General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 23 January 2025.
Evelyn Tweed
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting community efforts to preserve built heritage, ancient monuments and archaeological sites. (S6O-04240)
Tom Arthur
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government delivers support for the historic environment through our sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland, the lead public body responsible for preserving, maintaining and promoting the historic environment.
Through part of the £13.5 million that HES delivers in annual grants, it has been able to support numerous projects such as funding volunteers to uncover, record and recover the balance of the bedrock at Balfron, and a volunteer training programme to capacity build local members and volunteers of the Bannockburn House Trust with regard to basic restoration and traditional building methods.
Evelyn Tweed
Scottish National Party
The BBC’s “Digging for Britain” recently featured volunteers from the rescuers of Old Kilmadock and archaeologist Dr Murray Cook, following the discovery and preservation of a Pictish stone near Doune. Will the Minister join me in congratulating them on their work and advise what steps are being taken to encourage more volunteers to work in that area?
Tom Arthur
Scottish National Party
I am pleased to congratulate the ROOK volunteers on their important discovery. For Scotland’s historic environment, volunteers are essential. The Make Your Mark national volunteer campaign was an outcome of Scotland’s first strategy for the historic environment, and volunteering has remained a key priority in the revised strategy—“Our Past, Our Future: The Strategy for Scotland’s Historic Environment”—to empower resilient and inclusive communities and places.
Historic Environment Scotland is an Investing in Volunteers-accredited organisation. We aim to increase the number and diversity of heritage volunteers in Scotland, while promoting volunteering opportunities, connecting co-ordinators nationwide, sharing inclusive practice and evidencing impacts to lobby for funding. Make Your Mark also plays an important role in contributing to the wider reach of volunteering in Scotland, through the lens of the Scottish Government’s commitment to volunteering and Scotland’s volunteering action plan.
Alison Johnstone
Green
I ask Miles Briggs for a concise question 8.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
