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: S6F-03696

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03694

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03695

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-30390

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has carried out with Local Authority Trading Standards (LATS) to ensure that the public can have a high level of confidence in LATS reports.

The Scottish Government is a member of the Trading Standards Policy and Coordination Group. This Group is coordinated by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) as the representative organisation for local government in Scotland. The Group seek to provide:

strategic leadership of the trading standards function across Scotland;
and effective co-ordination of trading standards priorities between local and national government and recruitment and retention of trading standards staff.

Question reference: S6W-32696

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints about illegal e-bikes Police Scotland has received from residents in Aberdeen in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S6W-32685

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve pedestrian safety in areas with high e-bike usage.

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing safety across Scotland’s road network.

The Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030. This contains mode and user specific targets focussed on our priority areas, including pedestrians and cyclists.

The Scottish Government has allocated a record £36m for road safety investment in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes £10m for the Road Safety Improvement Fund to support local authorities reduce casualty and risk on the local road network, and over £4m to support the delivery of projects aimed at reducing pedestrian and cyclist casualties.

To further protect vulnerable road users, a national behaviour change campaign will launch in March 2025, encouraging all road users to recognise the road is a shared space. Additionally, a dedicated stakeholder group has been established to monitor risks, identify emerging trends, and develop measures to address specific safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.

These measures reflect the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to making Scotland’s roads safer for everyone.

Question reference: S6W-32647

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 January 2025

The Scottish Government estimates that spending on workforce pay, including pensions and employer National Insurance contributions, will be equivalent to 53.4% of the entire Scottish resource budget in 2025-26. That reflects the importance this Government places on having a highly skilled and remunerated workforce. This only includes funding provided to Local Government from the Scottish Government and does not take account of other sources of funding available to Local Government, such as council tax and other forms of income.

Medium-term projections on workforce spending over the next five years will be set out in the forthcoming Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-32619

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the effectiveness of the £1.73 billion in forecast export sales supported by its international offices is independently verified.

The £1.73 bn forecast export sales relates to details provided by Scottish Enterprise (SE) in the results against key performance measures section of its 2023-24 annual report. The figure is based on accumulated evidenced export sales forecasts directly from companies, reflecting their expectations of future sales over the next three year as a result of support they have received from SE.

The Scottish Government routinely monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of export support in Scotland, and in November 2023 it published an independent report by Aston University on export support and promotion in Scotland, which included analysis of SE’s export sales forecasts. The evaluation was retrospective and therefore encompassed SE’s forecast export sales for the period up to 2021. A follow up evaluation is currently being planned and will continue to include SE’s forecast export sales.

Question reference: S6W-32691

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average estimated cost to Police Scotland is of seizing and processing an illegal e-bike.

Question reference: S6W-32463

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the proposed reduction to land reform funding in its draft Budget 2025-26, how it plans to meet its commitment to increase the Scottish Land Fund to £20 million per year by the end of the current parliamentary session.