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-42584

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with delivery partners on implementing action 3.4 of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy Delivery Plan 2024-2026 on promoting better understanding of qualification recognition pathways.

Scottish Government recognise the unique challenges New Scots face, including the recognition of overseas qualifications. This is a known barrier to employment.

Through the New Scots strategy, a strategy involving wider partners including those involved in employability support, a number of partners including third sector and local authorities are working with New Scots to support the recognition of their qualifications.

Question reference: S6W-42801

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has taken place with the development of a Product Stewardship Plan, as set out in the Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030.

Question reference: S6W-42800

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what options have been developed with stakeholders regarding the mandatory reporting for food waste and surplus by businesses.

Question reference: S6W-42794

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will initiate discussions with Glasgow City Council on jointly acquiring the site of the former ABC venue on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow to facilitate the implementation of the Vision and Delivery Plan for the Golden Z prepared by Stantec, Threesixty Architecture and Kevin Murray Associates, which was approved by Glasgow City Council in August 2023 and proposes that the fire-damaged buildings on the site be cleared for a landscaped terrace, in light of reported concerns that the current planned redevelopment risks undermining the efforts to fully restore the Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building.

Question reference: S6W-42791

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether any procurement procedure for the design and build of a new class of marine protection vessel (MPV) and marine research vessel (MRV) to replace the two existing vessels, MPV Minna and MRV Scotia, will be directly awarded to a UK-based shipbuilding firm, or limited to a UK-only competition, in light of the national security role that these vessels play and such a decision being compliant with the exemption under section 45 of the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

Question reference: S6W-42802

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has taken place in the creation of a model for regional Scottish hubs and networks for the reuse of construction materials and assets, as set out in the Circular Economy and Waste Route Map to 2030.

Question reference: S6W-42793

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider emulating the practice adopted by the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is building an entirely open-source, digitally sovereign ecosystem for its public sector to reduce vendor lock-in, enhance interoperability and improve data security.

Question reference: S6W-42582

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to make the recognition of qualifications and re-accreditation processes more accessible and affordable for displaced Ukrainians living in Scotland.

People displaced from Ukraine who live in Scotland are covered by the Scottish Government’s New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. Recognition of qualifications is a known barrier to employment for New Scots.

As mentioned in the response to PQ S6W-42431 on 17 December 2025, it is ultimately for the professions’ independent regulators to determine the process for recognition of relevant qualifications and experience for professionally qualified New Scots, including displaced people from Ukraine.

Action 3.4 of the New Scots Delivery Plan covers working with Scottish professional bodies to understand and promote recognition pathways for industries and identified sectors.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6W-42452

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, following the cyber attack on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in 2023, what lessons learnt, if any, have been taken forward and implemented across the public sector.

The Scottish Government works closely with public sector organisations to ensure that relevant lessons are identified and shared after incidents and/or exercises, in the form of Cyber Resilience Early Warning (CREW) notices to the sector.

The Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network brings together all cyber and information professionals from across the sector regularly to share good practice and consider common challenges. After the cyber attack on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Chief Executive Malcolm Burr presented to the network on 28 February 2024 and provided an overview of the attack, an update on recovery progress, and highlighted the key lessons identified.

The Scottish Government uses lessons from all incidents to inform the action plans which support the Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland and shape the support provided to the sector.

The Scottish Government encourages all public sector organisations to proactively manage their cyber risks, ensure that appropriate cyber security arrangements are in place and that robust, regularly tested incident response plans are developed and maintained.

Since the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar the attack, the Scottish Government has:

provided cyber awareness training to 295 public sector board members and senior managers to improve cyber governance

updated and promoted cyber incident response plan templates and scenario playbooks to the sector
updated the Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework, including key actions informed by the immediate lessons from the attack
provided facilitated cyber exercising opportunities for 250 public sector cyber professionals to improve their cyber incident response arrangements.
provided £1.085m since 2023 to upskill cyber security staff working in the public sector
provided daily threat and intelligence to the public sector to empower the sector to detect threats early and ensure mitigation measures are in place quickly.

Question reference: S6W-42553

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask the Scottish Prison Service to commission the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, or a similar body, to carry out a feasibility study for the adaptive reuse of the buildings at HMP Barlinnie, which were recently designated as Category A listed, when the site is no longer operational as a prison.

The listing by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) recognises the historical importance of HMP Barlinnie, not only to our prisons and criminal justice system, but to Scotland as a whole.

Following this listing, HES and other relevant bodies will advise on its implications for the future of HMP Barlinnie, its permissible uses and alterations, and the Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Government will take time to carefully consider this.