Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 December 2025.
Bob Doris
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government how it supports Scotland’s living wage places to encourage the uptake of the real living wage amongst employers. (S6O-05260)
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government has a funding partnership with Living Wage Scotland going back to 2015 that supports the real living wage accreditation scheme. That has led to the establishment of five living wage places, an increase in the number of accredited employers from 14 in 2014 to more than 4,000 in 2025, and at least 72,000 workers in Scotland receiving a pay rise as a direct result of their employers’ decision to accredit. The partnership has made Scotland the best performing of the four United Kingdom nations, with the highest proportion of workers aged 18 and over being paid at least the real living wage, at 88.7 per cent against the UK average of 85.4 per cent.
Bob Doris
Scottish National Party
I congratulate the Glasgow city region, where 200 new employers have been accredited as paying the real living wage in the year to November 2025, benefiting almost 2,000 additional employees. The city region now has 1,300 accredited employers and it has ambitions to reach 2,000 in the next three years. How can the Scottish Government support that ambition, whether by working with sectors that find paying the real living wage more challenging, such as hospitality, or by helping to remove barriers such as the UK Government’s employer national insurance contribution increases?
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
I congratulate Glasgow on being a real living wage place and on the progress that the member outlined. He referred to hospitality, and fair work continues to be at the heart of our national tourism strategy. The Fair Work Convention has done a lot of work on fair work in the hospitality sector, and we continue to support and enable the adoption of fair work practices in the tourism and hospitality sectors.
We are taking a lot of other measures. I mentioned our funding partnership with Living Wage Scotland, which includes a low-pay sector strategy that involves targeted engagement with employers in sectors such as hospitality, social care, tourism and retail. A lot of work is taking place on that.
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.
