Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 42072 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-35090

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives it plans to challenge any gender stereotyping in schooling, with a specific focus on increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM subjects, and how it will implement these.

Improving gender balance and tackling inequity within STEM learning and careers is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s STEM Education and Training Strategy. To support schools challenge long-established stereotypes, a range of resources have been developed by Education Scotland, based around understanding bias and highlighting the impact of inequality.

Education Scotland also work with organisations, including Tech She Can and Code Club, to promote female role models and provide professional learning for Computing Science teachers. In addition, the Scottish Government has provided over £800,000 to Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) to promote Computing Science as a subject for all, helping to challenge gender stereotypes.

As a result of the STEM Education and Training Strategy, SSERC continues to deliver the Young STEM Leader Programme which enables young people to inspire, lead and mentor through delivery of inspirational STEM activities. Since its inception, over 20,000 young people have engaged with the programme, with 51% of awards being completed by female participants.

The Scottish Government is also investing in programmes designed to increase the engagement of young people in STEM activity. This includes £70,000 of funding to Digital Xtra to support their work on the development of digital technology skills and over £90,000 to support Edinburgh Science’s ‘Generation Science’ workshops and Prosper’s ‘Stemovators’ programme.

Through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle we have established a systematic approach to curriculum improvement including in respect of Science and Technology. This exercise provides a further opportunity to ensure STEM subjects are attractive to all learners, particularly girls.

Question reference: S6W-35081

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on a musculoskeletal digital pathway for Scotland since November 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with musculoskeletal conditions can access the best possible care and support.

While there are no current plans to develop a musculoskeletal digital pathway, the government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to oversee a Rheumatology Specialty Delivery Group. This group includes multidisciplinary representatives from all Health Boards providing rheumatology services.

Scottish Government officials and the CfSD national planned care team meet monthly with the Chief Operating Officer and Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to assess performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including rheumatology. For island Health Boards, these meetings typically take place every two months.

Question reference: S6W-35093

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing standardised sexual assault and misogynistic abuse reporting guidelines across all educational environments, and how these guidelines will be communicated and implemented to ensure the safety of staff and students.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to ending violence against women and girls. As part of this commitment, in March 2024, the Scottish Government published a new framework on preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

The framework sets out guidance for schools on recording and monitoring incidents of gender-based violence. Schools will have their own reporting and recording systems connected to their local authority system or as a grant-aided or independent school. If a behaviour is covered by the definition of GBV provided in the framework, it should be recorded in the Bullying and Equalities module of SEEMiS, or under an equivalent section of a schools’ recording system. The Bullying and Equalities Module of SEEMiS should not be interpreted as being focused solely on bullying; it is designed to capture a range of behaviours related to equalities, and includes ‘GBV’ as a specific category.

Schools will have separate recording systems for incidents where a staff member is affected by a GBV incident, connected to their Health and Safety at Work or Dignity at Work policies. It is important that such incidents are part of the same monitoring and evaluation systems to capture a whole school picture of prevalence.

Finally, the joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan includes an action to review all current processes for recording incidents, to identify potential means of streamlining processes and improving consistency. That work is scheduled to begin later this year.

Question reference: S6W-35267

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to changing the funding process of distributing community benefit from the current model of local community benefit funds administered by the communities impacted by developments to a central fund distributed by it.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments are voluntary arrangements between communities and developers. Despite the powers to mandate community benefits being reserved to the UK Government, Scotland has made significant progress with a voluntary approach through our Good Practice Principles. Over the past 12 months, renewables developers have offered more than £30 million to local communities.

We are currently consulting on our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore renewable energy developments, to ensure we continue to support sustainable and meaningful outcomes for people in Scotland. This includes seeking views on local, regional and national approaches to community benefits. The consultation closes on the 11 April and we will consider all responses as we work towards updating the guidance by the end of 2025. We want to gather a wide range of views from across communities, industry, the third sector and public sector partners, and encourage everyone to take part.

Question reference: S6W-35228

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding has been given to fossil fuel companies in each year since 2021 for the development of carbon capture and storage technology.

The Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies have provided £1,354,000 for the development of carbon capture and storage technology in 2025.

The Scottish Government has committed £2m of grant funding support to the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect Project and to date, £1,345,000 of this funding has been provided.

The Scottish Government remains wholly committed to supporting the development and deployment of CCUS, including the Acorn Project and the Scottish Cluster. Unfortunately, the UK Government continue to delay making a final decision on the Acorn Project which is risking billions of private sector investment and thousands of jobs.

Question reference: S6O-04431

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported positive impact on educational attainment, how it ensures that the education system provides pupils with a wide range of opportunities to participate in sport.

Question reference: S6O-04432

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what further engagement it has had with Ineos, in light of recent reports of additional redundancies related to the closure of the Grangemouth refinery.

Question reference: S6O-04427

Asked by: Evelyn Tweed, MSP for Stirling, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase democratic engagement, in line with the powers outlined in the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025.

Question reference: S6O-04429

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the experience of support staff in schools.

Question reference: S6O-04428

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it controls budgets relating to public inquiries.