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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: S6O-04454

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, 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 action it is taking to ensure that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is sufficiently resourced to provide appropriate planning guidance or able to respond to planning consultations when required.

Question reference: S6O-04444

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support cultural activities for children and young people in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6O-04450

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, 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 action it is taking to support the mental health of police officers and ensure that they have access to the appropriate specialist services.

Question reference: S6O-04469

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that local authorities provide co-ordinated support plans for pupils who need extra support.

Question reference: S6O-04443

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, 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 steps Historic Environment Scotland is taking to ensure that women have access to a safe working environment.

Question reference: S6O-04472

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is carrying out with local authorities regarding the wellbeing of school pupils and staff.

Question reference: S6O-04445

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-35192

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on public sector wages for non-departmental public bodies, also known as quangos, in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6W-35339

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how banning fossil-based plastic from incineration, as proposed at recommendation 17 of the report, Stop, Sort, Burn, Bury? Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland, could mitigate the impact of the inclusion of incineration in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2028.

The Scottish Government published its response to Dr Colin Church’s second and final report on 5 May 2023, which focused on options to decarbonise residual waste infrastructure in Scotland.

We welcomed the report’s recommendations in supporting the continued reduction of emissions associated with waste, whilst also recognising Dr Church’s observation that “properly regulated incineration has an important role to play as part of the waste hierarchy in managing Scotland’s unavoidable, unrecyclable residual waste in a sanitary manner”.

We acknowledge of course that the residual waste sector is a complex system and, in accordance with Dr Church’s Recommendation 1, our Circular Economy and Waste Route Map (published in December 2024) sets out a series of ongoing and future policy commitments to achieve Dr Church’s Recommendation 1 (i.e. “rapidly seek further reductions in the proportion of recyclable materials in the residual waste stream”).

This includes policies such as banning single use plastic items, the implementation of the packaging extended producer responsibility scheme and a new co-designed statutory Code of Practice for household waste and recycling.

In its May 2023 response, the Scottish Government accepted Recommendation 17 in principle. While the Scottish Government agrees that phasing out the incineration of plastic waste is key to decarbonisation, our approach must be balanced, as banning it outright could lead to an increase in inappropriate disposal.

Our Route Map commitments will help to deliver increased reuse and recycling in accordance with our Circular Economy goals and help drive the reduction in fossil-based plastics going to incineration.

Question reference: S6W-35341

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the cost to (a) local authorities and (b) businesses in Scotland of including incineration as part of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2028.

The UK ETS is jointly governed by the UK ETS Authority (‘the Authority'), comprising Scottish, UK and Welsh Governments and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland.

The Authority is currently in the process of analysing the results from a recent consultation and developing policy positions. Following this period of analysis, an Authority response will be published in due course, which will provide further details on the outcome of the consultation and policy positions for all Scottish partners.

We are aware that Scottish local authorities (LAs) are in a different position to the rest of the UK, given the introduction of the ban on landfilling biodegradable municipal waste, due to come into force on 31 December 2025. This differing position for Scottish partners is foremost in our consideration of related policies in this area.

In order to reflect this, a provisional analysis set out in the analytical annex of the recent consultation noted that if all household waste that currently goes to landfill in Scotland was to be redirected to incineration because of the landfill ban, total costs for all Scottish LAs could increase to £40million.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to working with COSLA on future ETS cost projections. We continue to work closely with Local Authorities, through our SG-LG group, on circular economy related issues.