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-23318

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many level crossings are still present on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) in Scotland, and what plans there are to phase them out.

Question reference: S6W-23389

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to support consultants with their workload so that they have sufficient time to engage in research and in supporting and training junior doctors.

The Scottish Consultants Contract is designed to ensure that Consultants who work within NHS Scotland have time for supporting professional activities. How much time received is based on working patterns and forms part of the job planning process they undertake with their employers.

The time that is dedicated to supporting professional activities can be used for research, teaching, training and supervising Junior Doctors.

Question reference: S6W-23154

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will assess (a) any long-term impact of the dissolution of the Scottish Milk Marketing Board in 2003 and (b) whether it may be beneficial to re-establish a similar entity.

Question reference: S6W-23044

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to continue the rapid rehousing transition programme in the next financial year.

Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs) play an important role in Scotland’s strategy to end homelessness. We have provided local authorities with £52.5 million between 2018-24 to develop and implement their RRTPs.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to rapid rehousing as a response to homelessness. Budgets for the next financial year will be set out in the usual way in December and funding decisions will follow.

Question reference: S6O-02851

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support student mental health and wellbeing.

Question reference: S6W-22764

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christine Grahame (On behalf of the SPCB) on 28 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will engage with the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust regarding a possible extension of eligibility for participation in the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme to ��˿��.

In 2017, a scheme was developed in conjunction with the Armed Forces in Scotland to enable Members to visit defence bases in Scotland to help Members better understand the range of social and welfare issues relevant to armed forces personnel, and their families, within their community. The programme was suspended during COVID and re-started in 2022.

These visits are open to all Members and are arranged through the different service secretariats based in Scotland.

It was agreed that this scheme would be a better fit for the Parliament than the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme that operates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and there are no plans to review the scheme at this time.

Since 2017, many Members have taken part in the Armed Forces Visits Programme, visiting defence bases across Scotland. In 2018, the Scottish Parliament hosted a reciprocal inward visit for 16 representatives from the armed services in Scotland, providing them with an opportunity to meet and shadow Members. There have been a number of outward visits for Members this year and parliamentary officials are currently exploring the possibility of resuming the inward visit.

In addition, the Presiding Officer and Clerk/Chief Executive regularly arrange events at the Scottish Parliament for the armed forces to brief Members on current issues.

Question reference: S6W-22875

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase manufacturing output as a share of GDP.

The Scottish Government wants a strong manufacturing sector, one which is innovative, thriving and international looking. We are supporting our manufacturing companies to increase their output, sustainability and efficiency through a range of funding programmes and initiatives.

Our £75 million investment into the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland represents a real investment in our manufacturing sector’s future; helping both our large and small manufactures to unlock productivity gains through developing new products and processes and transforming their skillsets. Twelve Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund projects are also delivering free support to SMEs.

Our £26 million Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund is helping our manufacturers progress towards net zero by providing funding for innovative proposals to decarbonise manufacturing processes. This will better enable our manufacturers to enter low carbon markets and supply chains, with potential benefits in terms of increasing productivity and output.

The Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service is also engaging with both large and small manufacturers to look at ways in which they can make improvements to their processes. Measures such as adopting plant efficiency savings and automation can help companies to significantly increase their output while also reducing costs.

Our Green Industrial Strategy - which is currently in development - will also set out how we plan to take advantage of Scotland’s green energy potential, which will have particular benefits for our manufacturers as we look to develop our supply chains.

Question reference: S6O-02814

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to mitigate any impact of the Illegal Migration Act on the provision of support for refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people living in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-22777

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is, regarding any potential implications for the competitive position of the steel plants at Clydebridge in Cambuslang and Dalzell in Motherwell, to the reported proposal by British Steel to invest £1.25 billion, with the support of the UK Government, in two electric arc furnaces at its headquarters in Scunthorpe and its manufacturing site in Teesside.

I refer to recent answers regarding Liberty Steel in Scotland, in particular my answers to written questions S6W-17169 on 4 May 2023 , S6W-17708 on 16 May 2023 and S6W-21489 on 26 September 2023.

Scottish Government maintain an open dialogue with Liberty Steel and have a number of regular meetings with them.

The question of whether or not to install additional equipment at the Dalzell is an operational matter for Liberty Steel. I understand from the business that there are currently no plans to install an Electric Arc Furnace at Dalzell.

The Clydebridge site is not currently operational and no staff are currently employed at the site. The future of the site is an operational matter for Liberty Steel.

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-22955

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current research and development spending is as a percentage of Scottish gross domestic product.

In 2021, Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a share of GDP was estimated at 2.98% in Scotland. This statistic is sourced from the latest GERD Scotland report, available at:

Note that the GERD estimates for Scotland are provisional and subject to future revision. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have recently changed their measurement of Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure which has led to significant uplift revisions to GERD estimates. Work is currently underway between the Scottish Government and the ONS to further quality assure the new methodology.