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-42073

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when each of its ministers last took a ferry for official business-related travel.

Scottish Ministers can utilise ferry services for business purposes. I have included a table which provides a breakdown of the most recent ferry journeys by current Scottish Ministers.

Minister	Date of most recent ferry journey
First Minister	20-08-2025
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic	10-03-2025
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government	17-08-2025
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care	20-08-2025
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills	28-03-2024
Cabinet Secretary for Transport	13-08-2025
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands	16-07-2024
Cabinet Secretary for Housing	19-05-2023
Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans	24-05-2023
Minister for Business and Employment	10-04-2024
Minister for Public Finance	03-11-2025
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity	13-08-2025
Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health	09-11-2025
Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing	17-07-2024
Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport	24-03-2024

Please note that we proactively publish information on ministerial travel, which can be found on the Scottish Government website: https:--www.gov.scot-collections-ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts-.

Question reference: S6W-42071

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning applications are currently stalled due to infrastructure constraints in the West Scotland region.

The Scottish Government does not routinely monitor the progress of planning applications through the system.

However, we have worked closely with the housebuilding industry and planning authorities to remove barriers on stalled housing sites across Scotland. This has included addressing infrastructure issues, for example flooding and drainage, education, and transport, covering road and rail. We have taken actions that benefit multiple sites, for example sharing advice and best practice, and undertaken brokerage on specific sites.

Question reference: S6W-42072

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning officials there currently are in Scotland, and what assessment it has conducted of any future need.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of staff currently employed in local authority planning services, nor in other sectors.

Research commissioned by Skills Development Scotland, published in 2021, estimated that there were approximately 1600 people employed in the planning profession in Scotland and that over the next 10-15 years the planning sector would have demand for an additional 700 entrants into the sector.

More recently, the National Planning Improvement Champion has undertaken a workforce and capacity study and published the findings at: National Planning Improvement Workforce and Capacity Report Scotland. The RTPI has also published its report scotland-sotp-final.pdf. We are currently considering the findings of these reports.

The Scottish Government recognises the financial and capacity pressures on the planning system and is continuing to take forward a package of changes to provide authorities with additional resources. Planning fees were increased in line with inflation in December 2024, June 2025 and a further increase is scheduled for April 2026.

In addition, Scotland’s National Planning Hub continues to provide additional funding and targeted practical support to help authorities respond to pressing challenges, enabling them to accelerate key activities this financial year.

We are also supporting an increase in planners coming into the profession, having recruited 17 Student Planners on our Future Planners Programme, working across the Scottish Government for 23 months whilst undertaking a funded planning postgraduate degree, and we trebled the number of bursaries in 2025-26 to help 30 planning students with course fees and living expenses.

Question reference: S6W-41936

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints ScotRail has received in each of the last five years regarding the cleanliness of stations, broken down by station.

Question reference: S6W-41902

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints ScotRail has received in each of the last five years regarding the cleanliness of trains, broken down by (a) route and (b) train type.

Question reference: S6W-42224

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has made available for workers to retrain and upskill in AI and information technology at any stage in their career.

Question reference: S6W-42076

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the cleanliness of ScotRail trains, including in relation to cleaning frequency, staffing levels and passenger feedback mechanisms.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-42074 on 27 November 2025. 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

The Scottish Government instructed ScotRail to carry out necessary recruitment to secure staff to allow ScotRail to deliver the best possible customer service to its passengers. Further to this, ScotRail’s staffing levels are currently at an all-time high.

Question reference: S6W-42075

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish an annual breakdown of ScotRail passenger complaints by category, including cleanliness, punctuality and customer service.

Question reference: S6W-42074

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of reported trends in ScotRail passenger complaints relating to train cleanliness since the transfer of ScotRail to public ownership.

Whilst the Scottish Government expects that ScotRail strives to provide the best possible service to people of Scotland, this is an operational matter for ScotRail.

Results of the passenger satisfaction survey carried out regularly by the independent transport watchdog, Transport Focus, show that ScotRail achieves better scores than many other train operators in GB. ScotRail performs better in all areas when compared to the GB average.

Question reference: S6W-41829

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out any analysis relating to the impact of population decline on apprenticeship uptake in the South of Scotland region.