Holyrood, made browsable

Hansard

Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

129
Current MSPs
415
MSPs ever elected
13
Parties on record
2,355,091
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
Coverage span
Official Report

Search Hansard contributions

Clear
Showing 0 of 2,355,091 contributions in session S6, 17 Apr 2026 – 17 May 2026. Latest 30 days: 148. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 14 May 2026.

No contributions match those filters.

← Back to list
Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2026 [Draft]

12 Mar 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Portfolio Question Time
Defence, Aerospace and Space Sectors (Skills Shortages)
Macpherson, Ben SNP Edinburgh Northern and Leith Watch on SPTV

The Scottish Government is delivering a programme to reform the post-school education and skills system, in which the 2026-27 Scottish budget will invest more than £2.4 billion. There are more than 14,000 full-time-equivalent college students on engineering courses, and we are working with regional partners and industry to support that.

Engineering and energy-related apprenticeships are already a priority for Skills Development Scotland, and they comprise 8 per cent of new apprenticeship starts and 15 per cent of all modern apprenticeships in training in the year 2024-25. Those skills support many sectors, including the defence, aerospace and space sectors.

In the same item of business

3. Audrey Nicoll (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP) SNP
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to colleges and universities to address skills shortages in the defence, aerospace and space sect...
The Minister for Higher and Further Education (Ben Macpherson) SNP
The Scottish Government is delivering a programme to reform the post-school education and skills system, in which the 2026-27 Scottish budget will invest mor...
Audrey Nicoll SNP
The strategic importance of the aerospace, defence and space industries to Scotland cannot be overstated, as they add £3.7 billion to the economy and current...
Ben Macpherson SNP
The member raises important points. I should note to the Parliament that I met the sector this year to discuss many of these issues. I am aware of the contri...
Beatrice Wishart (Shetland Islands) (LD) LD
The First Minister will have seen on his recent visit to SaxaVord spaceport the impressive progress that is being made at the most northernly space project i...
Ben Macpherson SNP
The member is right to highlight the importance of the sector and its future potential growth, the necessity of making sure that we are skilling workers in o...