General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 9 October 2025.
Jackson Carlaw
Conservative
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with Glasgow City Council regarding its proposals for an “at-city-boundary congestion charge” and a toll on the Clyde tunnel. (S6O-05047)
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government has not held specific discussions with Glasgow City Council regarding any potential at-city-boundary charge or regarding any toll charge to use the Clyde tunnel.
Jackson Carlaw
Conservative
Perhaps the Cabinet secretary might urgently do so, because my Eastwood constituents would be unfairly charged by the Scottish National Party-run council every time they crossed the local authority boundary by car for work, university, college, family or social reasons. For example, every time they went to the Queen Elizabeth university hospital for essential medical care, they would be charged for crossing the city boundary.
Moreover, if every other local authority followed suit, we would have, in effect, a series of custom posts all over Scotland, with people being charged every time they crossed a city or council boundary anywhere in Scotland. That would be a disaster for the economy and a completely unrealistic and unfair burden on motorists.
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
It was my understanding that the Conservatives wanted to have more decentralisation and more powers for councils—[ Interruption .]
Alison Johnstone
Green
Let us hear the Cabinet secretary.
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
However, Jackson Carlaw now wants me to step in on an issue that should best be resolved by East Renfrewshire Council and Glasgow City Council. I remind him that there is existing legislation—the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which was introduced by the then Labour and Lib Dem Executive—on road user charging powers. It is up to local authorities to make decisions, and they want to manage their own road space, maintenance and congestion. If he does not believe that local authorities should be in charge of their own authorities, perhaps there are even more divisions in the Conservative Party than we realised.
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.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
