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 1325 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-32178

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the reportedly significant detrimental economic impact of endometriosis on women, including in relation to employment and workplace support.

Within the Women’s Health Plan we committed to improve access for women to appropriate support, speedy diagnosis and best treatment for endometriosis across the public, private and third sector.

The was launched on 31 October 2023 with supporting resources, including line managers, workplace adjustment guides, and signposting to more information on symptoms and conditions including endometriosis. These are intended for use more widely across a variety of employment sectors and are available on the National Wellbeing Hub, which is accessible to the public.

Self-employed women can access free and confidential advice and health support from Working Health Services Scotland which is a Scottish Government funded NHS service that provides advice for people who are self-employed or working in companies with 250 or less employees and have a health condition or injury which they feel is impacting on their work.

The health and wellbeing of women at work is a key element of fair work. We know that conditions such as endometriosis can limit women’s opportunities to do their job to the best of their ability, remain in work and progress in the same way men can.

As employment law is reserved, Scottish Government has no power to mandate employers across Scotland to provide specific support to women experiencing health conditions. Our role is to encourage employers to recognise and take action to reduce the barriers that some of their workers can face when entering, progressing and remaining in work. To that end, we promote fair work practices through mechanisms such as our Fair Work First approach to public funding and its accompanying which explicitly highlights to employers that offering quality flexible working arrangements is of particular benefit to women experiencing menstrual health issues or menopause while at work. Asking employers to offer flexible working from day one of employment has been a principle of Fair Work First since October 2021.

Question reference: S6O-04160

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to those who wish to protect and preserve the Bernat Klein Studio in Selkirk.

Question reference: S6W-32022

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be delivered through the Bus Infrastructure Fund.

The draft 2025-26 Budget, which is subject to Parliamentary approval, provides indicative funding for a Bus Infrastructure Fund. Work is underway to assess allocations and this will be dependent on business cases, assessments of value for money/impact of spending and deliverability.

Any further ongoing funding for future years will be considered as part of the annual budget setting processes and prioritisation exercises.

Question reference: S6W-32020

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500 million that was allocated to the Bus Partnership Fund has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-32019

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the operation of the Bus Partnership Fund.

The Scottish Government is pleased to announce in the draft budget that we will provide a Bus Infrastructure Fund in 2025-26 focussed on delivering bus priority, supporting infrastructure measures to tackle the negative impact of congestion and local public transport improvements. This brings the Bus Partnership Fund and Community Bus Fund together into one fund.

£20.5 million was spent on bus priority through the Bus Partnership Fund. This has delivered bus gates, enforcement cameras, and equipment to help buses get through traffic lights more quickly in North Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. It has also assisted in making a number of temporary measures, such as bus lanes, permanent in Edinburgh and Glasgow. A bus gate at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness also opened helping buses to by-pass congestion and passengers to access this important facility more quickly.

Question reference: S6W-32021

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its draft Budget 2025-26, where the remaining unspent money allocated to the Bus Partnership Fund has been reallocated to.

Question reference: S6W-32023

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the recently announced Bus Infrastructure Fund will operate.

Work to scope out what the fund will deliver and how it will be managed is underway. Transport Scotland is engaging with key stakeholders on this and will confirm details in due course. However, the fund will look to build on the work undertaken through both the Bus Partnership Fund and Community Bus Fund with renewed focus on bus priority infrastructure to help address the negative impacts of congestion on bus services, and support local public transport improvements.

Question reference: S6W-31962

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its employees have been offered voluntary redundancy packages and rejected them, but remain employed with the Scottish Government in 2024-25.

Under the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, which the Scottish Government is entitled to follow, there are three categories of early departure: voluntary exit, voluntary redundancy, and compulsory redundancy. No voluntary redundancy schemes have been run in 2024-25, and therefore the number of employees in Scottish Government who have been offered voluntary redundancy packages and rejected them, but remained employed with the Scottish Government is nil.

Question reference: S6O-04034

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Cross Border Connection proposals for the Scottish Borders.

Question reference: S6W-30621

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a breakdown by type of employee, for example, communications staff, policy staff, or, for the NHS, frontline health staff, or any other staff category for which data is recorded, for the Public Sector Employment in Scotland Statistics headcount figure for (a) NHS, (b) Devolved Civil Service, (c) Police and Fire Related Services and (d) Other Public Bodies for Quarter 2 in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on the type of employee as part of the Public Sector Employment data collection.

Some of the trend information on headcount can be obtained from the data sources below:

NHS Scotland Workforce data:

Scottish Government Workforce data:

Police Officer numbers:

Please note that the statistics on Police Officer numbers are provided in terms of Full-Time Equivalent, not headcount.