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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-40623

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what additional public funding, beyond the initial £3.7 million announced in its news release of 22 January 2025, Energy Skills Passport, it has committed to the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme, and what representations it has made to the UK Government regarding the scheme getting support from Great British Energy.

The Scottish Government has supported the initial phases of industry led development of an Energy Skills Passport by providing £3.7 million through the Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray over the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24. There are no plans at this time for further funding from the Scottish Government.

We nonetheless remain a close project partner and Scottish Government officials engage regularly on the Passport with the lead industry bodies, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and RenewableUK (RUK), as well as with UK Government officials.

Following the launch of an initial version by the industry lead bodies in January, the Scottish Government is looking forward to now seeing the Passport develop further and provide more options and pathways for workers to transition between sectors. Success during “phase 2” of the Passport will require it to be fully supported from a range of bodies, including UK Government.

Question reference: S6W-40612

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Energy Skills Passport registrations there have been in each month since the pilot scheme was launched on 22 January 2025, also broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) how many passport users have had at least one login to the system each month.

Question reference: S6W-40634

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any approved change requests have altered the scope, cost or timeline for the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme, and what the rationale has been for each change.

Question reference: S6W-40639

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans are in place should the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme not achieve its expected (a) uptake and (b) outcomes, and what anonymised, regular datasets on this it plans to publish to support scrutiny of progress towards meeting these.

Question reference: S6W-40618

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the uptake of the Energy Skills Passport has been among offshore workers since the pilot scheme was launched on 22 January 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to achieve employer recognition and use of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme among offshore operators, wind developers and tier-one contractors.

Question reference: S6W-40778

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what subjects were discussed at the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy's meeting with the Chief Financial Officer of SSEN Transmission on 17 March 2025, including whether any live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications were referenced, and which projects these were.

I was invited to attend the event at the Had Fab factory to celebrate the awarding of a non-government contract by SSEN to partner companies to manufacture pylons. This represented significant investment in Scotland’s manufacturing and supply chain.

There was no agenda item to discuss live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications.

The Ministerial Code clearly states that “the Planning Minister or any other Minister involved in the planning decision, must do nothing which might be seen as prejudicial to that process, particularly in advance of the decision being taken. Action that might be viewed as being prejudicial includes expressing an opinion publicly on a particular case which is before, or may subsequently be referred to, the Minister(s) for decision”.

It also states that a Minister cannot comment on decisions once they have been issued, other than in terms of what has appeared in the decision letter.

Any meetings that Ministers have with network companies are part of ongoing engagement with industry and follow the same principle.

Question reference: S6O-05055

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports of a rise in recorded bullying incidents in schools.

Question reference: S6O-05025

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £20 million Housing Infrastructure Fund that was launched in 2016, as part of the 10-year Aberdeen City Region Deal, has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-40474

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the original commitment of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project to spend £200 million by 2026 to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, whether it will confirm (a) how much has been spent by the project so far, and on what specific areas of work, (b) what the projected final cost of the project is and (c) by what date (i) work on the project will be completed and (ii) the reduced journey times will be fully operational.

To 19/7/2025, £24.5m has been spent on schemes to reduce journey times between Aberdeen on the central Belt.

This includes £6.8m on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. This was a nine-month programme of alignment work to replace a curved section of track by installing a new single line and also remodelling the junction at Barnhill by replacing switches and crossings.

The remainder of the spend has been on design development of a package of enhancements to improve capacity and journey time including: Signalling works, enhancements at Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee stations, and freight loops.

The estimated cost of constructing all of the interventions necessary to deliver the project outputs sought by the project reference group is estimated at £242 million.

Delivery timescales for the project remain under review. It is planned that project delivery and thus benefit delivery will be staged to align with planned Network Rail renewals and other enhancement schemes such as Fife Electrification and replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.