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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-39664

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the release of the minute of a meeting in June 2024 between the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and the Israeli Ambassador to the UK in which the cabinet secretary described Scotland and Israel as being "critical friends", whether it still holds this position and, if not, (a) when the position changed and (b) what subsequent discussions or correspondence it had with the Israeli Embassy regarding this matter.

Question reference: S6W-39663

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 3 March 2022, Stop trading with Russia, whether it remains its position that "Businesses in Scotland [should] withdraw from trading with Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine".

Question reference: S6W-39696

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review doctoral level funding in Scotland, in light of access to repayable doctoral loans being available to students residing in England and Wales, but not to those in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38942

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its Public Service Reform Strategy and plans to reduce costs by £1 billion, whether it will identify the areas in which savings can be made without impacting on frontline services.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering sustainable public services that continue to meet the needs of the people of Scotland. As set out in our Public Service Reform Strategy: Delivering for Scotland (June 2025), our approach to achieving £1 billion in annualised savings over the next five years is founded on improving efficiency, reducing duplication, and reforming how services are delivered — not on cutting frontline provision.

We are clear that this is not about reducing service provision or transferring services out of public hands. Rather, it is about ensuring that public services are delivered more effectively and efficiently. The strategy outlines a range of systemic reforms to secure these savings, including expanding shared services, simplifying the delivery landscape, scaling intelligent automation, and implementing digital solutions.

We have already delivered cash releasing and cash avoiding savings via our Single Scottish Estate, National Collaborative Procurement, Commercial Value for Money and digital programmes, which are securing cost avoiding and cash releasing savings. The programmes saved just over £320m over a two-year period to the end of 2024-25 , with further projected savings of nearly £300m over the following two financial years to the end of 2026-27.

We are committed to working closely with public bodies to drive this focus on system wide efficiency and are working towards an operational summit this year to drive that collaborative approach.

Question reference: S6W-39432

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 1 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when details of the 2025-26 Bus Infrastructure Fund will be published.

Question reference: S6W-39568

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many bail-related offences were associated with an original charge of domestic abuse in 2023-24.

Statistics on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts, by main charge, are published as Criminal Proceedings in Scotland. This includes people with a main charge of a bail-related offence. However, it is not possible to definitively link these offences to the original case where bail conditions were breached and therefore we cannot determine whether they represented a domestic abuse offence.

Question reference: S6W-39567

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 1 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times an individual, who was arrested for domestic abuse offences and then released from police custody with conditions or an undertaking, breached those conditions or that undertaking, in 2023-24.

Statistics on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts, by main charge, are published as Criminal Proceedings in Scotland. The most recent data held by Criminal Proceedings in Scotland is for the year 2022-23. However, Criminal Proceedings in Scotland do not hold data on individuals arrested therefore we cannot determine if a condition or undertaking was breached from an original domestic abuse offence.

Question reference: S6W-39606

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers last met with (a) the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association, (b) Liquid Gas UK, (c) major suppliers of heating oil, (d) major suppliers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and (e) consumer-advice bodies, to discuss the rural off-gas-grid heating market, and what issues were discussed on each occasion.

Question reference: S6W-39678

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that secondary school pupils will be taught, during education on sex and relationships, that strangulation is illegal even if it does not cause any visible injury, as is the case in England under its new relationships, sex and health education guidance.

Question reference: S6W-39604

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on levels of fuel poverty in rural communities of the recent price trends of (a) heating oil and (b) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and what measures it has identified to mitigate any such impact.