Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-37224

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all leases that are currently held by the Scottish public sector, broken down by (a) cost and (b) department or agency.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on all public sector leases centrally. The following table shows all current Scottish Government leased properties and the cost of each lease.

Property	Total lease cost	Department
10 Commerce Street (Fraserburgh Fishery Office)	£14,674.00	Scottish Government
28 Cunzie Street (Anstruther Fishery Office)	£12,223.00	Scottish Government
40 Hall Street (Campbeltown Fishery Office)	£8,839.00	Scottish Government
5 Atlantic Quay	£543,546.00	Scottish Government
7 Ferry Terminal Building (Kirkwall Fishery Office)	£2,500.00	Scottish Government
AB1 Building	£49,607.00	Scottish Government
Alexander Fleming House	£48,559.00	Scottish Government
Alexandra Buildings (Lerwick Fishery Office)	£26,392.00	Scottish Government
Bothwell House (Ground and First Floors)	£23,165.00	Scottish Government
Brooms Road - Dumfries	£259,827.00	Scottish Government
Bute House	£87,500.00	Scottish Government
Bute House Car Park	£8,250.00	Scottish Government
Caley Building (Peterhead Fishery Office)	£24,688.00	Scottish Government
Charlotte House	£83,645.00	Scottish Government
Compass House	£45,634.00	Scottish Government
Culag Pier (Lochinver Fishery Office)	£7,502.00	Scottish Government
Custom House (Stornoway Fishery Office)	£18,817.00	Scottish Government
Denholm House	£107,818.00	Scottish Government
Fishmarket Building (Eyemouth Fishery Office)	£10,688.00	Scottish Government
Garage No.2 Lockup, North St, Fraserburgh	£15,260.00	Scottish Government
Hadrian House	£96,061.00	Scottish Government
Harbour Buildings (Mallaig Fishery Office)	£4,037.00	Scottish Government
Inchbraoch House	£5,983.00	Scottish Government
James Street	£503.00	Scottish Government
Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 7	£2,609.00	Scottish Government
Ocean Trade Centre	£141,572.00	Scottish Government
Office at Tarbert Fish Market	£788.00	Scottish Government
Russell House	£285,238.00	Scottish Government
Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 5	£1,400.00	Scottish Government
Saughton House - land	£160,000.00	Scottish Government
Scotland House - Brussels	£373,930.00	Scottish Government
Scotland House - London	£439,230.00	Scottish Government
St Ola House (Scrabster Fishery Office)	£20,000.00	Scottish Government
Strathearn House	£393,722.00	Scottish Government
The Douglas Centre (Buckie Fishery Office)	£5,767.00	Scottish Government
The Island Centre, Crossapol	£6,300.00	Scottish Government
The Links, Golspie	£16,845.00	Scottish Government
The Zoology Building	£162,441.00	Scottish Government
Unit 4, Seagate, Peterhead	£5,946.00	Scottish Government
Unit 4B Kinlochleven Business Park	£5,416.00	Scottish Government
Unit 5, Old Quay - Campbeltown	£1,000.00	Scottish Government
West Shore Street (Ullapool Fishery Office)	£6,750.00	Scottish Government

Question reference: S6W-37258

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for (a) bereaved individuals under the age of 50 whose partner has died and (b) children of individuals where a parent has died under the age of 50.

The Scottish Government provides a range of advice and support for people experiencing bereavement.

Our emotional and wellbeing support for adults includes:

Providing funding to Cruse Scotland for the National Bereavement Helpline, which provides free listening and counselling support to people right across Scotland.

Since 2021, we have invested £66 million in our Adults Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund which supports a wide range of grassroots projects to provide compassionate wellbeing support. This fund prioritises supporting people experiencing bereavement and loss; and during 2023-24 we supported 196 such projects.

Working in partnership with Public Health Scotland and SeeMe to deliver a package of support for employers to enable them to support their employee's mental health more confidently; and we have already included a focus on grief and bereavement.

Our Mind to Mind website (hosted on NHS Inform) provides advice and information to the public about improving their wellbeing. The website includes advice and signposting information to support organisations for people (of all ages) who are experiencing grief and bereavement.

Our Suicide Prevention strategy and soon to be published new Palliative Care Strategy will set out the specific support available for people bereaved in these ways.

For children and young people, the loss of a parent can have a profound effect, so it is vital that support is provided at the right time, and in appropriate settings. Our emotional and wellbeing support for this group includes:

Working with Education Scotland to review learning and teaching resources, as well as support for school staff, so that schools can play their role in supporting the needs of bereaved children and young people.
Continuing to provide £16 million annually to local authorities to ensure that every secondary school has access to school counselling services.
Schools being able to refer children and young people to the Seasons for Growth programme, which offers peer and small group bereavement support.
Since 2016, our Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Funds have provided funding of £14.5 million annually to 115 organisations – including to Child Bereavement UK, Richmond's Hope , and Cruse Scotland who provide vital support to children and young people who are bereaved.

We recognise that the death of a loved one can cause financial and practical challenges for families. Our Funeral Support Payment provides a contribution towards funeral costs for those who receive a low-income qualifying benefit. Since launching the payment in 2019, we have provided £56.9 million of support to over 29,000 people. We are also committed to extending Carer Support Payments from 8 weeks to 12 weeks after the death of a cared for person, and this payment also connects carers to wider forms of support at this difficult time.

Question reference: S6W-37270

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that all parties apply a gendered lens to discussions on school behaviour, in light of data showing that women make up approximately three quarters of the teaching profession.

The Scottish Government published the national relationships and behaviour joint action plan last year, which sets out 20 overarching actions that will be taken before the end of 2027. It addresses issues including violence, attendance, young people’s mental health, exclusion, recording and monitoring, and empowering staff. During its development, I asked the Scottish Government’s Gender Equality Taskforce on Education and Learning (GETEL) to consider the action plan through a gendered lens. The Taskforce worked with officials to shape both the high level ambitions and the detailed actions within the plan, which includes a commitment to continue to work closely together to ensure the Taskforce’s gender equality ambitions and behaviour in schools ambitions align throughout all phases of the plan.

Additionally, the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First Guidance explicitly highlights to employers that violence against women and girls is a workplace issue and how women’s experiences of violence and abuse can have a detrimental impact on employment. The guidance also points to good practice examples for employers, including the Equally Safe at Work accreditation programme and enhanced provision to support workers.

Question reference: S6W-37207

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to promote the natural regeneration of woodland.

The Scottish Government actively promotes and supports the natural regeneration of woodland through the work of Scottish Forestry and the funding provided through the Forestry Grant Scheme.

Scottish Forestry actively encourages land managers to consider natural regeneration when developing woodland management plans and woodland creation proposals.

The Forestry Grant Scheme provides financial support for land managers to create the conditions necessary for natural regeneration and contributes to the costs of protecting natural regeneration. This includes reducing deer numbers and encouraging co-operative deer management without fences.

Support is also available for the management of existing native woodlands and reducing deer populations in the surrounding landscape.

The Forestry Grant Scheme has already supported over 9,000 hectares of new native woodland through natural regeneration with significant further projects in development.

The Forestry Grant Scheme is continually evolving to meet the needs of land managers in Scotland and as part of recent enhancements the grant rate offered for natural regeneration was doubled in 2023 to address increasing costs and encourage land managers to consider creating woodland through natural regeneration.

Question reference: S6W-37265

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals were supported into employment through its Young Person's Guarantee in each of the last three years, and what this figure was as a proportion of all individuals supported through the programme in each of those years.

The Young Person’s Guarantee last and final update report was published in March 2023 and outlines the outcomes and opportunities provided by the funding from the Young Person’s Guarantee.

A joint implementation evaluation of No one Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee was published in Autumn 2023 which explores how well they had been implemented, the experiences of service providers and service users, and lessons from early delivery.

Since April 2023, the Young Person’s Guarantee has been mainstreamed across Government, with activity across education, skills and employability supporting young people into opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-37271

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it plans to implement to provide visible and strong leadership through the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning (GETEL) to achieve a gender-competent experience of education and learning for all girls.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning contains representation from gender competent leaders, who were instrumental in developing ambitions for the Taskforce, which will result in girls and young women having a gender equal experience of education.

As outlined in its Theory of Change Model, the Taskforce has committed to working with leaders in the education sector to facilitate the development of leadership programmes to upskill and resource educational leaders to take a whole school setting approach to tackling gender inequality. The Taskforce’s work on this ambition is at an early stage and it will meet again in June to continue to develop ways to do so.

Question reference: S6T-02522

Asked by: George Adam, MSP for Paisley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any implications for Scotland’s public services of the UK Government’s proposed reforms to the immigration system.

Question reference: S6T-02523

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement that NHS Grampian has been escalated to stage 4 of NHS Scotland's National Performance Framework for finance, leadership and governance.

Question reference: S6F-04087

Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

To ask the First Minister, regarding any implications for its work to tackle poverty, what assessment the Scottish Government has made of the Department for Work and Pension’s forecasts reportedly indicating that the UK Government’s planned reductions to disability benefits will impact 700,000 families that are already in poverty.

Question reference: S6F-04071

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 May 2025

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Chamber and committees