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: S7W-02131

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it will use to determine whether market conditions are sufficiently favourable to proceed with an issuance under the Scottish Government bond programme, and under what circumstances ministers would decide not to proceed with a bond issuance where market pricing is considered unfavourable.

Question reference: S7W-02141

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it will determine which projects are funded through the sale of Scottish Government bonds.

Question reference: S7W-02139

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding reported external assessments indicating that borrowing through the Scottish Government bond programme could cost £100 million more than borrowing through the National Loans Fund.

Question reference: S7W-02127

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported statement by S&P that its credit rating would likely be cut if it took "material steps towards independence from the UK".

Question reference: S7W-02129

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) total setup and (b) ongoing costs of the Scottish Government bond programme are in relation to (i) banks, including Banco Santander, Barclays Bank Plc, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank Plc, Merrill Lynch International, NatWest Markets Plc, RBC Europe Limited and Standard Chartered Bank, (ii) lawyers, including Clifford Chance, (iii) advisers, including EY, (iv) ratings agencies, including Moody's and S&P, and (v) investor relations, in (A) past, (B) present and (C) future budget years.

Question reference: S7W-02136

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has met with representatives of credit rating agencies regarding the issuance of bonds under the Scottish Government bond programme, and what factors those agencies identified as material to Scotland's creditworthiness.

Question reference: S7W-02134

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the annual costs of maintaining a Scottish Government bond programme, including investor engagement, reporting and compliance.

Question reference: S7W-01602

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the Scottish National Party manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, when the policy was first intimated to grocery retailers and/or their representatives.

Question reference: S7W-01676

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the 2026 Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what its response is to comments from the Scottish Retail Consortium, as reported in The Sunday Times on 12 July 2026, that, 12 weeks on from the policy announcement, the organisation remains "completely in the dark on even the most rudimentary details" of the proposals.

Question reference: S7W-01675

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the 2026 Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what its response is to comments by the Food & Drink Federation Scotland, as reported in The Sunday Times on 12 July 2026, that such a policy could lead retailers to source a greater proportion of imported food products in place of domestically produced goods.