Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S6W-36023

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will promote collaboration between the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council's Strategic Investment Model Stage 1 project on enabling (a) crew transfer and (b) service operation vessel fabrication with the analysis of future market opportunities for UK-built ships in offshore wind, which the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, in partnership with the National Shipbuilding Office and the Crown Estate, has appointed Cammell Laird to carry out.

Question reference: S6O-04500

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to incentivise the restoration and reuse of listed buildings in Glasgow that are considered to be at risk.

Responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of a listed building lies with the owner of the property. Consequently, the removal of VAT on these repairs would be a strong incentive for owners to undertake necessary work.

The Scottish Government will continue to make representations to UK Government requesting the implementation of a VAT reduction in the context of encouraging maintenance and energy efficiency improvements in traditional buildings.

Additionally, through Historic Environment Scotland’s Grants programme, we invest around £13.5 million a year to support building repairs, ancient monuments, archaeological work, and conservation.

Question reference: S6O-04531

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will accelerate the full implementation of bus franchising powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

Question reference: S6W-35590

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a comprehensive response to the Community Trade Union (a) report, Steel Reforged, and (b) recommendation that "the first priority should be upgrading our existing plate mill at Dalzell".

The Scottish Government will carefully consider the Community Trade Union’s report as part of our continued commitment to the vitally important sector. We acted at pace in 2016 to secure the future for the Dalzell and Clydebridge steel works, rescuing more than 100 jobs, and retaining steel plate production in Scotland. To protect the interests of the Scottish workforce, the Scottish Government maintains regular engagement with the plant owners, the UK Government and other partners; and we will shortly respond to the UK Government consultation on the Plan for Steel.

Question reference: S6W-35621

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to answer to question S6W-35211 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2025, what its response is to claims that not incorporating the existing heavy rail connection to East Kilbride within the scope of Clyde Metro does not represent effective, joined-up, public policymaking.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any suggested claims regarding the East Kilbride rail line within the context of Clyde Metro. If the member believes that this should be included with the scope of the Clyde Metro’s network development then I would encourage him to contact Strathclyde Partnership for Transport ([email protected]) who are leading the work for the ongoing Case for Investment stage.

Question reference: S6W-35567

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Public Health Scotland regarding the implementation of the fracture liaison service audit, and what measures are being taken to ensure progress.

Scottish Government officials remain actively engaged with Public Health Scotland (PHS), who are responsible for the implementation of the Fracture Liaison Service audit. Progress against the business case requirements to develop and then implement the new audit is reviewed on a regular basis.

I also refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-35534 21 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-35568

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported calls for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to maximise any potential revenue return from the development of its proposed new fire station at Stewart Street in Cowcaddens, Glasgow, by developing a revised design concept that enables the sale or lease of the air rights above the proposed station to a development partner for a high-density mixed use residential development, instead of an isolated low-amenity two-storey building, and whether it will request that the SFRS adopts this proposal.

To deliver maximum value to the public purse, it is appropriate for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to attempt to maximise the potential revenue return from any sale of excess assets. It is normal to seek outline planning consent in advance of any potential sale of land and SFRS is working with Glasgow City Council to achieve that.

The development of the proposed new fire station at Stewart Street is a matter for SFRS and Glasgow City Council.

Question reference: S6W-35624

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35236 by Gillian Martin on 11 March 2025, whether it has had any formal or informal discussion with (a) Ineos and (b) Rolls-Royce regarding the development of a small modular reactor at Grangemouth.

There have been no formal discussions with INEOS regarding the development of a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor for their site in Grangemouth. Scottish Government Officials did approach INEOS in 2022 when the potential use of a SMR was reported in media, and the business subsequently confirmed that the technology does not form part of their roadmap for net zero. There is no record of any conversations between Scottish Government and Rolls Royce on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-35446

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment by the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport on Scotland Tonight on 28 January 2025, in which she said that such spending has" increased", whether it will publish a breakdown of all direct mental health spending set out in the 2025-26 Budget, including spending outwith the mental health services line.

Alongside the draft budget published 4 December 2024, there was accompanying documents that set out level 4 funding - ().

Within the Health & Social Care tab the direct Mental Health programme spend is broken down along with a summary of what it is used for. This only refers to the direct programme budget and not wider government spend on mental health.

The direct programme budget for Mental Health will increase by 1.2% (to £270.5m) in 2025-26, and in the last five years has more than doubled, from £117.1m in 2020-21 to £270.5m in 2025-26.

Latest data published by Public Health Scotland on 25 February 2025 shows total spend on mental health in Scotland has increased by £179.6 million to £1.486 billion in 2023-24. That is 9.03% of total net NHS expenditure, up from 8.53% in 2022-23. Spend on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) has increased by nearly £19.4 million to over £134 million. This is 0.82% of total spend, up from 0.75% in 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-35348

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 18 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will engage with Reposit to implement its Borrow Cup scheme on the parliamentary estate.

The SPCB is open to discussions with organisations that may provide a practical improvement to the processes we already have in place. Already, we have embarked on several ways to reduce single use products including disposable cups usage across the Scottish Parliament. The cup levy has been in place since 2019 which has significantly reduced the use of disposables. We actively monitor the usage of disposable cups with our service partner and are working to reduce this further through positive consumer behaviour. We are in the process of installing a customer operated appliance that rinses and dries reusable cups efficiently and hygienically. This will support customers further with using reusables on a return basis assisting us with the goal of disposable reduction. We have also ordered a stock of reuseable cups to be available when personal cups are forgotten or not available.