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-34971

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33259 by Gillian Martin on 11 February 2025, in light of the question focussing on the Scottish Government's policies and strategy, whether it will provide the information requested regarding what assessment it has made of investment and activity levels in the North Sea resulting from a “presumption against new exploration for oil and gas", as set out in its Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and whether it plans to remove language around a “presumption against” to encourage investment in the North Sea; if no such assessment has been made, either before or since publishing the draft strategy, whether it will confirm this, and whether it has taken a decision to only develop strategy by reference to "recent developments in the UK Government’s energy policy and court decisions".

Question reference: S6W-34856

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of plans in England and Wales to implement a phased removal of wet-shave razors from adult male prisons, what plans it has to replicate such a proposal in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-34791

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many land managers (a) have completed and (b) are yet to complete the approved training course for muirburn.

Question reference: S6W-34863

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to trial the “Right Care, Right Person” scheme that has reportedly seen officer capacity increase in Merseyside police, and, if it will not trial this scheme, for what reason.

The Scottish Government has no plans to implement the ‘Right Care, Right Place’ model. Instead we are working with our partners, including Police Scotland, through the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network to ensure that anyone in need of mental health care and support gets the right care, in the right place, at the right time, regardless of where or what time of day they present – there should be No Wrong Door. Through this work, we have supported Police Scotland with:

Directing calls received by Police Scotland’s C3 Division to the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub where they have identified that the caller is requiring mental health support, thereby avoiding the need to deploy officers; and
accessing 24/7 clinical advice on the best onward care outcomes for the individual when police officers are supporting an individual on scene, thereby avoiding the need to attend A&E unless that is where the individual needs to be cared for.

We continue to build on these developments. On 12 February the Scottish Government published the Framework for Collaboration and the Partnership Delivery Group’s Collaborative Commitments plan, which outline the principles and actions which will contribute to our aim that resources are deployed appropriately and that unnecessary demand on officers is reduced.

Question reference: S6W-34861

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average net pay was, after deductions for tax, national insurance and pension, for each grade of frontline officer in Police Scotland for the financial year 2023-24, and what information it has on how this compared with the equivalent grades in forces in England.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Our police officers are the best paid in the UK, at the minimum and maximum of each rank, and I welcome the outcome of the police pay arbitration process, which means that police officers in Scotland will receive an uplift of 4.75%, backdated to 1 April 2024, in their March salaries.

This recognises the hard work and valuable contribution that police officers make, and reflects this Government’s continued commitment to investing in policing.

Question reference: S6W-32896

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has corresponded with (a) Hampton Group International, (b) the UK Chinese Business Association and (c) Pitch@Palace in the last 12 years; what any such correspondence related to; whether Yang Tengbo is named in any such correspondence, and, if so, whether it will conduct an urgent review of any correspondence relating to Yang Tengbo.

Question reference: S6T-02391

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, In Their Own Words: Children's Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, which was commissioned by Shelter Scotland and shows the impact that a stay in temporary accommodation can have on children's safety, health and education.

Question reference: S6F-03870

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Government has to tackle the reported rising number of cases of drug-driving.

Question reference: S6F-03859

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03858

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.