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-04582

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the implementation of its Green Industrial Strategy, what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the introduction of extended producer responsibility.

Question reference: S6O-04602

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the measures that it is taking to support households to reduce emissions and energy costs.

Question reference: S6O-04583

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with stakeholders regarding the Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025.

Question reference: S6O-04601

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve public transport connectivity in south west Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04603

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its 2045 net zero target is still credible.

Question reference: S6O-04600

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04587

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04559

Asked by: Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with partners to tackle gang-related crime.

Disrupting organised crime groups, diverting individuals away from organised crime and reducing the harm caused by organised crime to individuals, communities and organisations remains a priority for the Scottish Government and its partners.

Partnership working is a crucial part of the approach to organised crime, as set out in Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Strategy. The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce, which I chair, brings together law enforcement partners, and representatives from the public, private and third sectors.

The Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh enhances collaboration between key partner organisations in detecting and disrupting serious organised crime and terrorism. This includes the Police Scotland-chaired Multi-Agency Tasking and Delivery Board which comprises representatives from a number of bodies with investigative remits to share intelligence, identify emerging and current threats and collaborate on operational approach.

Question reference: S6W-35960

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the claim by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in its website article, Two-child limit mitigation in Scotland would help larger poor families but policy design could harm work incentives, which was published on 14 March 2025, that its proposed two-child limit mitigation policy could harm work incentives by creating a "cliff-edge" effect.

We have consistently called for the UK Government to remove the two-child cap at source. Fixing a broken Universal Credit system would be the best way to alleviate the impacts of the pernicious two-child cap, however it is clear that despite repeated calls on them to do so, the Scottish Government can no longer wait for action. That is why we are taking decisive action as early as possible, using the limited social security powers that we have, to scrap the cap in Scotland. Our actions will result in an estimated 20,000 fewer children living in relative poverty in 2026-27.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission’s report on “Mitigating the two-child limit and the Scottish Budget” states, “it is likely that the proposed mitigation payments would not generate large behavioural responses over and above the ways that families may already have adapted to the Scottish Child Payment.”

Our own published analysis of how Scottish Child Payment interacts with the labour market concludes that it is not currently negatively affecting work incentives at scale in the economy.

However, we will continue to analyse the impact of Scottish Child Payment on work incentives, and of the two-child cap mitigation when it is introduced.

Question reference: S6W-36045

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding the potential for some of them to become AI investment zones.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the enterprise network and UK Government, held exploratory discussions with local authorities last year to establish their interest in submitting an Expression of Interest to the AI Growth Zones opportunity. We subsequently wrote out to local authorities to notify them of the launch of the UK Government’s call for sites, encouraging them to participate in the initiative. 41 Scottish Expressions of Interest were received by the UK Government in the initial call. We will continue to engage with the UK Government on this welcome interest from Scottish Local Authorities with a view to establishing at least one AI Growth Zone in Scotland and securing the economic opportunities that brings.