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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-36879

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of children and young people who walk, wheel or cycle to school.

Question reference: S6W-36812

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its civil servants earning above £50,000 are registered as taxpayers elsewhere in the UK.

Question reference: S6W-36862

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency planning it has undertaken to mitigate the impact of any reduced international student recruitment on university finances.

Question reference: S6W-36872

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported warning from Scottish Care that half of all residential and nursing care homes could close within a year, and what urgent action it is taking in response.

Question reference: S6W-36482

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the right of academics and students to express gender-critical views without facing discrimination or censure.

Question reference: S6W-36884

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected 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.

Question reference: S6W-36458

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many STEM teacher vacancies currently exist in schools, broken down by (a) subject and (b) local authority area; what consideration it has given to targeted financial incentives to attract and retain STEM teachers in hard-to-fill subjects; what proportion of STEM probationer teachers secured permanent contracts in the last five years, and how this compares to non-STEM subjects.

Our Teaching Bursary Scheme provides £20,000 bursaries for career changers wishing to undertake a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in the hardest to fill teaching subjects. These subjects include: Physics, Maths, Technical Education, Computing Science, Chemistry and Home Economics.

Statistics on the employment of probationer teachers by subject and employment type are published in the post-probationer teacher employment dashboard, available through the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-probationer-teacher-employment-dashboard/

Question reference: S6W-36080

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the longest duration has been from the date of death to the conclusion of a fatal accident inquiry since 1999, and what the reasons were for the duration of this process.

COPFS holds records of all concluded Fatal Accident Inquiries dating back to 1 April 2013.

For that period, the longest duration from the date of death to the conclusion of the Fatal Accident Inquiry was in relation to the FAI into the death of Boguslaw Kopec. The date of Mr Kopec’s death was 13 March 2011. A First Notice commencing the FAI process was issued on 24 August 2020 and the Inquiry commenced on 9 November 2020. Evidence was concluded on 3 December 2020 and the Sheriff’s Determination was published on 11 March 2021.

The investigation into Mr Kopec’s death was hampered by difficulties tracing and obtaining the evidence of essential witnesses. In addition, Inquiry proceedings could only be commenced after criminal proceedings had been ruled out. Nevertheless, the Crown at that time acknowledged that the time taken to conduct its death investigation in this case had been far too long and apologised for the fact that its investigation and the Inquiry proceedings were not concluded sooner.

COPFS has significantly reformed its processes in recent years to improve the quality of death investigations and reduce the time taken to investigate deaths and bring FAIs to court. However, in some cases FAIs have taken too long to commence and we understand the impact that waiting for investigations to conclude has on families.

Question reference: S6W-36234

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of its alcohol and drugs services budget for (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 was spent on local authority social work services; what proportion of the budget this represented, and what the estimate is for 2025-26.

The Scottish Government allocates specific National Mission funds via regional Health Boards, for onward disbursement by Integration Authorities, per local Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships’ (ADP) strategic planning. Local Authority Social Work Services provide broad holistic service coverage and support to individuals with a wide range of needs, and it is a matter for local authorities to allocate, and account for the allocation of, Local Authority funds to those services. Any decision to supplement social work services’ funding with National Mission monies is for the judgement of ADPs and is not currently reported to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-36346

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how its proposals to amend the legislation on religious observance in schools aligns with the UN (a) Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations regarding the UK and (b) Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The proposed changes to religious observance (RO) and religious and moral education (RME) in schools will bring legislation into line with existing RO guidance on taking the child’s views into account when their parent/carer exercises their right to withdraw the child from RO and RME.

The Scottish Government has noted the recommendations from the concluding observations of the periodic reports of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. We are confident that our proposal to amend the legislation on RO and RME in schools is in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and will strengthen our commitment to upholding children’s rights in all aspects of their lives, including education.