Part of Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:30 pm on 4 December 2025.
Jenny Gilruth
Scottish National Party
2:30,
4 December 2025
I very much recognise Maggie Chapman’s strength of feeling on the issue, which I share. Earlier this year, I visited Glasgow City Council’s ESOL curricular network in a school in Glasgow, and I heard from staff and pupils learning English as an additional language about the fantastic work that is under way across the city of Glasgow, which demonstrates the approach to inclusion and integration that is pivotal in our communities.
The Government has announced £200,000 of funding for work with the Scottish Trades Union Congress on the united workplaces project, which is supporting our trade unions to promote equality and diversity in the workplace. Wider work is also under way, including through Time for Inclusive Education and the digital discourse initiative, which is working with schools to empower teachers to respond to some of those challenging issues more broadly. The issues have also been raised with me by the teaching trade unions, and we will continue to work with Education Scotland to best support our teaching workforce in responding to some of those challenging topics in schools.
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.
