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-33973

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-33231

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has evaluated what positive or negative impact the Bright Start Breakfasts programme may have on breakfast clubs within schools that are organised by not-for-profit providers for primary school pupils.

The Draft Scottish Budget on 4 December 2024 announced plans to invest £3m in 2025-26 in Bright Start Breakfasts.

At this stage the Budget remains subject to Parliamentary approval and therefore, more detail about Bright Start Breakfasts will be provided ahead of the fund launching in Spring 2025.

Recent mapping work carried out by the Improvement Service and Assist FM shows that nearly half of all primary and special schools in Scotland are already providing breakfasts at the start of the school day, with a range of delivery models and service providers supporting delivery. Bright Start Breakfasts aims to enhance and expand provision across Scotland, building on this existing local delivery.

Question reference: S6W-32368

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on passenger numbers in Scotland, what discussions it has had with National Rail regarding its current Railcard terms and conditions, including that tickets must be bought before boarding the train.

The terms and conditions of all GB-wide railcards are set by National Rail, part of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) under UK Government rail industry rules. There have been no recent specific discussions concerning changes to railcard terms. ScotRail has confirmed with officials at Transport Scotland that National Railcards can be used to buy tickets online, via the app, or at TVMs. Where ticket purchasing facilities are not available at a station, passengers can use their National Rail card when purchasing a ticket from a member of staff on-board of ScotRail trains.

Question reference: S6W-33229

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide more information on what specific formula and criteria will be used to determine the allocation of Bright Start Breakfasts funding across Scotland to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Question reference: S6W-33226

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of the reported emerging trend of unaccompanied young people arriving in Glasgow, and whether it is gathering any data on this issue.

The Scottish Government is aware that unaccompanied young people have arrived in Glasgow in significant numbers in recent years.

Asylum processes are reserved to the UK Government, and therefore local authorities are not asked to routinely provide data to the Scottish Government on the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking people arriving in their area. However in November and December 2023, the Scottish Government asked local authorities to provide information about their services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people. Glasgow City Council's returns show that at that time, it was looking after a total of more than 350 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people.

In addition, the Scottish Government funds Guardianship Scotland, which provides support and advocacy for children and young people at risk of trafficking. The majority of people supported by Guardianship Scotland arrive in Scotland as unaccompanied asylum-seeing children. The figures below show the number of young people living in Glasgow who have been referred to Guardianship Scotland in each of the last three years.

2022 - 86
2023 - 56
2024 - 48

Question reference: S6W-33220

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors the number of redundancies among oil and gas contractors in Scotland, and, if so, how many redundancies were made in 2023-24, and, based on asset owners' decommissioning schedules, how many it estimates will be made in each year from 2024-25 to 2029-30.

There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of their redundancy figures, therefore we do not hold this information centrally. However, the Scottish Government engages regularly with the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions and monitors company announcements.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

Question reference: S6W-33232

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to integrate the Bright Start Breakfasts initiative with breakfast clubs operated in primary schools by not-for-profit providers.

Question reference: S6W-33230

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any of the finance that has been announced for the Bright Start Breakfasts initiative will be allocated to not-for-profit organisations that operate breakfast clubs within schools, and, if so, whether this will include organisations that are not currently in receipt of public funding to support such activities.

Question reference: S6W-33222

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-04138 by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024, and its statement that the new hub for offshore wind "is not going to be a training hub as such", how much of the £150 million of public funding will be used to fund the cost of retraining offshore oil and gas workers to transition to the offshore wind sector.

Offshore wind offers a significant opportunity to create thousands of good jobs in Scotland, and the Scottish Government will drive forward skills development for the sector, including supporting the transition of workers from oil and gas.

We are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million for 2025-26, year two of our five-year commitment to invest up to £500 million in critical infrastructure and manufacturing and fabrication facilities to support the growth of the offshore wind sector. Our Offshore Wind Focus paper sets out the priorities for investment, underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities that will have a catalytic effect and maximise the economic value to Scotland.

In addition, we remain committed to our ten-year Just Transition Fund, which has allocated £75 million to date supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. This involves a dedicated package of skills interventions, including £4.5 million over 5 years for the Energy Skills Transition Hub which aims to support 1,000 people into energy transition roles, £3.7 million for the development of the Energy Skills Passport (an initial version of which was launched by industry partners on 22 January) and £1 million for a National Energy Skills Accelerator pilot scheme to better understand future energy skills needs and deliver workforce training.

Question reference: S6W-33242

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recommendations it has received from the Director of Screening, NHS National Services Scotland, regarding implementing lung cancer screening as a new targeted screening programme.