- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to protect freedom of speech for public servants, teachers and other professionals who hold or express gender-critical views, in light of the Supreme Court ruling regarding For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers.
Answer
There are existing protections for freedom of speech and the Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination or harassment at work or in other areas of their life, because of their religious or philosophical beliefs.
The Equality Act 2010 is mainly reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Government. The regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has issued guidance on avoiding discrimination and harassment in the workplace and there is a Statutory Code of Practice on Employment.
Freedom of speech is a qualified right and the ways in which a person’s religion or belief is manifested might not be protected if this impacts on the legal rights of others, including those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, not to be discriminated against or harassed.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of social care support could have been delivered with the £30 million that was reportedly spent on developing the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
We are delivering much needed social care reform through the National Care Service, and it is a complex programme of change. The reported £28m reflects the funding allocated to developing National Care Service proposals since August 2021. The vast majority of the allocation is funding for existing Scottish Government staff and co-design work.
To put the £28m spent on the NCS into context, that is just 0.2% of the total health and social care budget on a system that we agree isn’t currently working. This is not unreasonable or a waste of investment. It includes co-design and engagement work ensuring people with lived experience of accessing and delivering social care services, social work and community health are partners in developing the National Care Service proposals.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many public body equal pay claims are outstanding, and what assessment it has made of the financial implications of these.
Answer
The information requested is not routinely gathered or held centrally by the Scottish Government. Any outstanding liabilities to settle equal pay claims will be reflected in a public body's annual accounts. Information of this nature can be obtained by approaching individual public bodies.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any implications of the delaying of downgrading elements of the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme, particularly for (a) the Port of Grangemouth and (b) other key national infrastructure.
Answer
The next steps in the process for the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme are to be undertaken by the local authority.
Should Falkirk Council confirm the scheme in its current form and wish to access further Scottish Government funding, it will be necessary to demonstrate that the scheme, in whole or phased elements, is value for money, and assessed against other flood protection schemes across Scotland.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the risk of any project delay or reduction in scope for the Grangemouth Flood Prevention Scheme arising from financial uncertainty over future years' allocations.
Answer
The Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) as proposed by the council, is exceptional in terms of scale and financial cost and requires careful consideration to ensure that it delivers for the local community.
The Scottish Government must weigh up any investment decision both in terms of the impact to the individual project, but also to the impact any individual project has on its ability to invest in other areas. As such, in 2023, Ministers and Falkirk Council agreed that the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme would be removed from consideration as part of the existing national funding agreement with local authorities for flood protection schemes because its size had a distorting effect on the affordability of the overall programme.
A Task Force approach has instead been used to examine how to take forward improved and affordable flood resilience for Falkirk and Grangemouth residents and local communities.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken any economic disruption modelling in the event of an extreme flood in the Grangemouth petrochemical complex; if so, what level of economic disruption is projected, and how this has informed prioritisation of funding decisions.
Answer
The development and delivery of flood protection schemes is a local authority responsibility. As such, the business case for Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) was prepared by Falkirk Council. This included an economic assessment of the costs and benefits of their proposed scheme.
SEPA carried out a prioritisation process for all the flood protection schemes put forward in the 2015 Flood Risk Management Plans. This prioritisation was largely based on the cost benefit ratios supplied by the relevant local authorities.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the reported overreliance of universities on international student markets for financial stability.
Answer
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has a statutory duty set out in the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 to secure the coherent provision by the post-16 education bodies (as a whole) of a high quality of fundable further education and fundable higher education. As autonomous institutions, universities have the key role in mitigating financial pressures and external risks.
The SFC monitors and assesses the financial health and the sustainability of universities through regular engagement and analysis of financial returns, which universities are required to submit to SFC each academic year. This includes consideration of a wide range of factors, including international enrolments.
We need an immigration system that supports our higher education sector to deliver the best learning, research and student experience. That is why the First Minister announced proposals for a Scottish Graduate Visa - to support a clear pathway for international students to build their careers in Scotland and contribute to our economy and wider society.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with universities regarding the enforcement of academic integrity policies, in light of the increased use of generative AI tools.
Answer
Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own academic misconduct policies, including in relation to students’ use of generative Artificial Intelligence tools.
The Scottish Government has engaged with key sector stakeholders, including the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), on the ways in which these bodies are supporting universities with use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and adaptations to academic integrity policies.
The SFC, as the body with statutory responsibility for quality assurance of provision by colleges and universities, has worked alongside the QAA to develop guidance and share best practice across the sector to address the risks and opportunities presented by generative AI tools, and their potential impact on assessments, academic integrity and standards.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting universities in accessing and deploying technology capable of detecting AI-assisted plagiarism and misconduct.
Answer
Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own academic misconduct policies. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has statutory responsibility for quality assurance of provision by colleges and universities. With the support of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the SFC is continuing to work with universities to address the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, and its potential impact on assessments, academic integrity and standards.
This includes funding provided by the SFC to JISC, who offer specialist and expert advice and guidance to institutions on accessing useful and effective tools to detect and address AI-assisted plagiarism and misconduct.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask the Scottish Funding Council to revise its teaching grant methodology, in light of reports that the current methodology does not adequately reflect institutional financial needs.
Answer
The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 establishes an important separation of roles between the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Government, whereby the statutory responsibility for decisions on funding to individual institutions sits with the SFC - not with government. However the Scottish Government continues to engage with the SFC and sector bodies on matters concerning funding allocations, including the SFC’s teaching grant.
Following discussions between the Scottish Government, SFC and Universities Scotland, the SFC’s indicative allocations for 2025-26 met an ask from Universities Scotland to remove 2,500 additional ‘SQA’ places introduced in academic year 2021-22 and repurpose the associated funding to enhance the teaching unit of resource – teaching subject prices for 2025-26 have therefore increased by 3.3% across all six subject price groups.
The Scottish Government is open to exploring the future funding model of our universities with the sector, from the clear starting point that we will not reintroduce tuition fees. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and I will continue to engage with Universities Scotland on the sector's future funding, and we welcome contributions from all stakeholders.
