First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 December 2025.
Clare Adamson
Scottish National Party
Scotland is the only United Kingdom nation that is seeing a reduction in deaths by suicide. Front-line organisations credit early Intervention and strong partnership working. I see that in the community action network that I facilitate in Motherwell and Wishaw. How will the Government promote best practice and ensure that suicide rates continue to fall in Scotland?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
We—the Government and society—must be very active in doing all that we can to prevent suicide in our society. We have been working in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the “Creating Hope Together” strategy, which is delivered through Suicide Prevention Scotland and which is focused on tackling the prevalence of suicide and the inequalities that so often lead to it. I assure Clare Adamson that the Government will continue to have that focus in the suicide prevention action plan for 2026-29, which will be published early in the new year, in order to continue that important work.
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.
An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.
