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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: S6F-03857

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the recent study by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit regarding the contribution of the net zero sector to the UK and Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S6W-34485

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 31 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on ScotRail fares for 2025.

From 1 April 2025, all ScotRail fares will increase by 3.8%, including season tickets and flexipasses.

We want more people to choose to travel by public transport for work, study and leisure but we know that people are still struggling with cost-of-living pressures and don’t always see public transport as affordable or attractive. That is why we have kept the rise this year as low as possible, while also supporting the generation of sufficient revenue to help maintain existing services, and contribute towards investment in infrastructure and fleets.

We are also continuing our 20% discounts on season tickets until September 2025 as planned.

Flexipass will also continue to offer 12 single (6 return) journeys and has recently been expanded to include the following stations: Exhibition Centre (Glasgow), Anderston, Motherwell, High Street (Glasgow), Charing Cross (Glasgow), Perth, Stirling, and Bathgate.

Question reference: S6W-32511

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how often the Lord Advocate’s instructions have been used to protect victims of human trafficking and exploitation since the commencement of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015.

The Lord Advocate’s instructions for non-prosecution of victims of human trafficking | COPFS were first published in May 2016 and the manual collation of data commenced at that stage.

As of 6 January 2025, proceedings involving 188 individuals, who were reported to the National Lead Prosecutor for Human Trafficking in accordance with the instructions, were not raised or were discontinued on the basis that the two-part test in the Lord Advocate’s instructions was satisfied.

The information is provided under the caveats that:

?A decision to discontinue proceedings can be taken at any time during a proceeding. Therefore, although the National Lead Prosecutor has not discontinued proceedings against an accused person, that may not be the final decision. Should further information become available, such as a positive Conclusive Grounds Decision, the National Lead Prosecutor may decide to discontinue proceedings on receipt of that information.

The data is manually collated and so whilst the data is as accurate as it can be, full accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
The data changes constantly depending on when new information is received.

Question reference: S6W-32502

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has allocated to services and programmes over the last five years aimed at (a) early intervention in response to and (b) the prevention of criminal exploitation of children.

Question reference: S6W-32499

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with representatives of (a) the justice, (b) the social work, (c) the education, (d) the health sector and (d) other professional sectors regarding dealing with the criminal exploitation of children, also broken down by what training it provides.

Question reference: S6W-32501

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives there are to inform (a) children, (b) parents and (c) the public regarding the awareness, signs and risks of the criminal exploitation of children and where to seek help should they have concerns regarding this.

Question reference: S6W-32503

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been identified as victims of criminal exploitation in each of the last five years.

Data on the number of children identified as victims of criminal exploitation is drawn from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM is the UK-wide framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and ensuring they receive appropriate support and assistance.

Information from the NRM is released by the Home Office Single Competent Authority quarterly and in an end of year summary. Data relating to the last five years can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.

Question reference: S6W-32508

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that the justice system treats children who are criminally exploited as victims rather than offenders, and how justice professionals and their colleagues in child protection teams communicate and share information with each other to ensure that the children involved are identified and supported.

Question reference: S6W-32510

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve coordination and information sharing between the justice, social services and education sectors, other statutory agencies and the third sector to address the criminal exploitation of children.

Question reference: S6W-32498

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the (a) UK Government, (b) Welsh Government, and (c) Northern Ireland Executive regarding how to respond to the criminal exploitation of children, and whether it is developing a coordinated approach to deal with cross-border issues that have arisen in relation to this issue.