Chamber and committees

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: S6W-15720

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in advance of publishing its refreshed tobacco control action plan in 2023, whether Public Health Scotland plans to update any analysis on the estimated effects of reduced smoking prevalence on the three outcomes of smoking-attributable deaths, smoking attributable hospital admissions and smoking-attributable NHS costs.

Question reference: S6O-02025

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants are working in its Constitutional Futures Division.

Question reference: S6O-01964

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will propose scheduling parliamentary time to debate strengthening the scrutiny role of the Parliament in holding the Scottish Ministers to account.

Question reference: S6W-14215

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether (a) alcohol-free and (b) low alcohol products reduce levels of alcohol harm.

Question reference: S6O-01879

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage business activity in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14216

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how alcohol-free products are defined in Scotland.

The descriptor for alcohol-free products as set out in current UK Government guidance, which applies in Scotland is:

this should only be applied to a drink from which the alcohol has been extracted if it contains no more than 0.05% ABV, and the products should also include the ABV (or state that they contain no alcohol) on the label in order to use the descriptor.

These can be found on the UK Government’s website https://www.gov.uk/

Question reference: S6W-14218

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Food Standards Scotland about updating the definitions of (a) alcohol-free and (b) low alcohol products in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has the lead for alcohol policy in Scotland. However, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has responsibility for the policies surrounding general food labelling in Scotland and work closely with policy officials across the four nations on these issues.

FSS launched a four-week consultation on 23 October 2018 to assess the current understanding and use of the descriptive terms ‘low alcohol’, ‘non-alcoholic’, ‘alcohol-free’ and ‘de alcoholised’ but unfortunately this work was paused due to matters relating to EU exit.

Question reference: S6W-14219

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government about updating the definitions of (a) alcohol-free and (b) low alcohol products in (i) Scotland and (ii) the UK as a whole.

Question reference: S6W-14217

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how low alcohol products are defined in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01806

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on avian flu, including any measures it is taking to tackle its spread.

Since the start of October 2022 there have been 18 confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in poultry and captive birds and 81 findings in wild birds in Scotland.

The Scottish Government responded to the risk of avian influenza from wild birds through the introduction of an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone in October 2022 requiring all bird keepers to follow strict biosecurity measures, and continues to remind keepers of these obligations. Scottish Government and its operational partners have a robust control strategy in place, and a proven track record in dealing effectively and rapidly with controlling outbreaks