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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: S6O-04451

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what community safety measures it plans to prevent antisocial behaviour, including improper needle disposal, in the area surrounding the Thistle drug consumption facility.

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.

Question reference: S6O-04403

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the feasibility of its target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045.

Question reference: S6O-04367

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when Public Health Scotland will produce updated statistics on the screening rates for cervical cancer.

Question reference: S6W-33947

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address the condition of Scotland's roads, in particular the number of potholes.

We recognise the challenges in maintaining Scotland’s road network and the vital importance of ensuring roads are safe and well-maintained.

Under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, local authorities are responsible for the improvement, maintenance, and repair of local roads. The Scottish Government is providing over £15 billion in the 2025-26 Local Government Settlement, increasing the resources available to Local Government by £1 billion, a real terms increase of 4.7%. It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Transport Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the trunk road network through the Operating Company contracts. Our Operating Companies conduct inspections every 7 days, and will address any defects which present immediate safety risks, by carrying out temporary repairs by 6 am the following day and permanent repairs within 28 days.

The 2025-26 draft Budget allocates a record £714 million for trunk road maintenance, supporting the continued safety and operation of the trunk road network.

Question reference: S6W-33948

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has implemented to address violence in schools.

Violence towards anyone is unacceptable and the safety of our children, young people and staff at school is paramount.

Since May 2023, we have responded to schools’ concerns about relationships and behaviour in a number of ways. This includes the publication of new guidance on gender-based violence in March 2024, updating our guidance on mobile phones and anti-bullying, and providing £900k to local authorities to support training of support staff.

In August 2024, we published a joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan with COSLA. The action plan sets out 20 actions to be taken over the next three years at both national and local level to help support schools to improve relationships and behaviour. This includes a number of actions under the theme of reducing violence and harm in schools.

In addition, through implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland, we have invested over £4m in the last two years to help prevent and reduce violence across Scotland. In 2024-25, £2m of this investment is being used to support delivery of prevention activity focussed specially towards young people in collaboration with a range of partners. This includes:

£156,000 to support the delivery of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), a peer mentoring programme , delivered in schools and supported by Education Scotland.
£337,000, to support Medics Against Violence who run a number of violence prevention programmes, including a secondary school programme carried out by volunteer medics, centred around educating young people about the impacts and consequences of violence and how to keep themselves and their peers safe, and;
£56,000, to support the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers Programme, aimed at young people aged 13-18, which provides the opportunity to engage positively within their local community.
£297,000 to support The No Knives, Better Lives engagement programme through Youthlink Scotland, which is focussed on preventing the incidence of violence including knife carrying amongst young people and provides resources, training and support to local partners.
The creation and launch of the Quit Fighting for Likes campaign, for practitioners to use to have conversations with young people, to help them explore the harm caused through the filming and sharing of violent incidents on social media.

Question reference: S6O-04307

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-33319

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working to help ensure that victims of trauma, either physical or mental, do not turn to illicit substance use.

Evidence confirms that substance use can be a potential consequence for those of us who have experienced high levels of trauma and adversity in our lives.

The Scottish Government’s ambition, shared with COSLA, is for anyone who has been affected by trauma to be supported by the trauma-informed and responsive support, care and services they need. These are services built on safe, trusted relationships, which foster recovery, prevent re-traumatisation and help reduce the risk that individuals and/or their families might turn to substance use to cope.

Since 2018, the Scottish Government has invested over £12 million in the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP). The NTTP aims to support all sectors of the workforce, to understand how to adapt the way they work to be trauma-informed. This includes understanding how substances can be a coping strategy for the impact of trauma and embedding the principles of choice, collaboration, empowerment, safety and trust to help improve the life outcomes of those affected.

Question reference: S6W-33318

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help ensure that menstruation is not a barrier to women and girls being involved in sports.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health, across all stages in life.

We believe there should be no barriers to participating in sport and physical activity, and we should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of sport.

sportscotland’s Fit for Girls (FFG) and Young People’s Sport Panel (YPSP) tutors lead conversations and workshops on menstrual education as well work to increase awareness of the barriers to physical activity.

sportscotland’s Institute of Sport delivers tailored support services for athletes. Their internal working group, the Female Athlete Performance Group, have developed a range of resources specifically for female athletes. These are designed to support anyone working with girls and women in sport and include e-learning on the menstrual cycle in sport. These resources are available for free to all, with the ambition that all within the sporting system are comfortable having conversations about female athlete health and understand the impact on training and performance.

Question reference: S6W-33313

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has allocated to research by Scottish universities on alcohol and drug misuse in 2024-25.

Funding allocation to research by Scottish Universities in 2024-25 is £54,787. The National Mission is further supported by research undertaken at national and local levels by national boards such as Public Health Scotland and Health Improvement Scotland and third sector partners.

In October 2024, Chief Scientist Office (CSO) announced Phase 2 of the Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation Challenge. This £5 million partnership between CSO and UK Government Office for Life Sciences funds 7 innovation projects to address the rising issue of drug-related deaths. CSO contribute £500,000 to this partnership.

In addition, we provided funding of £52,500 to the University of Edinburgh to host the Drugs Research Network Scotland to deliver knowledge exchange activities through an annual conference and regular webinars and to monitor ongoing research activities.