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-35395

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to implement its policy on taking a feminist approach to international relations.

Since the November 2023 publication of the Scottish Government’s position paper, Taking a Feminist Approach to International Relations, officials have taken forward a range of activities as part of our commitment to mainstream a feminist approach across key policy areas, including international development, climate justice, trade, and peace & security.

This includes working to embed gender equality throughout our international development work as well as developing specific gender equality programmes. In seeking to equalise power in our international development activities, we work directly with organisations in our partner countries of Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia and have established a Global South Advisory Panel. On trade, the Scottish Government is committed to addressing the gender export gap in Scotland, confirmed by the findings in the recent Gender Export Gap research report. We will be working with our delivery agencies and stakeholders in implementing the report’s recommendations, providing tailored advice, assistance, and international market access opportunities to help women-led businesses succeed on the global stage.

Question reference: S6W-35394

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has raised human rights concerns, including individual cases, with representatives of international governments since January 2023.

Question reference: S6W-35371

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures any progress made by each NHS board to follow the diagnostic pathways for gastrointestinal problems.

Delivering high quality endoscopy is a priority of the NHS Scotland clinical and service teams.

The Scottish Government commissioned the National Endoscopy Programme Team, with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), and Scottish Government officials routinely monitor Health Board performance against the eight key diagnostic tests, including upper endoscopy, lower endoscopy, colonoscopy, cystoscopy, which are used for the diagnosis and surveillance of gastrointestinal problems such as ulcerative colitis and intestinal polyps.

The National Endoscopy Programme Team also supports on-site visits to all Boards to identify local issues, offer Boards support to develop Demand, Capacity, Activity and Queue (DCAQ) information/capacity planning, and promote alternatives to traditional endoscopy such as CytoSCOT, where clinically appropriate.

In addition, CfSD’s Gastroenterology Specialty Delivery Group (SDG) is working to develop national pathway recommendations for gastroenterology diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Disease. These pathways will reduce unwarranted variation by standardising service provision and pathways on a best-of-class and once-for-Scotland basis wherever possible.

Performance data relating to the number of waits for one of eight key diagnostic tests is published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) on a quarterly basis. The latest publication provides data up to 31 December 2024 and is available here: Diagnostic waiting times - Waits for key diagnostic tests 25 February 2025 - NHS waiting times - diagnostics - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-35377

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the "job density", the ratio between the number of employee jobs and the local working age population, for people living in former coalfield areas, in light of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s report, State of the Scottish Coalfields 2024, which suggests that this ratio remains much lower in these areas compared with the Scottish average.

The Scottish Government is taking action to create jobs and boost employability in our coalfields communities. We are investing over £900 million in Growth Deals for Ayrshire, Glasgow (including North and South Lanarkshire), and Edinburgh and South East Scotland which includes Fife. This funding is creating thousands of new jobs and maintaining existing jobs across these areas. The UK Government is providing match funding.

No One Left Behind is a Scotland-wide strategy delivering employability support to those eligible and furthest from the labour market. It is a collaboration between the Scottish Government and local authorities, and aligns and integrates services in each local area to offer an all-round, holistic approach.

Regeneration programmes such as Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, Investing in Communities Fund and Strengthening Communities Programme are supporting job creation, training, and employability skills. In addition we have provided over £29 million in funding to CRT since 1999 to invest in improving outcomes for former coalfield communities.

Question reference: S6W-35461

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, what value was provided by employing 989 contingent workers in the 2021-22 financial year.

A Contingent Worker is defined as non directly employed workers that are engaged in any capacity for the Scottish Government. Contingent worker statistics published include consultants, contractors, interim managers, inward secondments/ Service Level Agreement, temporary workers, short-term youth initiatives, other contractors and Government UK Fast Stream.

The use of contractors in SG is largely accounted for by resourcing requirements to strengthen key professional skills such as expanding our digital capabilities. Employing temporary and agency workers provides the flexibility required to meet immediate business and access specialist and other skills quickly.

Question reference: S6W-35532

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that retired police officers affected by the 2018 McCloud judgment receive a remediable service statement by the 31 March 2025.

I have asked Stephen Pathirana, Chief Executive of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to respond. His response is as follows:

The current position for the delivery of remediable service statements to retired police officers is set out in the Scottish Public Pension Agency’s website: https://pensions.gov.scot/police/police-remedy-hub/police-remedy-im-retired

SPPA will keep retired officers informed through updates to its website and with a dedicated newsletter which is due to be issued by the end of March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-35456

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35094 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025, whether it has the capacity to (a) identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the claimant count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame and (b) break such data down by cause of removal.

Social Security Scotland has the capacity to identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the client count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame. Social Security Scotland do not hold the breakdown of such data by cause of removal.

Social Security Scotland will continue to review and prioritise any new statistics produced and will take account of users’ needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.

The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Statistics. The next release of Adult Disability Payment statistics, covering the period to the end of January 2025, is due to be published on 18 March 2025.

Question reference: S6T-02426

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason hospitals are reportedly still using MRI scanners, CT scanners and X-ray machines that are decades old, in light of reported warnings by experts that equipment over 10 years old should be replaced.

Question reference: S6T-02422

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review public sector guidance on single-sex spaces, in light of reported concerns about the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Prison Service.

Question reference: S6T-02425

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported decision to award phase 1 of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme to a Polish shipyard.