Seòmar agus comataidhean

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 3549 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-39859

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times the implementation forum to promote awareness of a public health approach to preventing violence against women and girls has met to date, and what recommendations or findings have arisen from any such meetings.

The Forum, established as part of our Equally Safe Delivery Plan commitment to develop a collaborative programme of support to enable local and national partners to adopt a public health approach to preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG), has met twice to date, with a third meeting scheduled for October 2025.

The Forum is facilitated by the Improvement Service and seeks to enable collaboration between local and national partners to identify ways of embedding a public health approach in practice, identifying and overcoming barriers to implementation, sharing local experience, and supporting its wider application.

With the purpose of the Forum being identifying and overcoming barriers to implementation, sharing local experience and supporting its wider application, no formal recommendations have been issued. However, early learning from the Forum includes recognition of the challenges in shifting resources towards prevention, the importance of engaging a broad range of policy areas, and the value of identifying tangible, evidence-based actions that stakeholders can take within their own services.

The Forum continues to provide a collaborative space for peer support and shared learning, helping to embed a public health approach to ending VAWG across systems and sectors.

Question reference: S6W-39862

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is identifying the digital inclusion needs of women and girls who have experienced technology-facilitated violence against women and girls, and what it is doing to improve the support that is available to them.

We are working closely with the Mhor Collective and specialist violence against women and girls (VAWG) services, to identify the digital inclusion needs of women and girls who have experienced technology-facilitated VAWG and improve the support that is available to them.

We have established a VAWG Digital Inclusion Network, made up of specialist violence against women and girls (VAWG) services to consider how we can improve access to information and advice for survivors of technology-facilitated VAWG. This includes developing and sharing appropriate resources with the organisations supporting survivors and building the digital skills and confidence of staff and volunteers working in those organisations. We are funding the Mhor Collective, who have a long track record of digital inclusion work, to lead this work.

Recognising the barriers that exist for certain groups, we are considering the digital inclusion needs of minority ethnic women and girls, women involved in commercial sexual exploitation and women in rural and remote areas.

Question reference: S6W-39855

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to devise a statutory definition of honour-based abuse, and when it plans to introduce that definition.

Defining an issue is a vital first step towards creating a shared understanding of the problem. This lays the foundation for ensuring our collective response is more effective and leads to better outcomes for victim-survivors. This is particularly important in relation to honour-based abuse which has been misunderstood by professionals, meaning it is often not recognised and the required support to survivors not offered.

We have developed a policy definition of honour-based abuse that will provide staff responding to survivors with a consistent understanding of honour-based across different sectors. To do so, we undertook a literature review and worked with specialist organisations and academics in the Addressing Violence Against Minority Ethnic Women and Girls Network, and mainstream services including Social Work Scotland, Police Scotland, COPFS, NHS Scotland and local authorities to inform our work. We are currently working with these partners to explore practical ways the definition can be applied across services.

Developing a statutory definition will require extremely careful consideration and consultation to ensure it captures the complexities of honour-based abuse and aligns with legal frameworks. We will continue to work with our experts and partners to work through these challenges thoughtfully and ensure that our approach to addressing honour-based abuse, including a statutory definition if necessary, is robust and effective.

Question reference: S6W-39854

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which training and learning opportunities it has delivered to develop the role of nurse sexual offence examiners.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing the role of nurse sexual offence examiners.

The Scottish Government and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have together supported a test of change involving Queen Margaret University nurse graduates, so that they can undertake sexual offence examinations and give evidence in court. If approved by the Lord Advocate, this test of change could pave the way for nurses to undertake the role of sexual offence examiner in future.

We continue to fund places on a Post Graduate Certificate (PG Cert) in Advanced Forensic Practice course at Queen Margaret University – the first of its kind in Scotland. This qualification is a pre-requisite for nurses undertaking the role of sexual offence examiner in Scotland.

We also fund a skills lab at Queen Margaret University so that sexual offence examiners and recently qualified nurse sexual offence examiners can maintain and update their skills.

Developing a multi-disciplinary workforce model may also support the sustainability of services in remote, rural and island communities.

There are currently 24 qualified nurses with a further 10 working towards this qualification. Assuming all of the nurses graduate by July 2026, the total number of PG Cert qualified nurses in Scotland will increase to 34.

Question reference: S6W-39858

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made regarding improving access to justice services for women and girls with learning disabilities.

The Scottish Government fund the Gender-Based Violence and Learning Disabilities Steering Group facilitated by the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD).

The Steering Group’s Action Plan for 2024 – 2027 aims to reduce the risk of Gender-Based Violence against women and girls with learning disabilities and to improve access to support services and justice services for women and girls with learning disabilities who experience Gender-Based Violence.

Proposals are also being developed for the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill, which intend to ensure that the needs of people with learning disabilities are better identified at any point of contact in the justice system.

This includes work to ensure justice agency staff are better trained to engage appropriately with people with learning disabilities and what support, such as access to advocacy or an Appropriate Adult, is put in place to ensure meaningful involvement. Proposals for the Bill also include improvements to accessing advocacy.

Question reference: S6W-39911

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the current (a) cost of and (b) spend on measures to tackle violence against women and girls.

Question reference: S6W-39913

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether a new, sustainable long-term funding model for tackling violence against women and girls has been developed.

Question reference: S6W-39912

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Sustainable Funding Project Board, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6W-40058

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the cost to remove reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) from four police stations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40050

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the conclusions of the scoping exercise that it committed to undertake under the Equally Safe strategy of the qualitative and quantitative data on violence against women and girls that exists locally and nationally, to identify gaps and areas for future improvement.