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.

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Question reference: S6W-44058

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2026
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 18 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what briefings have been provided to the First Minister by the Lord Advocate on Operation Branchform that have not yet been disclosed to the Parliament.

I explained to Parliament on 18 and 25 February and in my letter to the Presiding Officer on 24 February 2026, in respect of the case known as Operation Branchform, that I did not provide briefings on the case to the First Minister. I provided limited factual information to the government on two occasions, first, on his appearance in court on petition in March 2025 and then again on the service of the indictment in January 2026.

Question reference: S6O-05651

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what further support provisions will be available to Alexander Dennis following the expiration of the current £4 million support package this month.

Question reference: S6O-05642

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to reduce the number of violent and disruptive incidents in schools.

Question reference: S6F-04723

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2026

To ask the First Minister, in light of the recently published Commission on School Reform manifesto warning that the curriculum for excellence has been poorly implemented and is harming long-term prospects, what the Scottish Government's position is on whether a lack of clear, nationally specified curriculum content and standards has contributed to declining attainment and inconsistency across Scotland’s schools.

Question reference: S6W-43769

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an itemised breakdown of the cost of a standard Baby Box.

Question reference: S6W-43691

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many modern language teachers have left the profession in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether teachers have left the profession; only whether they were teaching in a Scottish, publicly-funded school on census day in a particular year.

Changes in the full-time equivalent (FTE) of teachers by main or other subject taught over successive years can be found in the teacher census supplementary statistics table 3.9, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Data on subject taught from the 2025 school teacher census will be published in March 2026.

Question reference: S6W-43690

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many police stations have (a) closed and (b) reduced their public counter hours since 2015.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of police stations closed since 2015. The management of the Police Scotland estate is an operational matter, and is the responsibility of the Chief Constable under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on public-facing Police Scotland counters. Decisions on the opening hours of public counters are also operational matters for the Chief Constable.

Community policing remains a priority for Police Scotland, and police officers will continue to be embedded in communities across the country.

Question reference: S6W-43689

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many mental health or welfare-related call-outs police officers have attended in the last year.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering on mental health distress response, with continued delivery on Programme for Government commitments since 2023 to reducing mental health demands on police officers and protecting people in mental health distress through improved frontline multi-agency responses.

Data on Police response to mental health or welfare-related call-outs is not held by the Scottish Government. Statistics reported to the Scottish Police Authority Policing and Performance Committee in September 2025 show that mental health related incidents recorded by Police Scotland are dropping, so far reducing by 1% between 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-43692

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any shortages of qualified language teachers.

Local authorities are responsible for recruitment and retention of teachers in each council area.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of additional steps such as £186.5 million provided to local authorities in 2025-26 to protect and restore teachers numbers, including in hard to fill subjects like modern languages. These steps also include the launch in January 2026 of a new teacher recruitment campaign to encourage more students to take up a career in teaching in remote and rural areas and our £15,000 teaching bursary scheme to encourage career changers to become teachers.

Question reference: S6W-43685

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents, complaints or safeguarding referrals involving biologically male prisoners held in women’s prisons have been recorded since 2018.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS take all complaints seriously and ensures that they are dealt with in an effective manner, including the option to confidentially raise a concern directly with the Governor in Charge.

Due to changes in recording procedures - including Records System (PR2) capabilities, incident reporting changes and the application of two Transgender Policies during the relevant period, SPS cannot accurately provide the data requested.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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