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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.

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Question reference: S6O-05152

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is currently provided to local authorities to improve literacy, numeracy, and outcomes for young people, while tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

Question reference: S6O-05091

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting path networks established under land reform legislation for outdoor recreation.

Question reference: S6F-04377

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the First Minister, following Scotland’s Global Investment Summit 2025, whether he will provide an update on the Scottish Government’s work to attract international investment into Scotland’s economy.

Question reference: S6O-04986

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting current, and developing future, supply chain opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

We are working across public sector delivery partners, and with industry and the supply chain to deliver the ambition set out in the Green Industrial Strategy to realise the benefits from growing our renewables sector.

Our approach includes our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years, expected to leverage private investment of £1.5 billion in offshore wind infrastructure and manufacturing facilities; our Just Transition Fund supporting companies to move into the renewable sector, and a commitment with the onshore wind industry to develop a specialist blade treatment facility in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-40340

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress made in the further decarbonisation of Scotland's suburban rail services, and what plans it has to replace the rolling stock currently operating on ScotRail’s suburban services.

I can confirm that the next phase in Scotland’s programme to decarbonise the railway network will involve the electrification of sections on the Fife and Borders railways. Works are already underway, with significant progress being made on the electrification of the line between Haymarket and Dalmeny. This forms part of the Scottish Government’s sustained investment in Scotland’s rail infrastructure and represents the initial phase of enabling works for the future electrification of the Fife Circle services.

The Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to electrification supports the deployment of electric and battery-electric trains. I can further confirm that ScotRail has been authorised to initiate a procurement exercise for a new electric Suburban Fleet. This procurement will facilitate the replacement of trains currently operating on the Borders Railway and in Fife, as well as replace some of Glasgow’s Suburban trains. ScotRail expects to issue a contract notice for the Suburban Fleets in Autumn 2025.

This latest Scottish Government investment will be in excess of £342 million and demonstrates our continuing commitment to making Scotland’s railway even greener, with greater capacity and reliability.

Question reference: S6W-38978

Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland has made progress on implementing "a national review of freight parking/rest areas" in line with recommendation 36 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2), and when it expects to publish the findings of any such review.

STPR2 forms the Scottish Government’s long term plans for future transport investment. It must be recognised that it is not possible to take forward all 45 STPR2 recommendations at the same time.

Whilst work on recommendation 36 is still to begin, my officials have been undertaking preparatory work on the scope of the review.

They have been engaged with, and are learning from, the UK’s Department for Transport’s recently completed, Task and Finish Group. This was an industry lead group which has had two key focuses, the first was development of a set of secure parking standards for lorry parks and rest stops. The second related to the development of new sites and the challenges and opportunities this presents. On this latter task the Road Haulage Association have been chairing the group which included a wide range of industry stakeholders. Whilst planning matters in England and Wales are different to those in Scotland, there were many parallels that can be drawn from this that have been helpful in shaping the scope of future Scottish-based work.

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-32513

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 (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 regarding children who have been criminally exploited.