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-32016

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the 2024 report to the Parliament on the Marine Protected Area network, in line with its requirements under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Question reference: S6W-32137

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any alterations to out-of-hours contact services for non-departmental public bodies, and what information has been provided to ministers regarding any such alterations.

Scottish Government is aware the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency is considering amendments around its call centre service to align with plans for wider organisational transformation. SEPA has not raised any emerging risk, or issue with significant implications for its operation or governance with regards to changes to the 24-hour call centre.

Scottish Government is not aware of any other proposal to alter out-of-hours contact services, nor has information been provided to Ministers from any other public body.

Ministers would not routinely be informed of changes to contact services as this would be an operational matter for the body concerned, based on evaluation of the service, customer demand/experience and evolving automation of communication channels such as the use of bots and Artificial Intelligence.

Question reference: S6W-31472

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its role on the steering group that maintains the Port Marine Safety Code, how it can improve the safety and wellbeing of maritime workers, in light of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch's report into the deaths of two tugboat sailors on the Clyde in February 2023, identifying 14 safety issues leading to their deaths.

Shipping safety is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is responsible for establishing maritime safety protocol and legislation, including in response to specific incidents, working in partnership with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

Transport Scotland are standing members of the Port Marine Safety Code Steering Group. The aim of the Group is to facilitate regular meetings and other information sharing opportunities between port authorities, related maritime industries operating within ports, and government, including the devolved administrations, in order to share best practice and discuss developments such as the application of new legislation which may have a bearing on the content of the Port Marine Safety Code and the way in which it is applied at ports.

The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety and crew welfare standards, and for these to be applied in the case of those vessels and crews accessing Scotland’s waters.

Question reference: S6W-32057

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation is underway with the Mobility and Access Committee Scotland (MACS) regarding the ScotRail proposal to reduce station ticket office opening hours across the network, in light of MACS reportedly indicating in its response to the 2022 consultation concern regarding the level of engagement there had been with it or other groups representing disabled people on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-32029

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding whether a pedestrian crossing might be appropriate outside the Canongate entrance to improve the safety of the public, MSPs and staff who cross at this location.

There is a pedestrian crossing directly outside the Parliament’s public access to facilitate safe travel. The SPCB has not been asked to consider whether a second pedestrian crossing would be appropriate. The current information provided by the City of Edinburgh council is that Canongate is being considered for redevelopment as part of a wider consultation through the Councils’ Street allocation framework ‘Our Future Streets’. We anticipate that the SPCB will be approached as part of the consultation process to assess and consider proposals by City of Edinburgh Council when developed and provide comment as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-32028

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what its position is on the flag flying policy indoors and outdoors on the parliamentary estate with respect to how and by whom decisions are made on (a) which are flown, (b) for how long they should be flown and (c) what grounds the appropriateness of the presence of any flag is assessed.

The SPCB has a policy covering the flying of flags on the flagpoles outside Holyrood - Flag-flying | Scottish Parliament Website. The policy sets out which flags are flown and how exceptional requests can be made to the SPCB for approval.

During official visits by external dignitaries, a flag can be displayed inside the building, usually in a meeting room or event space, for the duration of their visit.

Question reference: S6W-32058

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation it has had with local authorities regarding the ScotRail proposal to reduce the opening hours of a number of station ticket offices, in light of the specific requirement for face-to-face sales of local authority concessionary fares.

Question reference: S6W-32266

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the investment of £21 billion in health and social care in its draft Budget 2025-26 will be allocated across different services and regions.

The draft budget for 2025-26 includes £21.7 billion of investment in health and social care services – an uplift exceeding consequentials and taking funding to an all-time high.

A full breakdown of how the £21.7 billion will be allocated across different services and regions can be found in tables 3.02 and 3.04 in the published Scottish Budget 2025-26 document. This can be found online here:

Scottish Budget: 2025-26

Further information is also set out in the 2025-25 level 4 budget tables here:

Supporting documents - Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot

Question reference: S6W-32213

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what finance mechanisms are being considered by the Green Heat Finance Taskforce to deliver the clean heat transition.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce’s Part 1 report identified a range of finance mechanisms that could be expanded or developed to support individual property owners finance the upfront costs of installing clean heat and energy efficiency measures. These included approaches to encourage greater secured lending, developing equity release products focused on retrofit and exploring the potential to offer property linked finance in Scotland.

Its Part 2 report will cover financing place-based and social housing retrofit programmes as well as financing of heat networks. The report will focus on how to attract private investment at scale to unlock blended finance opportunities, combining public and private contributions, to deliver coordinated activity across multiple properties.

Question reference: S6W-32214

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Green Heat Finance Taskforce will publish part 2 of its report.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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