Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 1880 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-40778

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 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what subjects were discussed at the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy's meeting with the Chief Financial Officer of SSEN Transmission on 17 March 2025, including whether any live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications were referenced, and which projects these were.

I was invited to attend the event at the Had Fab factory to celebrate the awarding of a non-government contract by SSEN to partner companies to manufacture pylons. This represented significant investment in Scotland’s manufacturing and supply chain.

There was no agenda item to discuss live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications.

The Ministerial Code clearly states that “the Planning Minister or any other Minister involved in the planning decision, must do nothing which might be seen as prejudicial to that process, particularly in advance of the decision being taken. Action that might be viewed as being prejudicial includes expressing an opinion publicly on a particular case which is before, or may subsequently be referred to, the Minister(s) for decision”.

It also states that a Minister cannot comment on decisions once they have been issued, other than in terms of what has appeared in the decision letter.

Any meetings that Ministers have with network companies are part of ongoing engagement with industry and follow the same principle.

Question reference: S6W-40639

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans are in place should the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme not achieve its expected (a) uptake and (b) outcomes, and what anonymised, regular datasets on this it plans to publish to support scrutiny of progress towards meeting these.

Question reference: S6W-40627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to achieve employer recognition and use of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme among offshore operators, wind developers and tier-one contractors.

Question reference: S6O-05055

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent reports of a rise in recorded bullying incidents in schools.

Question reference: S6O-05025

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £20 million Housing Infrastructure Fund that was launched in 2016, as part of the 10-year Aberdeen City Region Deal, has been spent.

Question reference: S6W-40474

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the original commitment of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project to spend £200 million by 2026 to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, whether it will confirm (a) how much has been spent by the project so far, and on what specific areas of work, (b) what the projected final cost of the project is and (c) by what date (i) work on the project will be completed and (ii) the reduced journey times will be fully operational.

To 19/7/2025, £24.5m has been spent on schemes to reduce journey times between Aberdeen on the central Belt.

This includes £6.8m on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. This was a nine-month programme of alignment work to replace a curved section of track by installing a new single line and also remodelling the junction at Barnhill by replacing switches and crossings.

The remainder of the spend has been on design development of a package of enhancements to improve capacity and journey time including: Signalling works, enhancements at Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee stations, and freight loops.

The estimated cost of constructing all of the interventions necessary to deliver the project outputs sought by the project reference group is estimated at £242 million.

Delivery timescales for the project remain under review. It is planned that project delivery and thus benefit delivery will be staged to align with planned Network Rail renewals and other enhancement schemes such as Fife Electrification and replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.

Question reference: S6W-40376

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services have been (a) cancelled, (b) part-cancelled and (c) delayed by at least (i) one minute, (ii) 15 minutes, (iii) 30 minutes and (iv) 60 minutes in (A) each of the last three financial years and (B) 2025-26 to date, and how many of these were attributed to (1) air conditioning/cooling failures, (2) other rolling-stock defects, (3) train crew availability, (4) infrastructure or signalling faults, (5) the weather and (6) other causes, also broken down by ScotRail service group.

Question reference: S6T-02667

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Nuclear Industry Association's reported view that Scotland will miss out on thousands of new jobs due to its stance on nuclear energy.

Question reference: S6W-39595

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers last met with (a) Shell UK Limited, (b) ExxonMobil, (c) the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and (d) the Health and Safety Executive to discuss the Mossmorran complex, and what issues were discussed on each occasion.

The former Minister for Climate Action last met with representatives of the Shell Natural Gas Liquids plant, and Exxonmobil Fife Ethylene Plant on 28 October 2024. The Minister discussed with the businesses, their views on Just Transition planning, their long-term plans, as well as wider matters regarding participation in the Acorn project and engagement with the UK Government regarding the Track process.

Scottish Government Ministers have not met with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or the Health and Safety Executive in that last 4 years to specifically discuss the Mossmorran industrial complex.

Question reference: S6W-39597

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received on which upstream fields supply feedstock directly to the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant, and how many tonnes each field supplied in financial years (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24, (c) 2024-25 and (d) 2025 to date.