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-43691

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many modern language teachers have left the profession in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on whether teachers have left the profession; only whether they were teaching in a Scottish, publicly-funded school on census day in a particular year.

Changes in the full-time equivalent (FTE) of teachers by main or other subject taught over successive years can be found in the teacher census supplementary statistics table 3.9, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Data on subject taught from the 2025 school teacher census will be published in March 2026.

Question reference: S6W-43689

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many mental health or welfare-related call-outs police officers have attended in the last year.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering on mental health distress response, with continued delivery on Programme for Government commitments since 2023 to reducing mental health demands on police officers and protecting people in mental health distress through improved frontline multi-agency responses.

Data on Police response to mental health or welfare-related call-outs is not held by the Scottish Government. Statistics reported to the Scottish Police Authority Policing and Performance Committee in September 2025 show that mental health related incidents recorded by Police Scotland are dropping, so far reducing by 1% between 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-43690

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many police stations have (a) closed and (b) reduced their public counter hours since 2015.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of police stations closed since 2015. The management of the Police Scotland estate is an operational matter, and is the responsibility of the Chief Constable under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on public-facing Police Scotland counters. Decisions on the opening hours of public counters are also operational matters for the Chief Constable.

Community policing remains a priority for Police Scotland, and police officers will continue to be embedded in communities across the country.

Question reference: S6W-43687

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many retail workers have been threatened with weapons, including knives or machetes, in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Government does not have the information requested as the data we receive from Police Scotland is a simple count of the number and type of crimes and offences recorded. While we do hold data on Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker, we do not hold further details as to whether any of these crimes involved a weapon, including knives or machetes.

The number of recorded crimes of Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker in the last three years, from the most recent data available, is provided in the following table.

Police recorded crimes of threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker, year ending September 2023 to 2025, Scotland.

Year	Recorded Crimes
2023	2,604
2024	3,152
2025	3,465

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland: year ending September 2025 - gov.scot

Question reference: S6W-43688

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Police Scotland officer time is currently spent on non-crime-related activity.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government as the deployment of officers is a matter for the Chief Constable.

The Scottish Government recognises the hard work and valuable contribution that officers make daily to protecting our communities and is committed to reducing wider demands on policing. We are doing this by supporting initiatives such as Digital Evidence Sharing Capability and Summary Case Management, which has helped reduce the number of police officers having to attend court to give evidence. We have also continued with our delivery on Programme for Government commitments since 2023 to reducing mental health demands on police officers through improved frontline multi-agency responses.

Question reference: S6W-43693

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what legal advice it has received regarding pupils' rights to opt out of religious observance in schools.

Question reference: S6W-43692

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any shortages of qualified language teachers.

Local authorities are responsible for recruitment and retention of teachers in each council area.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of additional steps such as £186.5 million provided to local authorities in 2025-26 to protect and restore teachers numbers, including in hard to fill subjects like modern languages. These steps also include the launch in January 2026 of a new teacher recruitment campaign to encourage more students to take up a career in teaching in remote and rural areas and our £15,000 teaching bursary scheme to encourage career changers to become teachers.

Question reference: S6W-43685

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents, complaints or safeguarding referrals involving biologically male prisoners held in women’s prisons have been recorded since 2018.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS take all complaints seriously and ensures that they are dealt with in an effective manner, including the option to confidentially raise a concern directly with the Governor in Charge.

Due to changes in recording procedures - including Records System (PR2) capabilities, incident reporting changes and the application of two Transgender Policies during the relevant period, SPS cannot accurately provide the data requested.

Question reference: S6W-43686

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions have been brought under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 in each year since its enactment.

The following table provides data on proceedings under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021.

The most recent information on proceedings and convictions is available for the financial year 2023-24.

Number of people prosecuted in Scottish courts under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021, where main charge, 2021-22 to 2023-24.

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021	28	173	429

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: data for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are affected by the pandemic, subsequent court closures, reduced court capacity due to physical distancing measures and delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, and the subsequent court recovery from the pandemic and may not be considered indicative of long term trends.

Question reference: S6T-02910

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported disclosure that £96.2 million has been spent by NHS Scotland on damages, legal expenses and associated costs linked to maternity and obstetric care.