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-04458

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-04468

Asked by: Clare Haughey, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the First Minister, in light of the UK Government’s reported decision to revisit compensating Women Against State Pension Inequality, what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the potential social security implications for those affected in Scotland.

Question reference: S6F-04462

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take in response to reported figures from the road safety charity, Brake, which show that over the last year road deaths and serious injuries rose by 2.8% nationally, with Moray recording the highest increase with a rise of 83%.

Question reference: S6W-41417

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to the UK Government regarding the release of reserve funds to pension scheme members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-41593

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its paper A Fresh Start with Independence and its proposed strategy for establishing a new currency in an independent Scotland, whether its policy for such a currency would include a formal convertibility guarantee to ensure that a Scottish pound would be exchanged at a fixed rate for sterling.

The Scottish Government’s proposals for the currency of an independent Scotland are highlighted in A Fresh Start with independence , and set out in detail in the Currency and fiscal policy section of Building a new Scotland: A Stronger economy with independence.

On independence, Scotland would continue to use the pound sterling for a period, before moving to the Scottish pound. The decision about when to do this would be taken by the Scottish Parliament, guided by transparent criteria and economic conditions, rather than a fixed timetable.

Decisions about the Scottish pound would also be made by the elected government and parliament at that time. Those would include the precise form of the currency regime for a Scottish pound including a fixed or floating exchange rate, informed by analysis and advice from the Scottish Central Bank.

Question reference: S6W-41647

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish updated statistics on domestic abuse recorded by Police Scotland for the fiscal year 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-41632

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will define and measure “embedding circularity” in public sector procurement processes, as outlined in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Scottish Procurement Policy Note 3/2022: Public Procurement – Taking Account of Climate and Circular Economy Considerations clarifies expectations for public bodies with respect to addressing climate and circular economy considerations in procurement activity. This can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-procurement-taking-account-of-climate-and-circular-economy-considerations-3-2022/

In line with the Sustainable Procurement Duty in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/12/section/9), public bodies should demonstrate in their annual procurement strategies how they will prioritise and take account of climate and circular economy in their procurement activity and report ongoing progress against these commitments in their annual procurement reports.

The analysis of public bodies’ annual procurement reports forms the basis of the Scottish Ministers’ Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland. 80% of those who provided an annual procurement report in financial year 2022 to 2023 provided evidence of addressing environmental wellbeing and climate change through their public procurement activities. The Report can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-report-procurement-activity-scotland-overview-procurement-activity-2022-2023/

Question reference: S6W-41630

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how Zero Waste Scotland will coordinate with enterprise agencies to avoid duplicating support for circular economy practices, as outlined in the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Zero Waste Scotland has a long-standing relationship with all of the Enterprise Agencies, with a focus on collaboration and ensuring the collective support to businesses in Scotland is complementary.

They are actively working on a range of projects, including co-funding a post with South of Scotland Enterprise, supporting the European Circular Innovation Valley project with Scottish Enterprise, and looking at future opportunities to maximise the value from their collective expertise, skills and networks.

Question reference: S6W-41634

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what international best practice it examined in drawing up the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland.

Several international circular economy strategies and approaches, in Europe and elsewhere, were considered during the development of the draft Circular Economy Strategy. This included, for example, international evidence such as the European Circular Economy Stakeholder platform to assist with the identification of priority sectors.

In June 2023, Zero Waste Scotland published an insights paper to support the Circular Economy Bill process which provided an overview and analysis of existing circular economy legislation internationally, including where duties had been placed on governments to publish circular economy or similar strategies. The paper is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website at https://cdn.zerowastescotland.org.uk/managed-downloads/mf-mr2nqf3d-1686671844d

Question reference: S6W-41637

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the Draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland will ensure that lifelong learning and reskilling opportunities will be made accessible to workers in industries transitioning to circular models.

The draft Circular Economy Strategy for Scotland is intended to work within the wider policy context for lifelong learning. The Scottish Government recognises the critical importance of providing the current and future workforce with high-quality lifelong skills, either acquired through new learning or upskilling and reskilling – and the pivotal role this plays in our plans to unlock Scotland’s green economic potential.

In the 2025-26 Programme for Government the First Minister confirmed his commitment to introducing a new Scottish Government-led approach to national skills planning, and strengthening regional skills planning, to ensure that post school provision becomes more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills needs and priorities.

The new skills planning approach will develop a better understanding of skills needs at national and regional levels, and how we can address them, particularly where solutions lie within the education and skills system.