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-03313

Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Child Poverty Action Group’s recent analysis of official data showing that 4.3 million children were in relative poverty across the UK, up from 3.6 million in 2010-11.

Question reference: S6O-03294

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether its Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will help protect communities from development on land of public importance.

Question reference: S6O-03297

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the number of cases of livestock worrying.

Question reference: S6O-03314

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to give greater representation to older people.

Question reference: S6W-26552

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Emma Roddick on 10 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to introduce a bill on ending conversion practices.

The Scottish Government is committed to introduce legislation to end conversion practices in Scotland that is as comprehensive as possible within devolved competence.

Conversion practices, which aim to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, are damaging and destructive acts that violate people’s human rights. Whilst our proposals will protect people from the harms of conversion practices, our approach also recognises and respects established rights and freedoms. This includes freedom of thought, conscience and belief and private and family life as well as parents exercising their rights and responsibilities in relation to their children.

Our public consultation, containing detailed proposals, ran for 12 weeks and closed on 2 April 2024. Responses to that consultation will now be analysed and considered.

Future legislative programmes will be announced in relevant Programmes for Government in the usual way.

Question reference: S6W-26447

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 10 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the anticipated local government elections in 2027, what information it has on when any work to redraw mainland council wards will commence.

Boundaries Scotland has the statutory responsibility to review the electoral arrangements for local government areas. In line with the requirements of the Local Government Act 1973, Boundaries Scotland must submit to Scottish Ministers a report on its review of the electoral arrangements for a local government area no more than 15 years after the previous report for that area was submitted. Boundaries Scotland is currently conducting the Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries, and will report to Ministers by 1 May 2025. Work to review council wards will recommence once this review has been submitted. The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill proposes an amendment to the deadline by which Boundaries Scotland must complete the next local government reviews, from 31 December 2028 to 30 April 2031. This is to align the 15-year period between reviews with the five-year local government election cycle.

Question reference: S6W-26489

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24374 by Fiona Hyslop on 19 January 2024, on what date in spring 2024 it expects the legal process regarding access to Ferrymuir Gait to be concluded.

Question reference: S6W-26583

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it plans to publish its review of employee-owned businesses.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) announced a ‘.. review of how best to significantly increase the number of social enterprises, employee-owned businesses and co-operatives in Scotland, supporting regional regeneration and the wealth of local communities’ .

The review is ongoing and is led by an independent stakeholder group. It is anticipated that the work will complete, with findings and recommendations published, in Spring 2024.

Question reference: S6W-26529

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the roll-out of superfast broadband in Clydebank and Milngavie.

Figures provided by Ofcom.org.uk, show that, as of September 2023, 98% of premises in the Clydebank and Milngavie constituency could access fixed line superfast broadband.

This is, in part, thanks to publicly-funded digital programmes which have connected around one million properties across Scotland to fibre broadband to date, with the vast majority receiving superfast speeds. This includes the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, which delivered over 10,000 connections in the constituency of Clydebank and Milngavie.

Our Scottish Government commitment to deliver 100% superfast broadband across Scotland is delivered through the three strands of activity that make up the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the three R100 contracts (North, Central and South), our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and the ongoing expansion of commercial coverage including newly emerging technologies such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connections.

As a result, all homes and businesses should now be able to access superfast broadband.

Question reference: S6W-26510

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on repairs to the entire CalMac fleet in each calendar year since 2020.

The information in the following table has been supplied by CalMac. This information is not held by calendar year but has been supplied by Contract Year (CY) which begins in October.

CY05

Oct 2020-Sept 2021

CY06

Oct 2021-Sept-2022

CY07

Oct 2022–Sep 2023

CY08 (to date)

Oct 2023–Feb 2024

£17.262m

£28.525m

£30.036m

£24,852m

In addition, the following sums have been given to Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) as part of the SG Ferries Resilience Fund. These figures are not held by calendar year. This is preventative fund, over and above regular maintenance, and is aimed at lowering the risk of vessel breakdown and loss of service.

2019-2020

2020-2021

2021-2022

2022-2023

2023-2024

(to date)

£3.348m

£3.503m

£3.622m

£3.537m

£10.371m