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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-40759

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26080 by Mairi McAllan on 25 March 2024, whether the 58 actions published in its report, The Entrepreneurial Campus, have been delivered, and what mechanisms are in place to scrutinise the delivery.

The Scottish Government is working with partners, including the college and university sector, to deliver the ten-year Entrpreneurial Campus Blueprint. We continue to align this work with existing policies such as Techscaler, the Innovation Strategy and the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund to drive change. This year, we are also investing £700k to accelerate the implementation of the recommendations by funding four key projects.

Each project includes evaluation metrics, and we are also making use of existing reporting tools such as the as the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund reporting undertaken by the Scottish Funding Council. Outcomes from the funded projects will be reported through established channels, including the National Strategy for Economic Transformation annual report.

Question reference: S6W-40917

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes when its corporate devices, including laptops and mobile phones, reach the end of their business needs and are no longer required by it, and how they are routinely disposed of, including whether it allows any of these devices to be reused subsequently outside of its supervision and, if so, (a) under what circumstances, (b) what information it has regarding how many devices in each of the last five years, have been repurposed and (i) by whom and (ii) for what reason, broken down by type of device, and (c) what action it takes to ensure that these devices cannot be compromised and no longer hold confidential or sensitive information, and how it monitors the effectiveness of this.

Question reference: S6W-41025

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be committed to the National AI Adoption Programme in 2025-26, and how much of this will be committed to (a) grants and (b) loans.

Question reference: S6W-41026

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 October 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40750 by Richard Lochhead on 2 October 2025, what the remaining 29% of funding not allocated to local government was spent on.

Question reference: S6W-40744

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the suggestion in the Scottish Retail Consortium’s manifesto, Scotland’s Future High Streets, that accredited providers other than local authorities should be permitted to issue building warrants, in line with the approach taken in England.

There are no current plans to introduce private verification in Scotland. Local authorities are appointed by Scottish Ministers as verifiers to administer the building standards system for their own geographical area. The appointments are conditional on verifiers meeting the requirements set out in Operating and Performance Frameworks.

The Grenfell Inquiry’s Phase 2 report recommended that an independent panel consider whether or not it is in the public interest for building control functions to continue to be performed by those who have a commercial interest in the process, as is the case in England.

Question reference: S6W-40488

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many self-sufficient information and communications technology (ICT) structures with dedicated data centres and professional staff exist within the Scottish public sector, including non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), NHS boards and local government.

Responsibility for ICT provision rests with individual organisations, including NHS boards, local government, and non departmental public bodies who determine the most appropriate and cost effective arrangements for their operational needs.

In line with Scotland’s Digital Strategy, the Scottish Government promotes the use of shared digital and data services across the public sector. This reduces duplication, strengthens data security, supports value for money, and provides citizens with a consistent digital identity through shared platforms such as myaccount - mygov.scot and ScotAccount - mygov.scot.

An exercise to collate information on data centres and associated staffing was carried out some years ago, however these findings are now outdated. I have instructed officials to gather current information to enable us to inform opportunities for cost savings as part of the Public Service Reform strategy.

Until this work concludes, we do not hold a current central record of the number of self-sufficient ICT structures with dedicated data centres, nor the professional staff supporting them.

Question reference: S6W-40750

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the 2024-25 employability budget of £102.8 million (a) it spent and (b) was passed on to local government.

Question reference: S6O-05036

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on legal enforcement measures being taken with regard to retailers committing age of sale offences when selling age-restricted items, such as vapes and cigarettes.

Question reference: S6W-40669

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates the business forum, which was established to discuss priorities in advance of Scottish budgets and programmes for government as part of its New Deal for Business, has met, broken down by (a) who attended and (b) what was discussed.

The Scottish Government can confirm that the first meeting of the Strategic Business Forum on 28 August, which I chaired. Attendees included leads from a range of sectors as well as Business Representative Organisations and the discussion focussed on priority areas for the economy in the next Scottish Budget, the Scottish Spending Review and Public Sector Reform.

Representatives attended from Scottish Chambers of Commerce, FSB Scotland, IoD Scotland, CBI Scotland, Prosper, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Tourism Alliance as well as industry leaders representing the Construction, Energy, Life Sciences, Aerospace & Defence, Retail, Space, Forestry & Wood and Chemical Sciences sectors.

Question reference: S6O-04931

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Creative Industries Leadership Group.