Chamber and committees

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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 5365 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S7W-03429

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Simita Kumar on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has allocated to the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland in each financial year from 2023-24 to 2027-28, broken down by (a) amount and (b) purpose.

Following the contract award to host the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland (AROS) in April 2025, a total of £2,826,472.75 (exc. VAT) was allocated to the University of Strathclyde in partnership with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER). The contract runs from 17 June 2025 to 30 September 2027, with a further three-month extension confirmed up to the end of December 2027. No additional funding is included in that extension.

No funding was provided for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 as AROS was not yet established. The table below gives the amounts allocated to the University of Strathclyde for hosting, staffing, financial management, human resources support and operational costs associated with establishing and delivering AROS. This supports AROS's functions as a national centre of excellence on anti-racism, including community-led co-production, accountability, and scrutiny; data, research and evidence gathering; and the development of tools, resources and partnerships to support anti-racism policy and practice across Scotland's public sector.

Year	Total Funding (exc. VAT)
2025-2026	£633,435.90
2026-2027	£1,321,606.92
2027-2028	£871,429.93