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-34975

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make marine litter that is collected by communities cleaning up shorelines exempt from Scottish Landfill Tax.

The Scottish Landfill Tax is a cornerstone of Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, encouraging the prevention, reuse and recycling of waste and helping keep valuable resources circulating in the Scottish economy. Exemptions are available in several circumstances including when clearing up illegally or improperly deposited material.

The Scottish Landfill Tax (Exemption Certificates) Order 2015 states that exemption certificates are available to the following bodies/persons:

waste regulators, in the case of Scotland this is SEPA;
waste collection authorities, such as a local government council or local authority; or
any other body or person, insofar as the body or person exercises waste removal powers under any other enactment.

Community groups can work with any of these eligible bodies to apply for an exemption certificate for collected marine litter provided they:

exhaust all avenues to identify and retrieve costs from the responsible person who made the original unauthorised disposal; and
are satisfied that there are no practical alternatives to landfill for the material.

The details of the application can be provided by the community group, as per the requirements detailed on the Revenue Scotland website, and emailed to Revenue Scotland by a partnered eligible body.

Question reference: S6W-34945

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations of the STUC report, Employment and Corporate Practice in Scotland's wind sector, including those regarding trade union membership of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council.

The expansion of offshore wind presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create thousands of high-quality jobs. While employment law is reserved, we will continue to use the levers at our disposal to promote fair work practices across the labour market in Scotland.

The STUC is a member of the Scottish Energy Advisory Board and has also been invited to sit on the Offshore Wind Skills Short-Life Working Group being convened by the Scottish Government. This involvement ensures that the STUC can contribute to shaping the development of the offshore wind sector and its alignment with fair work and just transition principles.

We welcome this important research by the Scottish Trades Union Congress and will carefully consider its findings.

Question reference: S6W-34938

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many train (a) arrivals and (b) departures there have been at (i) Cameron Bridge and (ii) Leven rail station each month since June 2024.

Question reference: S6W-34487

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33262 by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confirm what information it holds on how many jobs in Scotland’s oil and gas sector, and its supply chain, have been lost since 1 January 2023, and, if no information is held on this, whether it will confirm this and, in light of the minister's comment that "the Scottish Government regularly engages with the offshore oil and gas industry on a range of topics, including workforce planning", whether in its next such discussion it will raise the matter regarding the number of jobs lost in the sector and how that data could be captured.

There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of redundancy figures, therefore this information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government will continue to engage regularly with both the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions, including in relation to workforce planning matters. We will also continue to monitor company announcements.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

Question reference: S6W-34460

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, what its response is to the UK Government-commissioned review of the quality protocol report, Tyre-derived rubber materials. End of waste criteria for the production and use of tyre-derived rubber materials, which was developed by the Environment Agency and Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), and what consideration it has given to implementing similar measures in Scotland, including the recommendations for the storage of tyre-derived rubber materials and use in unbound applications.

A decision has been made by the Environment Agency to replace some of the Quality Protocols (QP) which only apply in England and Wales, including the QP for Tyre Derived Rubber Materials, with a ‘Resource Framework’. The outcomes of the review of the Tyre Derived Rubber Material QP (published in 2009) are yet to be published therefore we do not know to what extent the Resource Framework will mirror or amend the approach currently set out in the QP.

In Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency's (SEPA) approach to end-of-waste is similar to the QPs. SEPA has equivalent end-of-waste positions for many of the materials covered by QPs, including compost, anaerobic digestate and aggregates. They do not currently have a published end-of-waste position for Tyre Derived Rubber Materials but have discussed the possibility with tyre recyclers in the past.

The Environment Agency is currently working with representatives from the tyre recycling industry on the design and contents of the new Resource Framework and SEPA will consider the Framework’s findings, once it is understood what the Framework for this material contains. While awaiting the outcome of the QP review, SEPA remains open to approaches from any business seeking to agree an end-of-waste position.

SEPA’s end-of-waste positions take the approach that the storage of recovered materials remains a regulated waste activity until they are dispatched to their end user. This is to ensure that the recovery of the material is genuine and that the material is not just stockpiled with no actual prospect of an end use.

Question reference: S6T-02391

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, In Their Own Words: Children's Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, which was commissioned by Shelter Scotland and shows the impact that a stay in temporary accommodation can have on children's safety, health and education.

Question reference: S6F-03871

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on how the Scottish Government is working to tackle Islamophobia in Scotland, in light of reports that anti-Muslim hate incidents across the UK reached record levels in 2024.

Question reference: S6F-03860

Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03867

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will mark International Women’s Day, and its theme of "Accelerating Action" to reach gender equality.

Question reference: S6F-03870

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Government has to tackle the reported rising number of cases of drug-driving.