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-37991

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to restore police officer numbers to 2013 levels, and, if so, what its timeline is for achieving this.

The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable.

Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out the Chief Constable’s vision of a thriving workforce which goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff.

The Chief Constable aims to make maximum impact with a workforce that has the right skills and capacity to keep people safe. Through the Chief Constable’s workforce modernisation plan, Police Scotland are developing an operating model that will create capacity to deal with new and increasing threats by moving more officers to frontline roles, to strengthen community confidence.

Question reference: S6W-37988

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported recommendation from the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents to end routine police involvement in social media disputes.

The deployment of officers and staff is a matter for the Chief Constable. It is vital that the Chief Constable has the flexibility to develop her workforce to respond to new and emerging operational demands.

Investigation of reports to Police Scotland are quite rightly operational matters for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that every crime report is assessed for threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence, as soon as it is reported.

Question reference: S6W-38107

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the detailed Project Willow report by EY-Parthenon and in relation to Project 4, how it plans to increase the production of Scottish softwood from approximately 6.2 Mtpa in 2023 to approximately 10.1 Mtpa by 2040, as set out at page 88 of the report.

Forest Research publishes production forecasts every 5 years for softwood availability in Scotland and the UK. The most recent forecast, published in 2022, estimates that over 8 million cubic metres (m3) of softwood is currently available annually in Scotland. The current the average annual harvest is 6.82 million m3.

The volume forecast to be available annually by 2040 is expected to rise to over 12 million m3. This means that if demand increased to 10 million m3 by 2040, approximately 2 million m3 of surplus timber would still be available.

Project Willow predicts a requirement of 2.1 million m3 of feedstock by 2040 under their growth case scenario. This is just over half the predicted increase in timber availability over that period.

Question reference: S6W-38091

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported £10,000 budget for the recent summit on "shared values" came from core ministerial spending, or a separate fund.

Question reference: S6W-37984

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to Police Scotland survey data, which reportedly shows that only 31% of officers feel supported by their executive team and many are leaving due to stress.

Officer wellbeing and retention are operational matters for Police Scotland. I refer the member to my response to S6W-35420 on 17 March.

The Chief Constable has stated to the Criminal Justice Committee that the wellbeing of police officers and staff is one of her main priorities. Police Scotland has made a £17 million investment in wellbeing, which includes a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme and enhanced occupational health services, to support officers and staff wellbeing.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-38078

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what accountability mechanisms are in place to monitor the delivery and impact of its Just Transition plans on energy workers.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of accountability in relation to our plans for a just transition. This is why we established the Just Transition Commission in 2019 to advise on and scrutinise our journey to net zero.

The Commission has published a number of reports which consider our approach to delivering a just transition for energy workers. These include the July 2024 publication ‘A Just Transition for Grangemouth’, which has informed the development of our Grangemouth Just Transition Plan; and its most recent report, ‘A Just Transition for Aberdeen and the North East’. The Scottish Government accepts in principle the headline recommendations in the latter report, but will take time to consider them in detail, before providing a full response.

Question reference: S6W-38360

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason £85,000 was provided to Sikh Sanjog between 2017-18 and 2020-21 as part of the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund; what this funding was used for, and what the outcomes were of the Open Door Project.

Question reference: S6W-37038

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) regarding political neutrality among publicly funded charities, and whether it is aware of any concerns that have been raised regarding so-called boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) advocacy.

We have not held specific discussions with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator on the political neutrality of charities that receive public funding.

We are not aware of concerns about any charities in relation to ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions advocacy’. As the Regulator is a non-ministerial office and independent of government, concerns about a charity’s conduct should be raised with them to determine their validity.

Question reference: S6W-37848

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of waiting times reportedly exceeding 447 days, how it is tackling any backlogs in children's dental extractions.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to attain the highest standard of health and wellbeing possible, but we know some patients are waiting too long and we’re determined to do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care.

We recognise that the current levels of paediatric tooth extractions in hospital are too high - our aim is to reduce the number of children requiring referral as much as possible.

We continue to invest in our flagship preventative programme Childsmile, which provides oral health interventions for all children in Scotland, as well as targeted measures for children from the most vulnerable backgrounds.

The Programme has supported significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland and a narrowing in child oral health inequality over the longer term.

The 2024 National Dental Inspection Programme results show the gap between P1 children with no obvious tooth decay, living in the most and least deprived areas, is at its lowest on record – decreasing from 32.2 percentage points in 2010 to 23.5 percentage points in 2024.

These figures also show three quarters of Primary 1 children have no obvious decay – this is up from 45% in 2003.

Question reference: S6W-37849

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered the emergency procurement of private sector dental capacity to ease any paediatric dental waiting lists.