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-03108

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government since January 2026 regarding procurement rules and their impact on bus manufacturing and bus procurement in Scotland.

In March 2026, the First Minister made clear his view that there remained significant issues around procurement arrangements affecting Scottish bus manufacturing, which need to be resolved by the UK Government. In addition, at meetings between Scottish and UK Government officials in January and March 2026, officials from Department for Business and Trade shared information about their plans to produce a bus demand pipeline publication and referenced UK policy in relation to social value.

Question reference: S7W-03098

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether the conditions attached to its £4.1 million furlough support package for Alexander Dennis have been amended since the package was announced in September 2025 and, if so, whether it will set out these amendments.

Question reference: S7W-03099

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether Alexander Dennis has provided the evidence of sufficient orders required to access the £4.1 million furlough support package announced in September 2025.

Question reference: S7W-03104

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to increasing the weighting attached to social value in publicly supported bus procurement.

The Scottish Government does not procure buses. Bus services are predominantly provided by commercial operators, with local authorities and other public bodies procuring or supporting services where appropriate. As these organisation are autonomous contracting authorities they are responsible for their own procurements and must determine, on a case-by-case basis, how to conduct their own procurements, including how to consider community benefits, the sustainable procurement duty social value and other relevant elements.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting social and economic benefits with measures such as Fair Work First implemented during the last parliament, and the Programme for Government 2026 setting out a range of measures to deliver this. Bus is one of the most used forms of public transport and provides wider benefits through affordable transport to work, education and essential services, reducing transport emissions and growing the economy.

Question reference: S7W-03100

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether the requirement for Alexander Dennis to demonstrate sufficient orders to sustain its manufacturing operations in Scotland remains a condition of accessing the £4.1 million furlough support package announced in September 2025.

Question reference: S7W-03103

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether public procurement rules place bus manufacturers operating in Scotland at a competitive disadvantage against overseas manufacturers.

Public procurement rules do not disadvantage domestic suppliers.

As required by international agreements, Scottish public procurement legislation places a duty on contracting authorities to treat bidders from the UK and countries with which a relevant agreement applies equally and without discrimination.

It also explicitly prohibits contracting authorities from awarding contracts on the basis of lowest cost or price only.

Question reference: S7W-02898

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the draft report from workstream one of the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data Short Life Working Group, Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation data captured within Joint Investigative Interviews, dated 22 June 2026, which states that, in 2024-25, there were at least 5,087 sexual crimes involving a victim under the age of 18 recorded by Police Scotland compared with 155 children on the Child Protection Register with a child sexual abuse concern and 20 with a child sexual exploitation concern, what its assessment is of the difference between these figures.

The Scottish Government are continuously looking to improve local and national data and evidence around child protection. We acknowledge that national data on child sexual abuse and exploitation is limited, which is why we set up the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data Short Life Working Group to take forward focused work in this area. Part of that focus is to improve consistency in reporting the scale and nature of child sexual abuse and exploitation across the whole of Scotland.

There are a number of reasons why the number of police recorded sexual crimes, with a victim under the age of 18 are higher than the number of children on the Child Protection Register with a child sexual abuse or child sexual exploitation concern. These include the fact that police recorded crime is a count of crimes, not victims. One incident could involve multiple crimes or a child can be a repeat victim, with multiple crimes occurring throughout the year. Recorded crime data is reported by date recorded by the police, not when the crime occurred. We know that 13% of these crimes occurred before the implementation of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 in December 2010. We also know a proportion of these crimes are cyber enabled, in such cases, the victim can be an undercover police officer or vigilante group. Previous analysis suggests an estimated 1,490 Sexual crimes recorded in 2024-25 were both cyber-crimes and had a victim under the age of 18.

Child protection registration statistics are a relatively poor proxy for the number of children being supported by statutory services due to child sexual abuse or child sexual exploitation concern. Registrations across all categories have been declining for some time and many children may be known to services, where sexual abuse may have been identified as a concern, but their cases are registered under another category— particularly when the child has experienced multiple forms of harm. Additionally, many children who have been sexually abused may not require a child protection plan(and therefore registration), as they are well protected by parents or carers, or are supported through other processes.

Question reference: S7W-03405

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what business cases it has received from Police Scotland and/or the Scottish Police Authority regarding increasing police officer numbers.

Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) submitted their 2026-27 resource budget requirement in October 2025, which was considered as part of the annual budget setting process.

The Scottish Government has allocated record funding of over £1.7 billion to the SPA in 2026-27. This is an increase of £81.5 million, or 5% compared to the published 2025-26 Autumn Budget Revision budget. It is for the Chief Constable, under the scrutiny of the SPA, to allocate resources to meet priorities outlined in Police Scotland's Three Year Plan.

Police Scotland continues to have more police officers per head of population with around 30 officers per 10,000 population compared with around 24 per 10,000 in England and Wales, and has confirmed that there is a healthy recruitment pipeline.

This Government will continue to provide investment and support, working closely with Police Scotland and the SPA, to understand their future funding requirements as part of the 2027-28 budget planning process.

Question reference: S7W-03190

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Flynn on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on passengers of changes to the ScotRail ticketing app, whereby tickets purchased after a train has departed a station will be invalid.

Question reference: S7W-03153

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, what specific clinical standards and targets for stroke care NHS boards are required to meet, for what reason performance is reported primarily against the Scottish average rather than against nationally agreed clinical standards, and what action it is taking when a board consistently falls below those standards and targets.

Information on the Scottish Stroke Care Standards can be found at:

Dashboard - Scottish stroke improvement programme annual report 2026 - Scottish stroke improvement programme - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Public Health Scotland is in the process of removing references to the national average from reports and data summaries. We recognise that comparisons with the national average can give them is leading impression that a Board is performing well, despite not meeting the required Scottish Stroke Standard.

Through the governance arrangements of the Scottish National Audit Programme, each NHS Board is held to account for its performance against the stroke standards. Where performance is a negative outlier, the Board is required to develop an action plan, which is reviewed after six months. These action plans also inform discussions during each Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme board review.