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-40436

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its forecast is for devolved welfare spending for the next five years.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) published its most recent independent forecasts on 25 June 2025, which sets out its latest five-year economic and fiscal forecasts to 2030-31.

The publication can be found on the SFC’s website: Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025 | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

Based on those forecasts and Scottish Government’s estimates of Young Carer Grant and Job Start Payment, expenditure on the range of Social Security Assistance provided by the Scottish Government is forecast to increase from £6.8 billion this year, to £9.3 billion by 2030-31, as shown in the following table.

£ million	2025-26	2026-27	2027-28	2028-29	2029-30	2030-31
Total Social Security Assistance	6,774	7,546	7,979	8,382	8,827	9,286

The SFC will publish its next set of five-year economic and fiscal forecasts alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget and Scottish Spending Review.

Question reference: S6W-40416

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many recipients of Social Security Scotland support owe overpaid benefits, and what proportion of these debts is more than one year old.

Social Security Scotland has established a Debt Management Service to oversee the recovery of overpayments, ensuring that recovered funds are redistributed in line with Scottish public spending priorities. Recovery processes are carried out with respect for clients’ dignity.

While internal systems are in place to track and prevent overpayments, detailed statistics—such as the number of overpayments or the age profile of debts—are not routinely published. As such, we are unable to provide further breakdowns.

Question reference: S6W-40417

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much Social Security Scotland has written off in overpaid benefits since 2018.

Social Security Scotland is committed to recovering overpaid benefits wherever it is reasonable and economical to do so, in accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Since 2018, approximately £7.7 million in overpaid benefits has been written off, which represents an estimated 0.1% of the total lifetime expenditure on benefits administered by the agency. For comparison, the equivalent figure for write-offs relating to Scottish debt managed by the Department for Work and Pensions stands at £42.2 million or 0.3%.

These write-offs have occurred for a range of reasons, including bereavement, where there is no equity in the client’s estate to enable recovery, and small overpayments under £65, which are not economical to pursue.

Question reference: S6O-04972

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with COSLA about increasing the transparency of senior officer pay and conditions alongside improved democratic oversight and accountability.

Question reference: S6W-40228

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what conditions are attached to any grant funding for equalities organisations to help ensure their (a) political neutrality, (b) value for money and (c) measurable outcomes.

Conditions attached to Scottish Government grant funding will vary based on the organisation and project being funded. Some organisations are given core funding to meet general costs while others receive funding strictly associated to a specific project. The specific details of these conditions are set out individually in grant offer letters for each piece of funding.

All grants are actively managed in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual: Grant and grant in aid - Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot. In particular, grants have outcomes and objectives associated to them which mean that payments are only made when the grant manager is content that value for money is being achieved. Furthermore, all Scottish Government grant offer letters specify that funds are not to be used for party political purposes. Beyond the auspices of projects for which organisations have been given grant funding, organisations are free to campaign on any issues as we would expect in a democratic society. It is not for the Scottish Government to interfere with this freedom, to ensure that the third sector can have an independent voice.

Question reference: S6W-40296

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of public confidence in the curriculum for excellence, and how it plans to restore any reduction in confidence.

The OECD report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future” commissioned by Scottish Government and published in 2021 commented that “significant efforts have been made to engage stakeholders throughout CfE’s lifecycle, which have contributed to successes with CfE.” (OECD Report, (p90) and also reported strong public confidence and interest in education (104).

The report by Professor Kenneth Muir “Putting Learners at the Centre” (published March 2022) conducted public consultation across a range of questions. That report commented that “just over half (58%) of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the existing vision for CfE reflected what matters for the education of children and young people in Scotland” (“Muir Report, p17). However, the Muir report (at pages 17 – 19 in the report) also identified a number of points that respondents to that consultation thought should be changed in order to further improve overall confidence in CfE.

The further National Discussion report (All Learners in Scotland Matter - national discussion on education: final report – May 2023) commented that based on its engagement with a range of people and organisations there was “general support for CfE” (p59 National Discussion Report) but also pointed to a range of comments on how to improve the curriculum.

It is important for the curriculum to retain strong confidence and support from pupils, parents, teachers/practitioners and the wider public. As the Member will be aware, the curriculum is currently being reviewed through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle to ensure that our 3-18 curriculum remains relevant, clarify the role of knowledge, declutter the curriculum and help to improve progression. Further information is available via the June 2025 publication “Curriculum, Qualifications and Assessment Reform: progress to date and next steps” and via Education Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle website.

Question reference: S6W-39746

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response it to reports of a recent trend of businesses increasingly relocating production from Scotland to other parts of the UK.

Thriving businesses are key to Scotland’s prosperity, and their success is critical to delivering the First Minister’s priorities.

That’s why our Programme for Government includes measures that will make it easier to invest and do business by creating better certainty and stability for business. The programme includes actions to improve regulatory best practice, support entrepreneurs, boost planning capacity and reduce barriers to delivery.

NatWest’s New Startup Index shows Scotland's strong performance in business formations, with the fastest relative growth in new companies being incorporated from H2 2024 led by the North East of England (19.0%), followed by Scotland (17.9%).

According to the latest EY Attractiveness Survey, Scotland remains the best-performing part of the United Kingdom for inward investment, outside London, for the 10th year in a row.

Question reference: S6W-39745

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Scotland’s economic growth in the last two years has been attributable to (a) public and (b) private sector activity.

The statistics for Scotland’s gross domestic product (GDP) cannot be split precisely into separate contributions from the public and private sectors. This is because they are produced using data classified by industry and there are public sector bodies in many part of the economy. As an approximation, the contribution to GDP growth over the last two years from the public sector dominated industries of public administration and defence, education, health and social work is presented in the following table. Note that there are some public sector bodies in the rest of the economy, and the education, health and social work industries also contain private sector businesses and organisations. These contributions are calculated using the latest quarterly GDP statistics available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-estimate-of-gdp-2025-q2/.

	Total GDP	Public administration and defence, education, health and social work	Rest of Economy
Percentage growth: 2023 Q2 to 2025 Q2	2.0%	2.6%	1.9%
Weighted contribution to Total GDP growth: 2023 Q2 to 2025 Q2 (percentage points)	2.0p.p	0.6p.p	1.5p.p.
Proportion of Total GDP growth: 2023 Q2 to 2025 Q2	100%	28%	72%

Note: contributions may not sum to the total due to rounding

Question reference: S6W-40393

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued on engaging with elected representatives in schools, and ensuring that there is a balanced representation of views.

It is important that our pupils understand the democratic process in Scotland, the UK and further afield. Local authorities have a role in ensuring that teachers in their schools can engage confidently with election issues and that balance and impartiality are respected.

Teachers are well versed in teaching sensitive topics in a non-partisan way and should use their professional judgement in doing so, in line with GTCS standards of personal and professional conduct, honesty and integrity.

Question reference: S6W-40232

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent forecast is for the prison population to the end of 2025-26, and how this compares to the design capacity of the prison estate.

On 7 August, the Scottish Government published the latest 6-month prison population projections, based on court activity and prison population data, up to the end of 2025. Due to the uncertainty surrounding factors that influence prison population flows - such as crime rates and justice system activity - the projections included several possible scenarios, including a reasonable upper estimate and a reasonable lower estimate. Taking the scenarios together and assuming that recent trends in justice demand, policy and practice continue, it was projected that the average daily prison population could be between 7,950 and 8,750 in December 2025. The design capacity of the prison estate is currently 7,805.