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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: S6F-03082

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the potential impact on devolved social security benefits of the UK Government’s proposed reforms to disability benefits.

Question reference: S6F-03076

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the potential impact on Police Scotland and devolved agencies of reports that the Home Office is planning to launch a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK, following the passing of the UK Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024.

Question reference: S6F-03083

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the First Minister what recent discussions the Scottish Government has had with environmental groups and communities regarding how it plans to deliver strong action on climate change, following the removal of the 2030 climate target.

Question reference: S6F-03063

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03069

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03064

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-03070

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2024

To ask the First Minister, in light of new reported data that nearly one in five shop premises in Scottish cities lie empty, what action the Scottish Government is taking to support the retail sector.

Question reference: S6W-26960

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported shortage in trained physiotherapists.

The Scottish Government recognise that there are circumstances when they will step in to address specific workforce challenges. In December 2019 as part of the Integrated Workforce plan, Scottish Government made a commitment to create 225 more MSK practitioners in Primary Care. To achieve this it has been critical to increase numbers of physiotherapists in training as newly qualified physiotherapists enable the replenishment of posts created by experienced physiotherapists moving to Primary Care as Advanced MSK Practitioners.

Due to the pandemic delays were experienced and a total of 37 students were recruited in 2021-22, and a further 52 were recruited in 2022-23. To date, 144 physiotherapy students have been recruited and the first cohort of students graduated in September 2023. A further recruitment of 50 students is planned for 2024-25, subject to funding.

Additionally, the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review examined workforce and education issues and recommendations included promotion of AHP careers and aligning strategies to market a career as an AHP. An advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of these recommendations.

Question reference: S6W-26892

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was conducted regarding the impact of the £500 million funding for the Bus Partnership Fund.

The Bus Partnership Fund has so far delivered a number of projects for which Partnerships are currently undertaking monitoring and evaluation, with reporting once schemes have been in operation for a sufficient period of time.

Once complete, these will be collated to determine the impact that the funding has had to date. Initial reports from the Aberdeen City Centre bus gates are very positive with reduced bus journey times benefitting a significant number of passengers.

Other bus priority installed at signals to help buses get through them more quickly are also reporting improvements in journey times and reliability, with these having been implemented in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Oban and North Ayrshire. A number of studies were also funded which have identified further measures which will feed into the longer term public transport vision.

The Bus Partnership is one way in which we are delivering the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommendation of the provision of strategic bus priority measures. This included an assessment of the impact of strategic bus priority, the reporting of which can be found on Transport Scotland’s website - https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/strategy/strategic-transport-projects-review-2/ .

Question reference: S6W-26898

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of any variation in pay, terms and conditions for social workers across different local authorities.

Scottish Government conducted a survey of job vacancies advertised in myjobscotland in September 2023, as part of joint work with COSLA on social workers pay variation across Scotland. This survey indicated that at that time there was a difference of average pay of circa £7k between the lowest and highest paying employers. The lowest paying £33,500 per annum and the highest £40,673. The majority of Scotland’s employers in the public sector pay between £36,400 and £38,480.