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 1203 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-34606

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the supplementary to question S6O-04294 by Ivan McKee on 5 February 2025, what information it collects on net movement between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and by what metrics it is equipped to break down the figures of overall movement to and from Scotland and the rest of the UK.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work with HMRC to develop the evidence base analysis on intra-UK migration has been published by HMRC, showing movements by tax band and age band. This is available at:

Both the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish official statistics on migration between Scotland and the rest of the UK. However, these aim to measure total migration (where the HMRC analysis considers only the subset of people who were taxpayers before and after moving). As these figures are not concerned with taxpayers specifically they do not contain information about incomes or tax bands.

Question reference: S6O-04319

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the Scottish dairy sector.

Question reference: S6W-34305

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether Business Improvement District levies in Scotland are capped.

Question reference: S6W-34362

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been raised in Business Improvement District levies in each of the last five years.

Information on the amount raised through Business Improvement District (BID) levies are not held by the Scottish Government.

Local authorities are responsible for administering and collecting the levy on behalf of the BID and would be responsible for providing this information.

Scotland’s Improvement District (SIDs) have estimated that the annual levy for the combined 36 BIDs in Scotland is £6.4m. This figure is based on data from operational Scottish BID surveys and information provided in the BIDs Business Plans. The amount collected may, however, be lower depending on collection rates.

Question reference: S6W-34363

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Business Improvement Districts currently operate in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-33289

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which public opinion and research organisations it has commissioned to carry out any work regarding Scottish independence or Scotland's constitutional future, since May 2021.

Question reference: S6O-04294

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what factors it considered when determining not to introduce any new bands or increase the rates of Scottish income tax for the remainder of this parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-33288

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the research, compilation and publication of the Building a New Scotland series of papers.

Across the Scottish Government, a range of staff have been or will be involved in independence work. We do not routinely record details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on research and compilation, as there is no business need to do this.

The Scottish Government has published the publication costs of the thirteen papers in the Building a New Scotland series, found at the following link:

Preparatory work on additional material within the series has also been undertaken, adding £9,371.45. This brings the total spent on the publication of the BANS papers to £216,418.98.

Question reference: S6W-33592

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of the advisory non-departmental public bodies.

Question reference: S6W-33583

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of its other significant national bodies.