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-42405

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further action it plans to take to tackle the problem of underage vaping, in light of the report from the Faculty of Dental Surgery suggesting that 7.4% of 11- to 17-year-olds vape regularly.

Question reference: S6W-42397

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-05245 by Kate Forbes on 4 December 2025, whether it will confirm the (a) expected timetable for the laying before Parliament of the proposed legislation to create legal identities for Scotland's city regions, (b) powers that these new legal entities will have and (c) systems that are being considered to ensure that decisions are made by those with democratic mandates and not unelected city region officials.

Question reference: S6W-42399

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported announcement on 3 December 2025 by Micron, which is one of the largest suppliers of memory chips, that it would no longer be selling to the consumer market from February 2026, what work it is undertaking to protect consumers and small businesses dependent on affordable computer parts.

Question reference: S6W-42398

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that consumers and businesses are able to afford semiconductors and other important computer parts, in light of the significant increase in prices reportedly due to a combination of increased demand from AI data centres and more general global insecurity.

Question reference: S6W-42247

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jackson Carlaw (on behalf of the SPCB) on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will bring the MSP staff cost provision into parity with that of staff costs for Scotland's MPs.

The SPCB is responsible for funding the members’ expenses scheme and for determining which indices are used to uprate the overall provisions, including staff cost provision. This arrangement is set out in the Scheme as agreed by Parliament. The Scheme rules allow the SPCB to uprate the provision annually using that appropriate index. They do not provide the SPCB the scope to change the staff cost provision in any other manner.

The Staff Cost Provision is provided to Members to facilitate their employment of staff to support them in carrying out their parliamentary duties.

It is then for Members, as individual employers (noting that the SPCB is not the employer of Members’ staff), to determine their staffing structure and staff salaries within the requirements of the Scheme, including any cost of living pay award, as long as it is affordable within the capped annual provision.

The SPCB did increase the Staff Cost Provision in 2021 by the equivalent cost of one full-time member of staff with effect from the start of Session 6 - Allowances - Expenses Scheme Resolution. This followed an evidence-based review of the provision.

Payments regarding Scottish MPs’ staff are covered by the ‘Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs’, responsibility for which rests with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which has responsibility for setting arrangement across a wide range of MPs’ financial matters.

It should also be noted that there are key differences between the two schemes including what is and is not covered regarding provisions for staff, meaning that a like for like comparison is not possible. For example, the Scottish Parliament scheme meets NI and pension payments separately while these are paid by MPs from within the IPSA staff cost provision.

Question reference: S6W-42107

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many care homes in each local authority area are currently subject to moratorium and large scale investigation, and how many care beds are affected by this.

The information requested is not held centrally and is a matter for local authorities.

Statistics published by the Scottish Government on Adult Support and Protection activity undertaken by local authorities in 2024-25 showed that 49 large scale investigations (LSIs) were reported to have been undertaken by local authorities in 2024-25. Of those, 22 were reported as taking place in care homes. The number of care beds affected was not reported. The statistical publication this is drawn from is available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/adult-support-and-protection-asp-national-minimum-dataset-2024-25/.

Question reference: S6W-42296

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is giving to key workers in the health sector who will have to work over the Christmas period.

Question reference: S6O-05281

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, in light of reports that the NHS board is dealing with a much higher rate of flu patients compared with previous years.

Question reference: S6W-42287

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what alternative venues were assessed as potential hosts for Scotland House at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Question reference: S6W-41935

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will mandate public ownership of all new rolling stock for Scotland's railways, to transition away from the current reliance on private rolling stock companies.