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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: S6O-04294

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what factors it considered when determining not to introduce any new bands or increase the rates of Scottish income tax for the remainder of this parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-33592

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of the advisory non-departmental public bodies.

Question reference: S6W-33583

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of its other significant national bodies.

Question reference: S6W-33288

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the research, compilation and publication of the Building a New Scotland series of papers.

Across the Scottish Government, a range of staff have been or will be involved in independence work. We do not routinely record details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on research and compilation, as there is no business need to do this.

The Scottish Government has published the publication costs of the thirteen papers in the Building a New Scotland series, found at the following link: Building a New Scotland papers: costs - gov.scot

Preparatory work on additional material within the series has also been undertaken, adding £9,371.45. This brings the total spent on the publication of the BANS papers to £216,418.98.

Question reference: S6W-33591

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of the executive non-departmental public bodies.

Question reference: S6W-33590

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of the non-ministerial offices.

Question reference: S6W-33589

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many employees are shared across more than one of its executive agencies.

Question reference: S6W-33284

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much sponsorship funding it has provided to Nordic Horizons or associated organisations, since May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-33584

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 28 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the directorates of its (a) executive agencies, (b) non-ministerial offices, (c) executive non-departmental public bodies, (d) advisory non-departmental public bodies and (e) other significant national bodies are shared with other public bodies.

How public bodies are organised and structured depends on their status, function and the services they deliver. Public bodies determine the best way to structure their organisation to achieve their objectives, taking into consideration their own lines of accountability.

Public bodies do share services including estates, finance, digital and human resource, and the Scottish Government strongly encourages and supports this as part of public service reform programme. Further shared service development is a part of this programme. The Scottish Government is working with bodies in thematic clusters to identify further opportunities for efficiency and alignment, and empowering public bodies to deliver savings by working across the broader public sector.

Question reference: S6W-33290

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent civil servants were employed at grade (a) A3, (b) A4, (c) B1, (d) B2, (e) B3, (f) C1, (g) C2 and (h) C3, in (i) 2021-22, (ii) 2022-23, (iii) 2023-24 and (iv) 2024-25, and what the numbers are projected to be in 2025-26.

The below table shows the distribution of FTE by grade, within Scottish Government Core, for the dates requested.

SG Core FTE by Grade 21-22 to 24-25
	31-Mar-22	31-Mar-23	31-Mar-24	30-Sep-24
A3	411	369	303	276
A4	449	449	385	375
B1	1,155	1,145	1,119	1,053
B2	1,733	1,838	1,738	1,725
B3	2,021	2,127	2,188	2,316
C1	1,447	1,581	1,748	1,824
C2	707	732	795	833
C3	124	114	112	119

Following the presentation of the 25-26 Budget in Parliament, the Scottish Government are considering the impact of this for workforce projections in 25-26. These workforce projections will be regularly monitored, reviewed and updated over the course of the financial year to ensure services are delivered effectively and affordably for the people of Scotland. The total workforce for the Scottish Government has reduced in each of the last two financial years by 0.4% and 3%. To date the Scottish Government have prioritised the reduction of contingent workers, including more expensive contractors, and have done so by 40%. The 25-26 Budget included a commitment to a reduction in the number of permanent civil servants in the core Scottish Government in the 25-26 financial year.