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-03325

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the average length of service is for officers in Police Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-03320

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how often operational baseline levels have been met by Police Scotland in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S7W-03326

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the total FTE headcount of civilian staff in Police Scotland has been in each year since the current force was established.

Question reference: S7W-03319

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how often operational baseline levels have been breached by Police Scotland in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S7W-03321

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 September 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how often resource tolerance indicators have been breached by Police Scotland in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S7W-02881

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 Neil Gray on 15 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the long-term effectiveness of Emergency Early Release schemes and the reduction of the automatic release point to 30% in achieving a permanent reduction in the prison population.

Scotland’s emergency early release (EER) mechanism enables Scottish Ministers to release groups of short-term prisoners within 180 days of their scheduled release, where it is considered necessary and proportionate to do so in order to protect the security and good order of prisons, and/or to protect the health and well-being of prison workers and prisoners.

EER is a temporary measure designed to mitigate acute population pressures by bringing forward the release of a limited cohort of prisoners who are already approaching their scheduled release date. As such, it is not intended to produce a sustained reduction in the prison population.

The EER process that operated between November 2025 and April 2026 was used to address the critical prison population at the time. Over this period 614 individuals were released earlier than their scheduled release date.

The change in the automatic release point for certain short-term prisoners to 30% from 40% implemented from May 2026, forms part of a wider package of measures taken to manage prison population levels over the longer term.

It is estimated that the prison population today would be around 240 to 310 higher had the change in release point to 30% not been introduced.

Question reference: S7W-02890

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 Neil Gray on 15 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the establishment of a normal pension age of 60 for prison officers, in line with other uniformed emergency services, and what steps it will take to ensure that older officers who are unable to continue in frontline duties later in their careers are not financially penalised.

Prison officers play a vital role in our justice system, helping to ensure our prisons are safe, secure and stable environments for all that live and work there. Unlike other uniformed groups, prison officers do not have a dedicated pension scheme as they are members of the Civil Service pension scheme which is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government has strongly supported the position of the Prison Officers Association that the retirement age of prison officers be brought into line with armed forces, police, and firefighters who retire at 60. This reflects the operational environment and physical demands associated with the role which can be particularly challenging.

SPS provide support to staff to remain at work and in meaningful employment when they cannot undertake their full contractual role, including workplace adjustments and redeployment to alternative roles across the organisation. Every effort will be made to accommodate requests for a change or adjustment where the request is evidence based.

Question reference: S7W-02878

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 Maree Todd on 15 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of prisons are currently fully compliant with the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards.

Over the past year there has been a focus on medication assisted treatment (MAT) in prison settings and Public Health Scotland(PHS)have had extensive engagement with NHS healthcare staff and the Scottish Prison Service.

PHS will publish a supplementary report, in addition to the National benchmarking report on the implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards: Scotland 2025/26, which will cover the implementation of MAT Standards in justice settings on 22 September 2026.

The report will document the work which has been put into MAT implementation during 2025/26 and will provide a baseline assessment of service provision and set out the planned direction for further progress across justice settings.

Question reference: S7W-02942

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 Kirsten Oswald on 15 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of the Retail Crime Taskforce.

The Retail Crime Taskforce was established following the launch of Police Scotland's action plan to tackle retail crime in March 2025. Operating under four key objectives – Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – the Taskforce focuses on stopping people from becoming offenders, bringing perpetrators to justice, strengthening protections for retailers, and developing direct reporting systems.

The Taskforce works alongside the Scottish Government in the Scottish Partnership Against Acquisitive Crime (SPAACE), a Police Scotland-led initiative that brings together retail groups and partners to tackle a range of acquisitive crimes including theft and housebreaking. Scottish Government has committed funding of £3 million in 2026-27 and in each of the following two years to support this work.

The Scottish Government and industry partners receive updates on the progress of the retail crime taskforce. The most recent update in July 2026 provided a summary of the results delivered in the first year of the taskforce.

In total the RCTF recorded over 16,044 results across all KPI recorded activities in its first year of operation. This includes:

5,760 Shoplifting Charges/Detections
1,542 Intelligence Logs Submitted
648 Retail Worker Offence Charges
1,330 Arrests Made
3,151 Suspects Identified by RCTF
41 Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) Identified
268 Electronic Briefings Disseminated
128 Disruptions Against OCGs

Question reference: S7W-02879

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 Neil Gray on 15 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the specific timeline is for the commencement and funding of section 12 (Duty to engage in release planning) and section 13 (Throughcare support standards) of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023.

Section 13 was commenced on 9 February 2026. The legislation requires that a set of standards for through care support be published within two years of that commencement date. Since commencement, officials have been engaging with the organisations named in the legislation to support the development of these standards. A full 12-week consultation on the draft standards is planned for early 2027.

Section 12 has not yet been commenced. As with the remaining provisions of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023, commencement is being progressed in a phased and considered manner, with close engagement across relevant partners to ensure operational readiness and support effective implementation.

As set out in the financial memorandum accompanying the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland)Bill at introduction, it is not anticipated that Sections 12 and 13 will give rise to significant additional costs for local authorities or other public bodies. The duties in these sections do not require named partners to provide new or additional services beyond those already available to people leaving custody.