongoing risks.

We have been working with UK and Welsh Governments to reach a decision following the publication of the Health and Safety Executive’s Opinion on this restriction proposal in December 2024. Once a decision has been agreed between the UK Government, Scottish, and Welsh Ministers, the UK Government will publish a decision report on its website. The Secretary of State must then seek the consent of Scottish and Welsh Ministers to a UK statutory instrument to make this decision law. At this point I will write to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee to seek the agreement of the Scottish Parliament to Scottish Ministers consenting to this instrument, the details of which will be notified to the Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-35484

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly not carried out an environmental impact assessment into the procurement of clinical waste disposal contracts.

It is the responsibility of NHS National Services Scotland to assess the need for an environmental impact assessment.

The NP805/19 Healthcare Waste Services framework, implemented in 2019, requires NHSScotland clinical waste suppliers to follow SEPA regulations and permit requirements for healthcare waste handling and disposal and thereby meeting environmental impact standards. Additionally, environmental and sustainability impacts of the procurement of products and services to NHSScotland are an essential element of awards.

For the 2019 clinical waste award, as part of the specification, suppliers were asked to demonstrate how to minimise environmental impact by reducing waste, improving material recovery, and exploring new disposal methods.

Question reference: S6W-35317

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to local authorities to ensure the delivery of youth work services and programmes, and how it works with them to (a) ensure that youth work is integrated into broader economic and social development strategies, (b) measure and report on the impact of youth work on young people’s economic wellbeing, (c) develop a coordinated national strategy for youth work that aligns with its broader priorities and ensures equitable service provision and (d) develop central support mechanisms to assist them in the effective deployment of programmes, and how these mechanisms are monitored.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable support provided to young people through high quality youth work. This work contributes to the Scottish Government’s priority of eradicating child poverty and tackling inequality.

In Programme for Government, published in September 2024, Scottish Government committed to invest in community-based youth work focused on reaching young people outside the classroom and supporting access to education, training, and employment.

Each education authority is responsible for securing Community Learning and Development (CLD) in their area under the Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013.

In addition to the block grant given to local authorities, and in a challenging fiscal context, the Scottish Government has continued to fund Youth Scotland and YouthLink Scotland in 2024-25 in support of high quality youth work as part of CLD. Overall funding remains broadly consistent with previous years and reflects the priority that the Government attaches to support community-based youth work.