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: S7W-04863

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings in the Review of Prison Visitor Centres (PVCs) and Support Services, what the estimated cost is of delivering the level of service that the review indicates is needed, and what modelling it has carried out.

Question reference: S7W-04864

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the differences in family support available at prisons with a restricted support service, compared with those served by a full prison visitors centre.

Question reference: S7W-04859

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much electricity generators have been paid in constraint payments, in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S7W-04862

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on families of its decision not to continue funding the prison visitors centres at HMP Perth and HMP/YOI Polmont, in light of the findings in the Review of Prison Visitor Centres (PVCs) and Support Services.

Question reference: S7W-04858

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on its proposals for temporary modular prisons.

Question reference: S7W-04868

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S7W-02880 and S7W-03933 by Angela Constance on 17 September 2026 and 28 October 2026 respectively, whether any business plan has been produced for the integration of prison healthcare IT systems with GP IT systems following completion of the rollout of the Vision system.

Question reference: S7W-04848

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7W-03821 by Neil Gray on 15 October 2026, for what reason it has no plans to establish an independent inspectorate to provide routine independent scrutiny of the courts and tribunals system.

Question reference: S7W-04847

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be the main achievements of the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland (AROS) during its first year of operation.

Question reference: S7W-04579

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Simita Kumar on 4 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the main achievements of the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland (AROS) in its first years of operation.

The AROS Host contract with the University of Strathclyde commenced in June 2025. The initial mobilisation phase focused on recruitment and building the organisational foundations needed to make AROS a reality. This included recruiting the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), wider staff team, and an Advisory Board. Co-CEOs and a senior leadership team were recruited, and came into their posts between December 2025 and January 2026.

AROS is independent of the Scottish Government and is responsible for setting its own vision and priorities. However, the Scottish Government meets regularly with the AROS host team at the University of Strathclyde and AROS leadership to monitor delivery of the host contract and discuss and track progress in implementing the Observatory’s work programme.

AROS has made good progress in its first ten months of being operational. It has developed its vision of creating the conditions in which anti-racism scrutiny, accountability, implementation and monitoring are routine across Scotland’s public sector. This includes ongoing engagement with adversely racialised communities through trusted regional organisations, partnerships with Regional Equality Councils and the establishment of regional Hubs through which AROS will operate, as well as the recruitment of a lived-experience panel. Technical scoping work is underway to establish a digital, interactive library that should improve access to anti-racism evidence; a demonstration version is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2027 which will be tested out with the lived experience panel and other stakeholders. AROS is also developing an Anti-Racism Maturity Model that will support organisations to embed anti-racism practice and strengthen accountability, scrutiny and monitoring arrangements.

Through its strategic vision and growing programme of work, AROS is developing the evidence, partnerships and infrastructure required to advance Scotland’s anti-racism ambitions. The Scottish Government is encouraged by the progress made to date and will continue to engage with the AROS Host team and AROS leadership to track progress.

Question reference: S7W-04330

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Simita Kumar on 4 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been provided to Amina - The Muslim Women's Resource Centre, and for what purpose that funding was provided.

Amina – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre received £461,754 from the Scottish Government in 2025-26 and has been awarded £497,563 for 2026-27 through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, the Equality and Human Rights Fund, and the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund.

This funding supports Amina’s work to tackle violence against women and girls, advance equality and human rights, and improve outcomes for Muslim and Minority Ethnic women, including provision of a national helpline, delivery of the Sahara Scotland casework and domestic abuse service, and adult learning, training and employability services. In addition, in December 2025, Amina received £500 for ‘The Hidden Harm’ event during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.