Part of Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 December 2025.
Fulton MacGregor
Scottish National Party
This week, I met representatives of four small local businesses that had been based on Main Street in Coatbridge but had been forced to relocate in what they had been told was an emergency due to the presence of RAAC in an adjoining property.
That has led to massive financial and personal costs to those businesses, whose operators tell me that they have no financial support and very little practical support from the council, despite them believing that support had been promised at a previous council meeting and despite them having taken, in good faith, the advice that the council gave them. The council says that the businesses do not fit the criteria for any of its current grants. Surely that is not right. Those businesses support a town centre that is already in trouble, and they provide valuable employment.
What more can the Scottish Government do to enable local authorities to provide support to businesses in such exceptional circumstances, thereby reducing the risk of our high streets going into further decline?
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.
