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-35447

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to creating a unique learner number system; whether legislation would be required to implement such a system, and, if so, whether it plans to bring forward such legislation.

Question reference: S6W-35372

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the most beneficial pathways are in place across the country for people with alcohol-use problems to ensure that their alcohol treatment plans are having long-term results.

The pathways in place across the country for people with problem alcohol use are developed and implemented by local services based on local needs assessments. The services necessary are commissioned on the advice of local Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships. The Scottish Government provides funding for those services and asks ADPs to report on progress against their own local strategies.

The Scottish Government has committed to providing guidance to ADPs through the development of a national Service Specification and follow-up national Standards for Alcohol and Drug treatment. This will be informed by the forthcoming UK Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment and the recently published Public Health Scotland review into Alcohol Brief Interventions as well as key independent reports such as Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) paper on alcohol use disorder in the justice system.

Question reference: S6W-35583

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support business improvement districts.

The Scottish Government support the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) model which can help leverage local investment, encourage innovation, unlock opportunities, and deliver sustainable change and improvement for local places.

We fund Scotland’s Improvement Districts (SIDs) as the National Centre for Improvement Districts in Scotland to provide advice and governance support for BIDs in Scotland. We also provide seedcorn grant funding to support the initial development of new BIDs, subject to budget availability.

Question reference: S6W-35459

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34366 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, for what reason more contingent workers are consistently recorded under the Director General for Communities than any other Director General, and what the cause was of the decrease in the number of contingent workers recorded under the Director General for Communities between 2022-23 and 2024.

The programme to devolve social security powers sits within DG Communities and accounts for the majority of its contingent worker headcount. This programme employs both directly employed and contingent workers to ensure it has the right blend of skills and experience to deliver ministerial commitments on social security at any one time. In addition, using contingent workers means headcount is increased on a temporary basis when the work of the programme has been at its greatest and allows resources, and therefore costs, to be quickly and easily reduced as the programme moves towards closure. This is why the figures for contingent workers have increased in the period identified (which correlates with the run up to and delivery of the bulk of the devolved benefits, including disability benefits for both children and adults) and now show a significant decline, given the programme comes to an end in the next financial year.

Question reference: S6W-35466

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34780 by Shona Robison on 26 February 2025, what its response is to reported concerns that its approach to aiming to help first time buyers does not work towards increasing the underlying supply of housing units, and whether it has done or commissioned any work to analyse the impact of (a) the non-proceeding of the Additional Dwelling Supplement transactions referred to on supply in the private rental sector and (b) each of its changes to the Additional Dwelling Supplement and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax to the overall supply of housing units in the Scottish housing market.

As set out in the response to question S6W-34780, increasing the rate of the Additional Dwelling Supplement is intended to support increased opportunities for first-time buyers and home movers while raising vital additional revenue to support public services. This takes account of the latest Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and its assumptions regarding the behavioural effects of the rate increase.

Question reference: S6W-35530

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made with the development of the SaxaVord and Sutherland spaceports, and whether it is its understanding that the business sector plans to consolidate around a single launch location.

For progress on SaxaVord and Sutherland Spaceports, I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-34559 and S6W-34600 on 6 March 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 is supportive of multiple launch locations, which increase Scotland's offering to the global market, add resilience to the Scottish launch sector and increase the chances of delivering economic benefits to local communities.

Question reference: S6W-35483

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what future capital funding will be allocated to the clinical waste disposal site at Hassockrigg Eco Park.

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) was allocated £6.9m of capital funding for the purchase of the Hassockrigg Eco Park and equipment, to increase the resilience of the system for disposing of NHS clinical waste and to secure its long-term future.

Ongoing running and maintenance costs associated with the site are the responsibility of NSS as site owner, and it is for NSS to allocate appropriate funding for these costs from within the Board’s overall budget. The 2025-26 Scottish Budget provides funding of £428.5 million to NSS. NSS will receive a 3% baseline uplift of £12.5 million – this represents a 0.6% real terms increase compared to 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-35482

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Prison Service has requested an extension of the public consultation period into the proposal to designate the Victorian buildings at HMP Barlinnie as category A-listed.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Following discussions with Historic Environment Scotland (HES), SPS has been granted an extension to the HMP Barlinnie public consultation on the proposed listing of buildings.

The extension has been extended until 31 May 2025 to allow SPS to fully consider the extent of the listing and accurately comment on all aspects that are material to the HES decision making process.

HES supported the request and indicated that an extension such as this is normal when considering complex cases such as HMP Barlinnie.

Question reference: S6W-35423

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a breakdown of all local government funding allocations since 2013-14, including real-terms reductions.

Local Government funding allocations are routinely published in Local Government Finance Circulars. The allocations in question are available at:

2013-14 - Circular 2/2013

2014-15 - Circular 2/2014

2015-16 - Circular 2/2015

2016-17 - Circular 1/2016

2017-18 - Circular 1/2017

2018-19 - Circular 4/2018

2019-20 - Circular 2/2019

2020-21 - Circular 4/2020

2021-22 - Circular 5/2021

2022-23 - Circular 1/2022

2023-24 - Circular 3/2023

2024-25 - Circular 2/2024

2025-26 - Circular 1/2025

Question reference: S6W-34991

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it is responsible for ensuring that clear, legally robust definitions are consistently applied across all public bodies and publicly funded organisations, particularly in relation to the fundamental definitions of “woman” and “child”, and whether it will make adherence to such definitions a condition of public funding to prevent any unnecessary costs to the public purse and any erosion of public trust as a result of potential safeguarding failures being exposed through whistleblower-led legal challenges.

Public bodies and organisations operating in Scotland can be affected by a wide range of law in both devolved and reserved areas, with differing statutory mechanisms for enforcement. The Scottish Ministers may, in some cases, be subject to statutory duties to issue guidance to affected organisations and groups. However, other public bodies will have a statutory roles in regulating enforcement and issuing guidance about areas of law, including those reserved to the UK Parliament.

For payments made by the Scottish Government to public bodies and publicly funded organisations in Scotland, the Scottish Government expects those bodies to comply with the full range of legal obligations imposed on them by all relevant legislation. This includes duties under the Equality Act 2010, where key provisions on matters such as discrimination and the various protected characteristics, including sex, are reserved, or under health and safety workplace regulations, which are also reserved.