First Minister’s Questions 18th December 2025

Podcasts By The Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament

Government

4.8 • 25 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

The First Minister answers questions from Party Leaders and other MSPs in this weekly question time.Topics covered this week include: David TorranceTo ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to support households with the cost of living this winter. Tim Eagle To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the partial collapse of the Spey Viaduct, including what support it can offer to Moray Council in responding to the immediate consequences and the next steps for the local community. Monica LennonTo ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the recent EIS findings that young people with additional support needs are being let down, and teachers are experiencing stress due to inadequate resourcing, in light of the reported reduction of nearly 20% in specialist ASN staff since 2010, despite a rise of over 710% in the number of pupils requiring such support since 2007. Beatrice Wishart To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s position is on local authorities, which host renewable energy infrastructure, receiving Scottish Crown Estate revenue allocations, such as a share of the income from ScotWind projects. A full transcript of this week's First Minister's Questions will be available on the Scottish Parliament website: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report

Transcript

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0:00.0	general questions. The next item of business is First Minister's questions. I call Russell Finley
0:04.3	at question number one. On September 16th, the Justice Secretary misrepresented Professor
0:12.5	Alexis Jay to justify the SNP's opposition to a grooming gang's inquiry. For months
0:19.0	in public and in Parliament, she denied any wrongdoing. But we now know
0:24.6	that Angela Constance apologised to Professor Jay on the 1st of December. She knew that she
0:31.6	was wrong all along, but she tried to get away with it. Yesterday, a full nine weeks later,
0:42.3	Angela Constance was forced to finally come clean.
0:46.3	Does John Swinney believe that Angela Constance tried to correct the record
0:50.3	at the earliest possible opportunity. First Minister.
0:57.8	I think the events of the last few weeks a month demonstrate that Angela Constance has set
1:05.7	out to Parliament the position of the Government and where there has been a necessity for
1:09.8	further information to be provided, she has done exactly that.
1:14.0	The Justice Secretary spent the best part of two hours yesterday at committee explaining
1:20.3	all of these issues and addressing the very issues that Mr. Finley is putting to me this morning.
1:25.9	The information has been dragged out of the Justice Secretary.
1:31.2	Paragraph 1.7 of the ministerial code is crystal clear, and I'll read it out for John
1:37.4	Swinney's benefit.
1:38.3	It states that ministers must give an quote, accurate and truthful information to Parliament
1:43.0	correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest
1:46.4	opportunity. Angela Constance blatantly and brazenly decided not to correct the record
1:54.6	at the earliest possible opportunity. How can John Swinney pretend to himself and to the public that Angela Constance
2:03.6	has not breached the ministerial code?
	...

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