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-39607

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency arrangements it has in place to support households that are reliant on (a) heating oil and (b) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the event of supply disruptions during winter 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-39640

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on local authority housing, including for repairs and new housebuilding, in the North Ayrshire local authority area, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-39679

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce drug testing of public waste water to better map so-called "hot spots".

Question reference: S6W-39687

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned into the effects of nitazenes and their prevalence in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39608

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the potential role of (a) bio-derived heating oil and (b) renewable or bio-liquefied petroleum gas (BioLPG) as transitional fuels for rural off-gas-grid properties, and what its position is on promoting the uptake of such fuels.

Question reference: S6W-39666

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jim Fairlie on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it provides any support to community transport operators to allow them to invest in zero emission vehicles and charging infrastructure.

The community transport sector provides many of our most vulnerable groups with access to essential goods and services and to social or leisure activities.

These services assist those who can’t or don’t use conventional public transport, providing ways to help them connect better with their local areas and wider communities. I recognise that these organisations may not be able to access finance afforded to commercial entities so I am pleased to announce that we will be launching a further round of our successful Plugged-in-Communities fund with a current budget of £4 million in 2025-26 which will be administered again by Energy Saving Trust.

Question reference: S6W-39690

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Kate Forbes on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm consenting application.

It is not normally the case that Parliament is informed of determinations on consenting applications. However, given that Parliament is in recess and that the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm consenting application of significant interest and of strategic importance, I considered it appropriate and helpful to proactively inform Parliament of the decision made in relation to this application.

I can therefore advise that Scottish Ministers have today granted consent to the application for the Berwick Bank Offshore Windfarm which will be located in the North Sea in the outer Firth of Forth. It will be one of the world’s largest windfarms and will have an estimated capacity of 4.1GW. This decision has been taken after careful and lengthy consideration of the project’s potential environmental impact and its potential impacts on other users of the sea.

This decision is a major step in Scotland’s progress towards achieving net zero and tackling the climate crisis, as well as supporting national energy security and growing our green economy. Increasing renewable energy generation is critical to meeting our climate change targets, with climate change being one of the biggest threats to Scotland’s biodiversity and health of its marine ecosystems.

We are requiring that the developer must deliver environmental compensation to address the environmental impacts of this windfarm, alongside measures which will mitigate and minimise impacts to other sea users. The Scottish Government will work with SSE Renewables and stakeholders on proposed environmental compensatory measures required to address the impacts of the project.

Offshore wind is already one of Scotland’s greatest modern success stories – we now have the opportunity to deliver a potential offshore wind pipeline of over 40 GW putting us at the forefront of offshore wind development globally. This is the right decision for Scotland’s interests and will help to deliver significant benefits for our nation.

The determination paperwork can be found here: .

Question reference: S6W-39373

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 31 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much it spent on Microsoft 365 licences in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S6W-39625

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 27 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the level of joint working between local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-39619

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 27 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the utilisation of hemp cake for animal feed as a home-grown alternative to imported soya cake.