- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 18 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 2 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the pledge in the Scottish National Party's 2026 manifesto to enact a statutory price cap on essential food items, what alternatives it has considered before pledging a statutory cap.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00062 on 2 June 2026. 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.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government when it will introduce a reformed National Performance Framework, in light of it pausing and abandoning its previously proposed national outcomes in 2025 after a full statutory review.
Answer
Following the statutory review, Ministers committed the Scottish Government to a period of reform of the National Performance Framework (NPF). During this period, no changes were made to the current national outcomes and indicators. These remain in operation as is the duty, under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, on public bodies to have regard to them.
We are making positive progress on reform of the NPF. The intention is to deliver a reformed NPF which will be Scotland’s wellbeing framework, setting the vision for the kind of Scotland we would all like to see, and providing strategic direction for better public services.
Subject to final decisions by Ministers, we expect to launch the reformed NPF and national outcomes soon. We will provide an update to Parliament in due course.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what the cost was of the National Performance Framework review process that was undertaken during the previous parliamentary session, the outcomes of which were not implemented.
Answer
Following the statutory review, Ministers have committed the Scottish Government to a programme of reform of the National Performance Framework (NPF).
Activity to support the review has been undertaken as part of the Scottish Government’s core business and delivered within existing staff and programme budgets. As such, a detailed breakdown of costs is not available, as expenditure is not routinely recorded against the NPF as a separate budget line.
Work to develop proposals for a reformed NPF is ongoing, with detailed options to be considered by Ministers. Subject to this process, we expect to publish a reformed NPF soon. An update will be provided to Parliament in due course.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Auditor General's reported assessment that an approach to public sector reform focused purely on controlling workforce numbers will not balance the public finances.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises that workforce measures alone are not sufficient to deliver the ambition for reforming public services. The Public Service Reform Strategy sets out a wider programme of reform, including prevention, service redesign and efficiency, with workforce one workstream of the 18 workstreams set out in the strategy. PSR is focussed on improving lives, reducing inequality and ensuring fiscal sustainability.
The Strategy sets out how reform contributes to fiscal sustainability across:
- Prevention: The Strategy emphasises the importance of shifting resource towards prevention to reduce avoidable demand on public services. Analysis published alongside the Strategy indicates that addressing key drivers of demand has the potential to avoid significant long-term public expenditure.
- Improving the quality, and reducing cost, of services through changing our service delivery mode. Through better joining up of services, we can improve the outcomes and experience of services for users (particularly those with disadvantage) and reduce the cost in the system of repeated assessments, telling stories multiple times and administrative costs.
- Efficiency – the Strategy also sets out a programme of efficiency and effectiveness measures, including a commitment to reduce annualised Scottish Government and public body corporate costs by £1 billion over five years.
Taken together, these measures reflect a system-wide approach to reform, rather than one focussed solely on workforce controls, and are intended to ensure that public services are sustainable while continuing to improve outcomes for people and communities.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what the responsibilities are of the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform.
Answer
The responsibilities of all Cabinet Secretaries are published on the Scottish Government website; the detailed responsibilities for the role of Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform is available here: Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform - gov.scot.
I am responsible for the overarching policy on Public Service Reform (PSR) including implementation of the PSR strategy (published June 2025) which sets out how we will increase the scale and pace of reform through changing our system of public services to be more preventative, joined up and efficient, to deliver excellent public services that are fiscally sustainable. Further, I am responsible for public bodies and public sector productivity and efficiency, procurement and shared services, and civil service operations and efficiency.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how many public bodies it plans to abolish or merge through the measures to be proposed in the Public Service Renewal Bill.
Answer
As committed to in our Public Service Reform Strategy the Scottish Government is working in partnership with public bodies to review the public service delivery landscape.
We want public bodies and Scottish Government, working individually and collectively, to continue to pursue all reasonable opportunities to maximise value from available resources. Specific proposals for public body rationalisation resulting from this work will be brought forward and where legislative change is necessary this will be taken forward through the Public Service Renewal Bill.
The number of Scottish public bodies under our control has reduced from 199 in 2007 to 134 as at May 2026.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will introduce the Public Service Renewal Bill, in light of its commitment to do so in the first year of the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The First Minister’s 100 days programme commits to developing outline plans that will facilitate delivery of public service renewal. This includes working in partnership with stakeholders, such as public bodies, and trade unions to scope plans for additional legislation to deliver this commitment.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how the proposed Public Service Renewal Bill will differ from the public body reduction already committed to in its Public Service Reform Strategy of June 2025.
Answer
A key strand of the 2025 Public Service Reform Strategy is to ensure that the service delivery landscape is proportionate, streamlined and designed to meet Scotland’s needs in the most efficient way by eliminating duplication. As part of this, we continue to engage and work in partnership with public bodies to bring forward specific proposals to streamline the landscape to deliver long term fiscal sustainability. A Public Service Renewal Bill will be necessary as part of this process to make any legislative changes required.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2026
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand the availability of venture capital funding to aid business growth.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2026
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 20 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on the (a) number of woodland creation schemes over 500 hectares that have been funded in each year since 2010 and (b) size of each of these schemes.
Answer
The Forestry Grant Scheme has funded 13 woodland creation projects over 500 hectares since 2015, the year the grant scheme opened.
Year | No. Projects > 500 ha | Project Size (hectares) |
2015 | 0 | - |
2016 | 1 | 559.13 ha |
2017 | 1 | 803.68 ha |
2018 | 0 | - |
2019 | 2 | 542.47 ha / 692.60 ha |
2020 | 0 | - |
2021 | 1 | 609.11 ha |
2022 | 3 | 740.84 ha / 711.78 ha / 623.16 ha |
2023 | 3 | 733.30 ha / 1,164.21 ha / 809.00 ha |
2024 | 1 | 710.62 ha |
2025 | 1 | 501.28 ha |
Statistics on the Forestry Grant Scheme are published monthly on the Scottish Forestry website, the January 2026 statistics are the latest available.
