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-40225

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Retail Consortium’s suggestion in its Scottish Budget 2026-27 recommendations paper that funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce should be sustained and ideally enhanced for the coming year.

Question reference: S6W-40269

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

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of a net loss of over 30,000 private landlords since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-40238

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

To ask the Scottish Government what pilots are operating for lung cancer screening, and what interim results have been reported.

Question reference: S6W-40278

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

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered narrowing the tax divergence between Scotland and the rest of the UK for business rates.

Question reference: S6W-40243

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

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish in full the evaluation reports from the public-sector four-day-week pilots, including productivity, cost and service-quality data.

Question reference: S6W-40254

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

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish Fire and Rescue Service stations require major works to (a) provide separate facilities for women firefighters and (b) meet modern health and safety standards.

Question reference: S6W-40234

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

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made of the outcomes of take-home naloxone and opioid-substitution programmes in prisons, including relapse and re-offending rates post-release.

Question reference: S6W-40290

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

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent reports regarding the quality of police officer uniforms, what assessment it has made of the impact of poor-quality uniforms on officer safety, morale and operational effectiveness.

Question reference: S6W-40261

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the commitment in its Programme for Government 2025-26 to set out its "priorities for future reform of school education by June 2025, appointing an experienced headteacher to lead this work".

I am pleased to advise Parliament that John Wilson, the recently retired headteacher of Broughton High School in Edinburgh has been appointed as an Independent Professional Adviser to Scottish Ministers to lead on this work.

Mr Wilson will provide advice and recommendations to Scottish Ministers on what further reforms of school education could be made following the passage of the Education (Scotland) Act by the Scottish Parliament to ensure that we have an education system fit for the future to deliver equity and excellence for all.

Drawing on his experience of 30 years of working in the education system, Mr Wilson will be focussed on three key areas - education governance, where he will be assessing the areas where further focus and activity is required to support school leaders; school funding, where he will reflect on 10 years of the Scottish Attainment Challenge Fund; and support for improvement, where he will be looking to establish what more could be done to ensure more consistent outcomes for secondary schools.

He will be guided in his work by an advisory group made up of experienced headteachers and other education system leaders; and by headteacher panels which have been set up and which I will chair.

Question reference: S6T-02626

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the overall increase in recorded crimes in the past year, including rape, violent crime, antisocial behaviour and shoplifting.