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: S6O-02389

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the newest developments are in the creation of Scottish Parliament apps to allow the public easier access to parliamentary business papers and other resources.

Question reference: S6W-18198

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm the initial amount of funding that was set aside for a provisional teacher pay settlement in December 2022, when the Scottish Budget 2023-24 was first published, and how much additional funding is required from the 2023-24 Budget to pay for the final pay settlement, agreed in March 2023, which cost £188 million.

The Scottish Budget 2023-24 published in December 2022 did not include any budget provision for teachers’ pay. At that time, the Scottish Government was participating in discussions on a 2023 pay offer through the tripartite SNCT and, as always, it was for COSLA – as the employer – to make any pay offer. Publishing a budget at that stage would have risked undermining COSLA’s position and the negotiations themselves. We continued to work with COSLA to assess what specific support was needed. At the point of the Scottish Budget 2023-24 being published, we had confirmed a contribution of over £50 million to the pay offer made to teachers.

The Scottish Government will provide a total of £205m in 2023-24 to help meet the costs of the final March 2023 pay deal, £50 million of which is included in the local government finance settlement.

Question reference: S6W-18287

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether there have been any cuts to the funding set out in the Level 3 budget lines that were published in the Scottish Budget 2023-24 as a result of the teacher pay settlement agreed in March 2023.

The pay offer was made at a time of extraordinary financial pressure on the Scottish Government budget. As the previous Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made clear when the teachers’ pay deal was agreed, difficult decisions will be necessary to free up the required resources. As is normal practice, changes to allocations will be reported to Parliament through autumn and spring budget revisions.

Question reference: S6W-17956

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16779 by Patrick Harvie on 27 April 2023, how households will be successfully engaged with, as part of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) delivery plans, in order to take action to retrofit their homes with energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures.

Advice and support for households is currently accessed via Home Energy Scotland or via local authority-led Area Based Schemes. It is likely that this arrangement will continue in the short term, but we are committed to working with delivery partners, including Local Government to ensure the efficient delivery of advice and support to households.

This year we will publish a Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will raise public awareness and understanding of the changes we all need to make to our home heating to meet the net zero targets by 2045. We will need to communicate in a coordinated way across all levels, including nationally and through trusted grassroots and local messengers.

This will include taking a place-based approach through working with local government to communicate to the public what the transition will mean for them, informed by upcoming Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plans. This will help to ensure that people know whether they can expect to connect to a local heat network or will need to install renewable technologies such as a heat pump, the steps involved and how they can access any support available. We will use a range of tactics to achieve this, including multi-channel marketing and community engagement initiatives.

Question reference: S6W-18286

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm what Level 3 budget line(s) funded the teacher pay settlement, agreed in March 2023, and how much funding came from each individual budget line.

Question reference: S6W-18083

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many documents it has sent to the National Records of Scotland to be archived, since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister.

Question reference: S6O-02341

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the outcomes will be of the proposed summit on tackling violence in schools, which was announced by the education secretary on 24 May.

Question reference: S6W-17958

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16779 by Patrick Harvie on 27 April 2023, who will be responsible for managing the coordination of suppliers at local level, to ensure that they have the skills and quality marks required, in time for the roll-out of delivery plans, and what it anticipates will be the role of local authorities in this.

Ensuring that we have a suitably qualified workforce in place will be imperative for delivering a smooth rollout of energy efficiency and zero emission heating measures which will support us to achieve our net zero ambitions.

We currently offer support to the sector through a number of schemes which includes the Low Carbon Skills Grant which is available to heating and plumbing apprentices’ to undertake heat pump training as part of their qualification.

To further ensure the quality of works carried out we also provide funding to assist Scottish SMEs installing heat pumps in achieving MCS certification for the first time through the MCS Certification Fund.

We will continue to keep our offers of support under review to ensure that they are aligned at a local level with business needs and future local demands.

Delivery partners for each scheme, including local authorities where relevant, are currently responsible for the coordination of suppliers to ensure they have sufficient capacity in place to deliver schemes. It is likely that this arrangement will continue but we are committed to working with delivery partners to support the development of local and national supply chains and skills.

Question reference: S6W-18087

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many electronic messages it has sent to the National Records of Scotland to be archived, since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister.

Question reference: S6W-17955

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16779 by Patrick Harvie on 27 April 2023, how funding to pay for household measures will be (a) coordinated and (b) delivered, and, specifically, what it anticipates will be the role of local authorities in this.

Support for households is currently accessed via Home Energy Scotland or via local authority-led Area Based Schemes. Funding for these schemes is allocated annually by the Scottish Government.

It is likely that this arrangement will continue in the short term, but we are committed to working with delivery partners, including Local Government to ensure the efficient and delivery of support to households.

As noted in response to S6W-16779 the Scottish Government is working with wider stakeholders to align current and future delivery and funding programmes with Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies to support a strategic approach to the decarbonisation of heat reflecting local contexts and tailoring support to specific needs of communities.