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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1721 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-34005

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost has been of providing (a) tea, (b) coffee, (c) fruit and (d) biscuits in (i) the Members’ lounge and (ii) committee rooms, in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-34020

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many Parliament passes have been reported lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34014

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost of PAT testing Christmas decorations in the Parliament building has been in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34010

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost has been of maintaining any flags that it owns in each of the last 15 years.

Question reference: S6W-34027

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on hospitality for visitors to its buildings in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34006

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much has been spent on new and replacement (a) televisions and (b) monitors in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-34140

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many reports of speeding were submitted to the procurator fiscal by Police Scotland in each year since 2018, broken down by trunk road.

The following table shows the overall speeding numbers grouped by financial year reported. Charges have been identified using the Scottish Government classification of level 2 of speeding. The format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This information is not readily available.

All charges reported to COPFS under:-
Scottish government classification level two - 45.Speeding
- count is by charge and grouped by financial year reported
*year to date 5 February 2025

			Financial year reported
Offences	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25*
Speeding offences	15,940	18,127	13,306	15,580	12,382	14,872	13,461

Question reference: S6W-34174

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many calls to each emergency service have been recorded as being (a) hung up and (b) terminated before completion in each year since 2018; what proportion of calls this represents, and what information it has regarding the reasons given for calls ending in this matter.

Question reference: S6W-34175

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what reasons have been recorded by emergency services for calls having been hung up or terminated prematurely, and, on average, what percentage of cases each reason represents.

Question reference: S6W-34129

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on legal advice and representation for current and former ministers in relation to public inquiries in the last 10 years, broken down by inquiry.

There are at present five ongoing Scottish statutory public inquiries, and a number of UK statutory inquires which could seek evidence from ministers in Scotland. The Edinburgh Trams Inquiry reported in September 2023 following hearings in 2017-2018 and the Penrose Inquiry reported in 2015, albeit from the records available we do not believe that external legal advice was taken in connection with those inquiries which falls within the scope of this question. The amount spent by the Scottish Government on external legal advice, including representation for current and former ministers, in relation to public inquiries is as follows:

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry	£1,191,298 inclusive of VAT
The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry	£20,160 inclusive of VAT
The Covid-19 Inquiries	There have been no legal costs for current or former ministers for the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry. For the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, we do not hold a breakdown of legal costs per witness. £2,123,692 inclusive of VAT
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry	£673,942 inclusive of VAT
The Eljamel Inquiry	No such costs have been incurred to date.
Infected Blood Inquiry	£432,045 inclusive of VAT between 2018/19 and 2024/25

To note, we are unable to cost the Government’s internal legal advice provided by the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

These figures are for overall legal advice or support for the Scottish Government and former staff or Ministers, and include some travel and accommodation costs for travel to hearings in London.