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-04711

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding funding that has been provided to the Scottish Refugee Council over the last year, (a) how much was provided, (b) for what purpose it was provided, and (c) what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of this funding.

Question reference: S7W-04290

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S7W-04031 by Neil Gray on 14 October 2026, and in light of HMP Barlinnie recently holding 1,450 prisoners and HMP Glasgow having a planned operational capacity of 1,344, (a) whether it will provide details of where the prisoners currently accommodated at HMP Barlinnie will be transferred to upon its closure, (b) what assessment it has made of the capacity available at other Scottish prisons to accommodate any shortfall and (c) whether the stated increase of 357 places refers to the net increase in design capacity across the prison estate or the number of additional prisoners that HMP Glasgow can accommodate compared with HMP Barlinnie.

I recognise the challenges posed by the current prison population pressures, which is why Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) have taken a number of actions, including increasing capacity across the current estate by 640 places over the past three years. HMP Glasgow itself will deliver 357 additional spaces to the prison estate based on design capacity, thus increasing the net design capacity.

SPS continually assess capacity throughout their estate to maximise the use of all space. These assessments will form part of SPS’ transition arrangements as and when the time comes to relocate those housed in HMP Barlinnie.

In addition to this, the affordability and deliverability of additional capacity within the prison estate is now being considered, including the possible use of temporary modular accommodation and building of additional house blocks at existing sites.

Question reference: S7W-03882

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider establishing a national framework for recording accessible and adapted social housing.

Scottish Government recognises the importance of accessible and adapted housing in supporting people to live independently in their communities. This is why we have protected the Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) Adaptations Programme budget, maintaining this at £20.9 million for 2026-27.

While we have no plans to establish a national framework for recording accessible and adapted social housing, we are, however, committed to making accessibility a mainstream feature of all new homes. To this end, we have delivered the first milestone in our 100-day commitment to improve the accessibility, adaptability and usability of Scotland’s homes. Specialists have been appointed to support the review and modernisation of the Housing for Varying Needs design guide, a key reference document for the affordable housing sector in Scotland, and to progress our commitment to deliver a new all-tenure Scottish Accessible Homes Standard through updates to building standards and guidance. A dedicated working group, bringing together industry stakeholders, healthcare professionals, academia and people with lived experience, will help shape the future direction of this work ahead of a public consultation on detailed proposals planned for early 2027.

Question reference: S7O-00409

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it gives to responses received through public consultations when making policy decisions.

Question reference: S7W-03741

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, for each of the last 10 years, how many school leavers were recorded as White Scottish males from deprived backgrounds, and of those pupils how many progressed to (a) any positive destination, (b) full-time employment, (c) part-time employment, (d) further education, (e) higher education and (f) a destination that was not classified as positive.

The following table provides the details requested, where available.

It is not possible to distinguish between full-time and part-time employment so a single row has been included for employment.

Initial Destinations of male school-leavers with White Scottish ethnicity, residing in SIMD Quintile 1, 2015-16 to 2024-25

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
	Percentages
(a) All Positive Destinations[1]	86.7	87.5	88.0	90.7	87.3	91.2	91.6	92.7	92.2	92.2
(b) & (c) Employment	25.9	25.3	24.1	26.7	18.9	28.8	31.3	30.2	28.6	25.8
(d) Further Education	34.5	35.8	37.0	36.8	38.1	32.8	34.1	34.6	33.6	37.0
(e) Higher Education	17.1	17.5	17.5	16.4	17.2	18.3	16.6	16.6	16.7	16.6
(f) All Other Destinations [2]	13.3	12.5	12.0	9.3	12.7	8.8	8.4	7.3	7.8	7.8
Number of Leavers	4650	4716	4388	4350	4295	4374	4850	4818	4746	4514

[1] Positive destinations include: higher education, further education, training, employment, voluntary work, personal skills development and (between 2010-11 and 2017-18) activity agreements.

[2] Other destinations include: unemployed seeking, unemployed not seeking and unknown.

The proportion in positive destinations has increased by 5.5 percentage points between 2015-16 (86.7%) and 2024-25 (92.2%). This compares to an increase of 2.2 percentage points over the same period for all school-leavers.

Question reference: S7W-04031

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government where prisoners currently accommodated within the HMP Barlinnie estate will be held following the closure of HMP Barlinnie, in light of a response to a recent Freedom of Information request which revealed that the establishment recently held 1,450 prisoners, while the replacement HMP Glasgow will have 106 fewer places with a planned operational capacity of 1,344 places.

As an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has responsibility for the operation of prisons.

As a replacement for HMP Barlinnie, HMP Glasgow, will deliver a modern, safe and secure accommodation that increases the overall design capacity by 357 spaces.

Detailed transition arrangements for the opening of HMP Glasgow are currently being developed by the SPS National Population Management Team, and consideration of prisoner allocation across the prison estate will form part of this planning. This work forms part of a wider SPS initiative to maximise useable capacity throughout the prison estate.

Question reference: S7W-04221

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Monday, 12 October 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 November 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of the achievement of BREEAM environmental sustainability standards on the prioritisation of patient safety, infection prevention and clinical requirements during the design and construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, and whether any steps are being taken to ensure that environmental certification does not compromise patient care and safety in the design and construction of NHS facilities.

Question reference: S7O-00339

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the operation of the early release scheme for short-term prisoners.

Question reference: S7W-02864

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reintroduce previously applied local connection rules for access to social housing and, in light of reported concerns that people with longstanding connections to communities may be disadvantaged in accessing social housing, what safeguards are in place to ensure that the allocation of social housing does not unfairly disadvantage Scottish residents.

The Scottish Government has no plans to reintroduce previous local connection rules for homeless households.

Social landlords are responsible for the allocation of their housing, and each landlord’s approach is set out within their published Allocations Policy. Allocations policies give priority to homeless people and those threatened with homelessness who have unmet housing needs; people living in unsatisfactory housing conditions with unmet housing needs; and tenants occupying homes that are under-occupied. A decision to allocate housing is based on a fair, transparent and objective assessment of an applicant’s housing need.

Question reference: S7O-00288

Asked by: Thomas Kerr, MSP for Glasgow, Reform UK
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider a ban on all face coverings in public places, including balaclavas and the burqa.