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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-25905

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what role Regional Land Use Partnerships will play in its proposed Land Reform Bill.

The Scottish Government recognises land is one of our most valuable assets. That is why the Scottish Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement articulates the Scottish Government’s vision for the ownership, use and management of land, setting out how we see the balance between the rights of landowners, managers, local communities and society at large.

Moving forwards the legislative requirements, such as those set out in the proposals for the upcoming Land Reform Bill and other voluntary based measure such as the Scottish Land Commission’s Good Practice programme, will all play an important role in meeting our objectives for land reform. Whilst the Regional Land Use Partnership (RLUPs) pilots were established to test and explore locally appropriate approaches to land use, the scope of the pilots was not to consider or challenge matters of land ownership or rights and responsibilities.

Question reference: S6W-25903

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to conduct a review into the effectiveness of Regional Land Use Partnerships in relation to their ability to address the climate and biodiversity crises.

Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs) pilots have been asked to adopt a natural capital approach to their work. This allows the pilot regions to explore how regional opportunities and priorities for land use can enhance, protect, mitigate and adapt to areas of national importance such as biodiversity and climate change.

The Scottish Government is currently working with the RLUP pilot regions as we seek to understand and evaluate the progress of the pilot programme as a whole.

Question reference: S6W-25462

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-03036 by Angela Constance on 31 January 2024, whether the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs is aware of the reported correspondence between the recognised trade union at HMP Kilmarnock, Community, and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), in which the union explicitly states its concerns, regarding the transfer of the prison, on behalf of its members, and whether the (a) cabinet secretary and (b) SPS has responded to these concerns.

Question reference: S6O-03210

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Scotland’s further education sector is aligned with the needs of businesses within the renewables sector and other industries associated with the green economy.

Question reference: S6F-02891

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2024

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government can take to help encourage children into sport and cultivate future world class athletes, in light of the recent successes of Josh Kerr and Jemma Reekie at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.

Question reference: S6W-25460

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6T-01780 by Angela Constance on 6 February 2024, what evidence was used to support its decision not to retender the contract for HMP Kilmarnock, and whether the current operator's reported offer to construct a new 240-bed wing at no public cost was considered as part of this process.

The 25-year contract for HMP Kilmarnock under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for a privately constructed and operationally managed prison expires on 16 March 2024. The decision to bring HMP Kilmarnock into public management and ownership and not to tender for a new private contract was taken in 2021. This decision was based on the Scottish Government policy, which has been in place since 2007, that prisons should be owned and managed by the public sector and public safety, rehabilitation and wellbeing should not be driven by private profit.

Procurement regulations mean that it was not possible to extend the existing contract. Scottish Government would have had to tender for the management of the prison, and for any expansion in capacity, if that had been the preferred option.

At no stage was there an offer of building a new houseblock at no cost to the public purse.

Question reference: S6W-25458

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-03036 by Angela Constance on 31 January 2024, whether the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs is aware that the Scottish Prison Service reportedly plans to derecognise Community as HMP Kilmarnock’s recognised trade union, and what the Scottish Government's position is on such a decision.

The Scottish Government is aware of the Scottish Prison Service’s (SPS) intention to maintain existing trade union arrangements for public sector prisons and the transferring staffing group will be covered by those existing arrangements.

It is SPS’s view that their existing trade union relationships are working well and that to recognise a further trade union with collective bargaining rights for the same group of staff, i.e. prison officers, would unnecessarily complicate the trade union landscape.

Question reference: S6W-25461

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the total anticipated costs associated with the transfer of HMP Kilmarnock into the public sector.

The anticipated spend on the HMP Kilmarnock transition project for 2023-24 is £1.5m.

In 2024-25, the total running costs of HMP Kilmarnock are anticipated around £18.6m, to accommodate around 600 people. This figure excludes the uplift for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 pay rise which is currently being processed. Final costs will depend on the date of any harmonisation of the existing staff group to SPS terms and conditions, and the actual spending within the financial year.

The price of the HMP Kilmarnock contract in the final year of the contract (year 25) is £19.5m for 596 prisoner places. This figure does not include the direct public sector costs of managing, monitoring and supporting the contract. There is no comparable price for private operation of HMP Kilmarnock in 2024-25 as the contract would have been retendered in this scenario using different pricing models. Hypothetically, if the existing terms of the contract went into a notional 26 th year, indexation of around 5.1% would have been applied.

Question reference: S6W-25459

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-03036 by Angela Constance on 31 January 2024, what assessment it has made of the anticipated (a) safety, (b) security, (c) care and (d) rehabilitation implications of its decision to bring HMP Kilmarnock into public ownership, and whether it will publish any such assessments.

Question reference: S6O-03036

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it used as the basis for its decision to bring HMP Kilmarnock into public ownership.