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-03455

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Lord President and Lord Justice General recommending to the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland that an extra 15 fee paid sheriffs and 15 fee paid summary sheriffs be appointed.

In January 2021 I announced that £50 million would be allocated to support the justice system “Recover, Renew and Transform Programme”, which includes addressing the national requirement for a higher number of both sheriff and summary sheriff roles to manage the backlog in the sheriff courts that occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

To support this programme of work, the Lord President made a formal request to Scottish Ministers for 15 fee paid sheriffs and 15 fee paid summary sheriffs to be appointed by the end of 2021. In April 2021, Scottish Ministers formally requested the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland (JABS) begin the recommendation for appointment process to fill these roles. Subsequently recommendations for appointment are expected to be received from JABS in November 2021.

Question reference: S6W-03398

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle the health, social and environmental impacts of food.

The Scottish Government recognises that the food we produce and consume has wide-ranging impacts in many areas of life. Our ambition is for Scotland to be a Good Food Nation where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day. We have already been working across government on an extensive programme of measures to deliver on this ambition. This work will now be supported and underpinned in law by the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, introduced on 7 October 2021.

The Bill will provide an over-arching framework for clear, consistent and coherent future Scottish food policy. It places duties on Scottish Ministers and certain public authorities to produce plans of their policies in relation to food and set out what they will do to make those plans real. These plans will also have to set out the main outcomes to be achieved in relation to food-related issues, the policies needed to do this and the measures we will use to assess progress. We want these plans to deliver outcomes which support our nation’s social and economic wellbeing, the environment, people’s health and economic development.

Question reference: S6W-03332

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 26 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Minister for Transport on 23 September 2021 that there is a plan in place to provide 30,000 electric vehicle charge points by 2030, which is “evolving”, whether it will publish this plan, and by what date the fully-completed final plan will be published.

Transport Scotland, recently published a joint report with Scottish Futures Trust setting out the opportunities to grow Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network and the conditions that will be needed to facilitate this over the next few years. The report makes reference to Climate Change Committee data which indicated that the UK as a whole may require 280,000 public charge points by 2030, implying the need for 30,000 in Scotland which in turn equates to approximately 4000 each year. Importantly, the report also highlighted that the number of charge points required will be influenced by a range of factors including development of battery and charging technologies and that significant commercial investment through public and private partnerships would likely be needed to develop the network as demand grows.

The Scottish Government has invested over £45m in developing the ChargePlace Scotland network, which now has over 1900 charge points, and is continuing to support network growth. Transport Scotland is working closely with Scottish Futures Trust to consider the most appropriate structures and approach to growing and developing charging infrastructure in Scotland.

Question reference: S6F-00388

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is regarding the use of facial recognition technology in schools.

Question reference: S6F-00377

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister, in light of COP26, what action the Scottish Government is taking to showcase the role that Scottish agriculture can play in reducing carbon emissions.

Question reference: S6F-00378

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government anticipates the impact of COP26 will be on Glasgow’s healthcare services.

Question reference: S6F-00367

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government will be doing to amplify the voices of the Global South at COP26.

Question reference: S6F-00368

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the UK Budget.

Question reference: S6F-00364

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00365

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.