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: S6O-05295

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress Scotland is making towards becoming a Good Food Nation.

Question reference: S6F-04480

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2025

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government plans to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence.

Question reference: S6O-05189

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what action it is taking to ensure that visits to the Scottish Parliament are inclusive and accessible to all school pupils.

Question reference: S6O-05196

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what correspondence it has had with the UK Government regarding support for Scottish farmers ahead of the upcoming UK budget.

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-41616

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, further to the answer to question S6W-40860 by Angela Constance on 21 October 2025, whether it will publish detailed statistics regarding youth perpetrated sexual offences, including non-contact crimes such as unsolicited sexual image sending for the calendar years January to December (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024.

The answer to question S6W-40860 used management information provided by Police Scotland as the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of youth perpetrated sexual offences. This related to the number of people under the age of 18 who were accused of any sexual crime between 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2025.

The following table below provides the equivalent information for part c, i.e. from 1 January to 31 December 2024. Data for earlier years are not available from the single standardised national system used by Police Scotland to gather details of those involved in crime, which became fully operational from January 2024. The introduction of this system has strengthened and standardised crime recording, providing a consistent basis for national reporting and establishes 2024 as the baseline for future comparison.

It should be noted that the totals presented below for crime types (and overall) are not necessarily all unique individuals as it is possible an accused may have committed more than one sexual crime during the period. Furthermore, the table below is not a total of sexual crimes as some crimes may have had multiple perpetrators.

Number of Accused aged under 18 at time of Offence

Crime type	Jan to Dec 2024
Rape & attempted rape	240
Sexual assault	593
Causing to view sexual activity or images	207
Communicating indecently	96
Threatening to or disclosing intimate images	89
Indecent photos of children	158
Crimes associated with prostitution	0
Other sexual crimes	186
Total	1,569

Source: Police Scotland, Management Information, extracted from internal systems and correct as of 14 October 2025.

Notes:

Data presented here is provisional and should be treated as management information.

Question reference: S6W-40867

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to educate young people, primarily children, about the need to provide online consent and raise their awareness of the risks of not providing this.

Question reference: S6W-40865

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce Scotland-specific education campaigns to counter misogynistic influencers and grooming networks.

Question reference: S6W-40861

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will deliver statutory consent and digital harm education in all schools, to help children to understand and respect boundaries.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all children and young people receive high quality relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education, which is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the Scottish curriculum. Curriculum for Excellence is the national approach to learning and teaching providing flexibility for teachers to deliver a curriculum tailored to local needs within an overarching framework.

The RSHP experiences and outcomes specify the need for children and young people to gain knowledge appropriate to their age and stage of education. RSHP education is intended to help children and young people build positive relationships while requiring that key aspects are presented in an objective, balanced and sensitive manner including in respect of the law on sexual behaviour. Teachers therefore have the flexibility to include content on consent and digital harm if they feel it appropriate to a RSHP lesson.

There are many resources available to teachers to help them deliver meaningful RSHP learning and these are summarised on Education Scotland’s website. One of these resources, www.rshp.scot, was includes learning activities on consent and how children and young people can learn to be safe and happy online. In addition, the Scottish Government also published a resource for professionals to help them support young people aged 11 to 18 in their understanding of healthy relationships and consent. The Key Messages for Young People on Healthy Relationships and Consent reiterate age-appropriate messages on the themes of consent, bodily autonomy and mutual respect.

The Scottish Government has also provided support for the development of the Digital Discourse Initiative (DDI) by Time for Inclusive Education and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The DDI online learning provides teachers and school staff with an improved knowledge and understanding of how modern social media platforms work and their role in facilitating online disinformation and prejudicial content. We have also published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender based violence. Misogynistic behaviour has been identified as an emerging concern within schools. The publication of this framework demonstrates our commitment to take swift action to respond to current concerns and ensure pupils and staff are properly supported. We are in the process of commissioning an independent review to establish further areas for improvement. We continue to take forward a range of additional actions in schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment. Our Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Scotland Programme is working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls. We also continue to implement ‘Equally Safe’, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls.

Question reference: S6W-40864

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will work with Ofcom and other UK regulators to block or restrict websites and platforms that fail to protect children in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people in Scotland are safe and supported in their online lives. We recognise the significant risks posed by harmful online content and the importance of robust regulation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and exposure to inappropriate material.

It is important to note that regulation of the internet is a reserved matter to the UK Government, however we have previously successfully engaged on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people.

We welcome the strengthened regulatory framework introduced through the Online Safety Act, which empowers Ofcom to enforce new safety standards on digital platforms.

Ministers met Ofcom in August last year to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, and in June this year to discuss ongoing implementation and regulation of the Online Safety Act and possible further action. The Scottish Government has also responded directly to a number of Ofcom consultations associated with implementation of the Online Safety Act, including on Codes of Practice on Illegal Harms and Protection of Children.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on the implementation of this important piece of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online, while allowing them to benefit from all the opportunities afforded by the online world.