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-04547

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how its international development work is supporting the humanitarian response in Palestine.

Question reference: S6O-04558

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports of criminals using drones to infiltrate prisons.

Question reference: S6O-04575

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it can take to reduce the number of teachers on temporary contracts.

Question reference: S6W-36778

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is being given to Police Scotland in its efforts to deal with sectarianism acts associated with football games, including the Rangers versus Celtic (Old Firm) derby.

The Scottish Government fully condemn all forms of prejudice including sectarianism, racism and religious bigotry.

That is why we have consolidated legislative protections aggravated by protected characteristics, including race and religion, through the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 to support Police Scotland to deal with prejudice and discrimination and why we are currently working closely with Police Scotland and Scottish football authorities to assess the effectiveness of football banning order legislation.

Separately, we have invested over £5 million of funding since 2016 to tackle sectarianism through community based projects in schools, colleges, communities and workplaces. Organisations such as Nil by Mouth and Fair Play Foundation will continue to work with football clubs from grassroots to senior football in 2025-26 and Sense Over Sectarianism will continue to engage with Police Scotland to ensure the ‘Pitchin’ In’ programme is available for officers to use in schools to help develop pupils decision making and steer them away from prejudicial behaviour.

Question reference: S6W-36695

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the outcome was of its responsible dog ownership summit on 20 September 2024.

The Scottish Government is grateful to everyone who attended and contributed to the Responsible Dog Ownership Summit held in Edinburgh on 20 September 2024.

The Summit brought together attendees from a wide range of organisations.

The Summit was jointly chaired by myself and the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie MSP.

The Summit Report is available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/report-scottish-government-responsible-dog-ownership-summit-discussions-key-stakeholders-approaches-dog-control-dog-welfare-20-september-2024/

The Summit Report contains key outputs and recommendations from the Summit.

Question reference: S6W-36618

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34588 by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025, when the report on key issues raised at the cross-party summit on violence among young people will be published.

Question reference: S6W-36696

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the short life working group on the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 last met.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-36005 on 1 April 2025.

The Short Life Working Group was set up by the Scottish Government to review the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 (“the 1991 Act”).

The last meeting of the Short Life Working Group to review the 1991 Act was held on 1 June 2023.

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

Question reference: S6W-36680

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that retail crime, including shoplifting and vandalism, cost businesses £420 million in 2024-25.

The Scottish Government understands the impact of retail crime on businesses. Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime. This is in addition to an investment next year of a record
£1.62 billion for policing.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

The Scottish Government continue to urge all retailers and their staff to keep reporting crimes. While it might feel like some minor incidents aren’t worth it, or individual retailers may feel like the police won’t be able to do anything, each crime report aids our collective understanding of who is doing this and why. Local officers may also well have intelligence they can use to catch the perpetrators.

Question reference: S6W-36681

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the creation of a specific criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker, and what steps it has taken to explore this.

There are no plans to update the current legislation regarding the protection of retail workers. Section 1 of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 already makes it a specific offence to assault, threaten or abuse a retail worker. Such behaviour can also be prosecuted using other, more general, offences including, for example, common law assault and the offence of threatening or abusive behaviour.

It is essential that those who perpetrate violence are held to account for their actions. Legislation and prosecution form part of our overall response to tackling violence, and sits alongside our preventative approach as set out in the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-36366

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 16 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35432 by Kaukab Stewart on 19 March 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of the costs associated with the "New Scots welcome video project December 2021 to March 2022".