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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 MSPs 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

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Question reference: S6W-41712

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has paid in total in carbon levies on business flights in each of the last three financial years, broken down by ministerial portfolio.

Question reference: S6W-41713

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the money collected from the carbon levy on its business flights has been spent on in each of the last three financial years, broken down, for each funded project, by the (a) project name and location, (b) delivery partner, (c) carbon standard used, (d) cost, (e) verified or estimated CO2 reduction and (f) cost per tonne of CO2.

Question reference: S6W-41711

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40762 by Gillian Martin on 9 October 2025, what carbon levy on business flights was charged and paid in respect of ministerial and official travel to (a) Japan between 15 and 19 September 2025 and (b) New York between 20 and 24 September 2025, broken down by (i) traveller category and (ii) flight segment, and what the associated estimated CO2 emissions were for each leg.

The carbon levy collected in respect of Ministerial and official travel is listed in the following table. The levy is applied to Ministerial and official travel booked via the Scottish Governments travel agent.

Traveler	Segment	Levy Amount	CO2 (Tonnes)
Cab Sec	Edinburgh to Doha	£15	0.649
Cab Sec	Doha to Tokyo	£15	0.903
Officials x2	Glasgow to Dubai	£30	1.4
Officials x2	Dubai to Tokyo,	£30	1.7
Officials x2	Tokyo to Dubai	£30	1.7
Officials x2	Dubai to Glasgow	£30	1.4

Cab Sec	Tokyo to New York	£15	2.7
Cab Sec	New York to Glasgow	£15	1.7
Officials x2	Edinburgh to New York	£30	1.2
Officials x2	New York to Edinburgh	£30	1.2

Question reference: S6O-05129

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the culture secretary has met with STV following recent reports of its plan to close its North of Scotland news programme.

Question reference: S6F-04416

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2025

To ask the First Minister when the Scottish Government will announce a timetable for improvement works on the A96 north of Inverurie, following the publication of its corridor review consultation report.

Question reference: S6O-05111

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase the current threshold of 50MW for approval by its Energy Consents Unit of onshore electricity generating stations, to allow more decisions to be taken by local planning authorities.

Question reference: S6O-05058

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the potential impact on regional economies and employment, what assessment it has made of the extent to which projected transmission-related job opportunities are dependent on the consenting outcome for proposed overhead line projects within the current network upgrade programme.

Question reference: S6W-40916

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 21 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had since 1 January 2024 with accommodation providers contracted by the UK Government, regarding the accommodation in Scotland of people seeking asylum, including those providing floating accommodation, broken down by the (a) name of provider and (b) dates of engagement.

Scottish Government officials attend regular meetings of the Asylum and Refugee Partnership Board (ARPB) and associated Delivery and Procurement Group, at which representatives of Mears Group are generally also present. Mears Group is the current UK Government asylum accommodation contract holder for Scotland.

Asylum is a matter reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes provision of asylum accommodation to people who require it while awaiting the outcome of their asylum application. The Scottish Government has no control of asylum accommodation and support.

The Minister for Housing and the I met with the Managing Director of Mears Group on 19 June 2024 regarding asylum accommodation in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40770

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether remote participation was considered as an alternative to in-person attendance for the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy's engagements in (a) Japan and (b) New York in September 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40761

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost is of the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy’s official travel to (a) Japan and (b) New York in September 2025, broken down by (i) flights, including class of travel, (ii) accommodation, by night, (iii) subsistence and other expenses, (iv) any alcohol purchases and (v) costs for accompanying officials.