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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-34129

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on legal advice and representation for current and former ministers in relation to public inquiries in the last 10 years, broken down by inquiry.

There are at present five ongoing Scottish statutory public inquiries, and a number of UK statutory inquires which could seek evidence from ministers in Scotland. The Edinburgh Trams Inquiry reported in September 2023 following hearings in 2017-2018 and the Penrose Inquiry reported in 2015, albeit from the records available we do not believe that external legal advice was taken in connection with those inquiries which falls within the scope of this question. The amount spent by the Scottish Government on external legal advice, including representation for current and former ministers, in relation to public inquiries is as follows:

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry	£1,191,298 inclusive of VAT
The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry	£20,160 inclusive of VAT
The Covid-19 Inquiries	There have been no legal costs for current or former ministers for the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry. For the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, we do not hold a breakdown of legal costs per witness. £2,123,692 inclusive of VAT
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry	£673,942 inclusive of VAT
The Eljamel Inquiry	No such costs have been incurred to date.
Infected Blood Inquiry	£432,045 inclusive of VAT between 2018/19 and 2024/25[1]

To note, we are unable to cost the Government’s internal legal advice provided by the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.

[1] These figures are for overall legal advice or support for the Scottish Government and former staff or Ministers, and include some travel and accommodation costs for travel to hearings in London.

Question reference: S6W-34144

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many speeding offences on trunk roads the procurator fiscal decided to take no further action in relation to, in each year since 2018, broken down by the (a) reason for the decision and (b) trunk road.

As referenced in the answer to S6W-34140 on 20 February 2025, the format in which locus information is recorded and in particular whether the locus for each case is a trunk road or otherwise would require a manual check of each case. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-34020

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many Parliament passes have been reported lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34011

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many flags it has purchased in each of the last 15 years, and what flags were purchased.

Question reference: S6W-34017

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost of gardening and landscaping services has been in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34013

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many of any flags that it owns have (a) gone missing and (b) been wilfully damaged in each of the last 15 years.

Question reference: S6W-34001

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what bee disease mitigation measures it has in place.

The beekeeper takes measures to prevent diseases and pests, maintains the hygiene and safety of the bee colonies and ensures that all disease prevention treatments are provided. This includes checking for notifiable pests and diseases, which if found would be reported to the Honey Bee Health Inspectors.

The beekeeper maintains accurate beekeeping records, carries out hive inspections during the summer months and provides appropriate care and/or preventative maintenance as required.

Question reference: S6W-34015

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many desk chairs it has purchased, and what the total cost of this has been, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34006

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much has been spent on new and replacement (a) televisions and (b) monitors in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-34008

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the average occupancy rate of the Parliament crèche has been in each of the last five years.

We can’t easily calculate an occupancy rate for the creche, as the overall capacity of the creche varies depending on the ages of the children using it and the required staffing ratios (i.e. 0-2 years requires 1 staff member to every 3 children, 2-3 years requires 1 staff member to every 5 children, 3-5 years requires 1 staff member to every 8 children).

In terms of overall usage, in 2019/20 the creche had a total of 2759 bookings with average length of stay of 1hr 41mins. In 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, the creche service was closed due to the pandemic and the time required to set up a new service contract. In 2023/24, the creche returned with reduced opening hours (now only operating 3 days per week, rather than 5 day per week). There were 894 bookings in 2023/24 with an average length of stay of 2hr 13mins. The number of bookings in 2023/24 only reflect 10 months of opening, as the service was still being mobilised for the first 2 months of the year.