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-40636

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme is being integrated with other just transition programmes, including retraining grants, regional employability services and industry deals.

The Scottish Government has already invested more than £120 million in the North East through the Just Transition Fund and the Energy Transition Fund to support the region’s transition to net zero. This funding has helped create green jobs, support innovation, and supported the highly skilled workforce of the future.

As part of this, the Scottish Government has supported the initial phases of industry led development of an Energy Skills Passport by providing £3.7 million through the Just Transition Fund over the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The Passport is a tool to support oil and gas workers to identify training pathways into key offshore wind sectors. It is one tool in a wider landscape of support for Scotland’s oil and gas workers. For example, the Passport is complemented by the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund (launched in July 2025 as a joint initiative from Scottish and UK Governments) which offers tailored careers advice and funded training for eligible workers looking to build the skills needed for work in Scotland’s sustainable energy sectors.

Question reference: S6W-40631

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what key performance indicators it is using to measure the success of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme, and what the current performance is against each indicator.

Question reference: S6W-40617

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many website (a) visits and (a) unique users to the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme there have been in each month since it was launched on 22 January 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to achieve employer recognition and use of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme among offshore operators, wind developers and tier-one contractors.

Question reference: S6W-40622

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on (a) communications and (b) marketing for the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme since it was launched on 22 January 2025, and what the planned spend is for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-40628

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what communication and promotional activity was carried out for the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme in the initial months following its launch on 22 January 2025, and what the communications plan is for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-40639

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans are in place should the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme not achieve its expected (a) uptake and (b) outcomes, and what anonymised, regular datasets on this it plans to publish to support scrutiny of progress towards meeting these.

Question reference: S6O-05055

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports of a rise in recorded bullying incidents in schools.

Question reference: S6O-05025

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £20 million Housing Infrastructure Fund that was launched in 2016, as part of the 10-year Aberdeen City Region Deal, has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-40474

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the original commitment of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project to spend £200 million by 2026 to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, whether it will confirm (a) how much has been spent by the project so far, and on what specific areas of work, (b) what the projected final cost of the project is and (c) by what date (i) work on the project will be completed and (ii) the reduced journey times will be fully operational.

To 19/7/2025, £24.5m has been spent on schemes to reduce journey times between Aberdeen on the central Belt.

This includes £6.8m on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. This was a nine-month programme of alignment work to replace a curved section of track by installing a new single line and also remodelling the junction at Barnhill by replacing switches and crossings.

The remainder of the spend has been on design development of a package of enhancements to improve capacity and journey time including: Signalling works, enhancements at Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee stations, and freight loops.

The estimated cost of constructing all of the interventions necessary to deliver the project outputs sought by the project reference group is estimated at £242 million.

Delivery timescales for the project remain under review. It is planned that project delivery and thus benefit delivery will be staged to align with planned Network Rail renewals and other enhancement schemes such as Fife Electrification and replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.