Holyrood, made browsable
Government accountability
Written questions only — average time-to-answer per minister, slowest responders, and the oldest still-unanswered questions. Oral questions (FMQs, portfolio, topical) are answered in the chamber and excluded here.
Oversight metrics
How quickly ministers answer
Written questions only. Oral questions (FMQ, portfolio, topical) are answered live in the chamber — they don't carry a written reply timestamp, so they'd skew the "unanswered" count.
Written questions submitted
6,807
Answered
6,317
Unanswered
490
Avg time to answer
15.8 days
Most-answered ministers
| Minister | Answered | Avg days | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angela Constance | 677 | 16.2 | 0–35 |
| Neil Gray | 585 | 12.9 | 0–29 |
| Stephen Flynn | 501 | 16.7 | 1–33 |
| Gillian Martin | 496 | 14.6 | 1–40 |
| Maree Todd | 490 | 19.6 | 1–41 |
| Jim Fairlie | 395 | 15.6 | 1–39 |
| Shirley-Anne Somerville | 361 | 15.0 | 1–41 |
| Mairi McAllan | 339 | 18.9 | 1–58 |
| Tom Arthur | 302 | 13.5 | 1–31 |
| Ivan McKee | 253 | 14.4 | 1–132 |
| Stephen Gethins | 222 | 17.6 | 1–68 |
| Jenny Gilruth | 214 | 17.8 | 1–38 |
| Jenni Minto | 165 | 12.0 | 0–25 |
| Hannah Mary Goodlad | 160 | 19.0 | 2–33 |
| Fiona Hyslop | 155 | 12.2 | 1–30 |
| Siobhian Brown | 147 | 14.1 | 4–31 |
| Kirsten Oswald | 144 | 17.8 | 3–40 |
| Alison Thewliss | 106 | 16.7 | 1–28 |
| Ben Macpherson | 103 | 19.1 | 1–35 |
| Mairi Gougeon | 66 | 10.7 | 6–26 |
| Simita Kumar | 60 | 16.4 | 1–28 |
| Shona Robison | 55 | 16.2 | 1–58 |
| Alyn Smith | 52 | 17.8 | 1–31 |
| Kate Forbes | 46 | 11.3 | 0–28 |
| Richard Lochhead | 40 | 12.4 | 1–28 |
| Angus Robertson | 40 | 16.9 | 6–41 |
| Natalie Don-Innes | 31 | 11.6 | 1–22 |
| Kaukab Stewart | 27 | 11.2 | 6–26 |
| Graeme Dey | 24 | 13.5 | 7–28 |
| Jamie Hepburn | 18 | 13.5 | 1–26 |
Slowest to answer
Min. 20 answered questions in scope.
- Maree Todd 19.6 days · 490 qs
- Ben Macpherson 19.1 days · 103 qs
- Hannah Mary Goodlad 19.0 days · 160 qs
- Mairi McAllan 18.9 days · 339 qs
- Jenny Gilruth 17.8 days · 214 qs
- Alyn Smith 17.8 days · 52 qs
- Kirsten Oswald 17.8 days · 144 qs
- Stephen Gethins 17.6 days · 222 qs
- Angus Robertson 16.9 days · 40 qs
- Stephen Flynn 16.7 days · 501 qs
- Alison Thewliss 16.7 days · 106 qs
- Simita Kumar 16.4 days · 60 qs
- Shona Robison 16.2 days · 55 qs
- Angela Constance 16.2 days · 677 qs
- Jim Fairlie 15.6 days · 395 qs
Oldest unanswered questions