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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-32183

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to raise awareness of endometriosis among employers in rural and remote areas, where access to workplace support may be limited.

Question reference: S6O-04160

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to those who wish to protect and preserve the Bernat Klein Studio in Selkirk.

Question reference: S6W-32019

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the operation of the Bus Partnership Fund.

The Scottish Government is pleased to announce in the draft budget that we will provide a Bus Infrastructure Fund in 2025-26 focussed on delivering bus priority, supporting infrastructure measures to tackle the negative impact of congestion and local public transport improvements. This brings the Bus Partnership Fund and Community Bus Fund together into one fund.

£20.5 million was spent on bus priority through the Bus Partnership Fund. This has delivered bus gates, enforcement cameras, and equipment to help buses get through traffic lights more quickly in North Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. It has also assisted in making a number of temporary measures, such as bus lanes, permanent in Edinburgh and Glasgow. A bus gate at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness also opened helping buses to by-pass congestion and passengers to access this important facility more quickly.

Question reference: S6W-32021

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its draft Budget 2025-26, where the remaining unspent money allocated to the Bus Partnership Fund has been reallocated to.

Question reference: S6W-32023

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the recently announced Bus Infrastructure Fund will operate.

Work to scope out what the fund will deliver and how it will be managed is underway. Transport Scotland is engaging with key stakeholders on this and will confirm details in due course. However, the fund will look to build on the work undertaken through both the Bus Partnership Fund and Community Bus Fund with renewed focus on bus priority infrastructure to help address the negative impacts of congestion on bus services, and support local public transport improvements.

Question reference: S6W-32022

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be delivered through the Bus Infrastructure Fund.

The draft 2025-26 Budget, which is subject to Parliamentary approval, provides indicative funding for a Bus Infrastructure Fund. Work is underway to assess allocations and this will be dependent on business cases, assessments of value for money/impact of spending and deliverability.

Any further ongoing funding for future years will be considered as part of the annual budget setting processes and prioritisation exercises.

Question reference: S6W-32020

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500 million that was allocated to the Bus Partnership Fund has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-31962

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its employees have been offered voluntary redundancy packages and rejected them, but remain employed with the Scottish Government in 2024-25.

Under the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, which the Scottish Government is entitled to follow, there are three categories of early departure: voluntary exit, voluntary redundancy, and compulsory redundancy. No voluntary redundancy schemes have been run in 2024-25, and therefore the number of employees in Scottish Government who have been offered voluntary redundancy packages and rejected them, but remained employed with the Scottish Government is nil.

Question reference: S6O-04034

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Cross Border Connection proposals for the Scottish Borders.

Question reference: S6W-31032

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any analysis of the impact of reducing Scottish income tax on economic growth and, if so, what the outcome was.

The Scottish Government analyses a range of impacts, including on the economy, when considering Income Tax policy options during the annual budget process. We also closely monitor the impacts of our existing policies on revenues, taxpayers, and the economy. Scottish Income Tax performance remains strong – Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK in both tax and earnings growth for both 2022-23 and 2023-24. Scottish Income Tax policy for 2025-26 will be announced during the annual Budget process.