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-38540

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the reasons for the reported 30% increase in road deaths from 2023, and what its position is on whether its current road safety strategy is effective.

The Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024 publication shows that while overall casualties decreased in 2024, the number of fatalities increased by 9%.

This performance is not something we can accept, nor am I prepared to accept it. Every road death is one too many and the Scottish Government remains committed to the delivery of the Road Safety Framework to 2030 and eliminating road deaths and serious injuries by 2050.

To support this, we are investing a record £48 million in road safety in 2025-26 to deliver targeted, evidence-led initiatives aimed at reducing road casualties and enhancing safety across Scotland’s roads.

On the 26 March, I announced a Mid-term Review of the Framework would be undertaken. The review will cover our safety performance indicators, our road safety delivery, as well as a review of what high performing countries are doing so we can make the necessary changes to improve, not only our learning, but most importantly our road safety performance.

Question reference: S6W-38591

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been under section 2(1) of the Air Weapon and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since the Act came into force, broken down by sentence imposed.

The number of convictions and sentence imposed in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017 to 2022-23 are as follows:

People convicted in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017, 2016-17 to 2022-23

	Financial Year
	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Total convicted	3	56	92	92	54	72	50
Absolute discharge	.	3	1	6	1	4	.
Imprisonment	.	.	1	3	.	.	2
Fine	1	36	68	54	36	51	31
Community Payback Order	2	5	8	10	6	6	6
Admonished	.	9	11	19	11	9	8
No order made	.	.	.	.	.	1	.
Restriction of Liberty Order	.	3	3	.	.	1	3

Question reference: S6W-38571

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what share of the £1.64 billion policing budget is allocated to specialist sex crimes units.

Despite unprecedented challenges to public finances, the 2025-26 Scottish Police Authority budget has increased to £1.64 billion, an increase of almost £90 million when compared to the 2024-25 budget.

The operation of Police Scotland, including decisions on the allocation of resources and the deployment of officers and staff, is for the Chief Constable, under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. This includes the allocation of resources to specialist sex crimes units.

Question reference: S6W-38585

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to hold property factors accountable and to remove them from the Scottish Property Factor Register if they have breached the Code of Conduct.

The Scottish Government revised the Code of Conduct, in August 2021, to make it clearer, to drive up standards and to improve transparency and consistency, supporting homeowners to challenge poor performance, using the Tribunal as necessary.

In considering the continued registration of a property factor, or of any application to enter the register, the Scottish Ministers will take steps as set out in the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 including, amongst other things, consideration of the extent to which a property factor has complied with the Code of Conduct and with any property factor enforcement order made by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Failure to comply with an Order is a criminal offence.

The Housing Bill (Scotland) contains minor adjustments to improve the effectiveness of the property factor registration processes. Ministers have committed to undertaking a review of the property factor regulatory regime.

Question reference: S6W-38527

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many lives it estimates could be saved annually by completing the dualling of the (a) A9 and (b) A96.

Question reference: S6W-38581

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37676 by Fiona Hyslop on 4 June 2025, what action it will take to ensure that the current transport needs of island communities are met until the new vessels begin sailing on the Northern Isles Ferry Service route, in light of reports that there are currently issues regarding capacity.

The operator, NorthLink Ferries is tasked with making the best use of available vessel and port resources at all times. The current contract allows flexibility within the timetable to manage demand across the year and from sector to sector. Transport Scotland and NorthLink will continue to work closely with freight companies, producers, and communities to understand and manage existing and future demands as efficiently as possible in advance of new tonnage arriving.

Additionally, we continue to task CMAL and Serco NorthLink Ferries with sourcing additional second-hand tonnage that could be added to the Northern Isles fleet to improve services and bring additional reliability, capacity, and resilience.

Question reference: S6W-38566

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that cladding remediation costs do not worsen housing affordability or new build viability.

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressures on the sector including affordability and ensuring the right conditions are created for building new homes.

The funding of cladding assessment, mitigatory and remedial works in Scotland will require collective action taken by central Government, building owners in social housing and developers.

The Government announced earlier this year that it was setting up a £10m fund for owners (including those in the social housing sector) to apply for funding to have their building assessed using the Single Building Assessment Standard. Owners or their representatives can express interest in the scheme through the Single Open Call on the Scottish Government website, available here: Cladding Remediation: Single Open Call for Expressions of Interest - mygov.scot.

In addition, the Developer Remediation Contract (DRC) once signed will ensure developers take responsibility for remediation. However, developers who do not have an annual operating profit of £10m on average are not being invited to sign the contract, aligning with the position in England.

We have already committed to setting out an approach to funding the social housing sector where mitigation and or remedial works would threaten the financial viability of the respective Registered Social Landlord and Local Authority.

Question reference: S6W-38590

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions there have been under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 in each year since the Act came into force.

The number of prosecutions in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017, to 2022-23, is noted below. Criminal proceedings data was most recently published in December 2024.

People prosecuted in Scottish courts where the main charge was under section 2(1) of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 since it came into force on 20 December 2017, 2016-17 to 2022-23.

	Financial Year
	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Total prosecuted	3	62	100	99	58	77	58
Acquitted	.	6	8	7	4	5	8
Convicted	3	56	92	92	54	72	50

Question reference: S6W-38570

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of rape cases reported in the past five years have resulted in a conviction.

It is not possible to provide this information.

The most recent available data on conviction rates for rape and attempted rape were published in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2022-23. The figures for the most recent available five years are set out in Table 1. This shows the conviction rates for people prosecuted in court.

Table 1: Conviction rate for rape and attempted rape

Main crime or offence	2018-19	2019-20	2020-211	2021-221	2022-23
Rape & attempted rape	45%	43%	52%	48%	54%

Notes:

1.Data for 2020-21 and 2021-22 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be indicative of longer-term trends.

The most recent data on crimes and offences recorded and cleared up by Police Scotland were published in Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24. The figures for the last five years of recorded rape and attempted rape data are set out in Table 2.

Table 2: Number of rapes and attempted rapes reported to Police Scotland

Sexual crimes	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Rape & attempted rape	2,343	2,298	2,498	2,529	2,522
Rape	2,213	2,176	2,370	2,411	2,395
Attempted rape	130	122	128	118	127

It is not possible to combine the data on the number of crimes reported to the police (from the Recorded Crime statistics) with the conviction rate for people prosecuted in courts (from the Criminal Proceedings statistics) to arrive at a reliable estimate of the proportion of cases reported that result in a conviction. That is because the data sets measure different things, and the data sets are not linked to each other.

Recorded Crime in Scotland counts crimes reported to police whereas Criminal Proceedings in Scotland counts people by main charge. A single case may include one or more accused persons and one or multiple crimes. In addition, it is not possible to identify from the data when a crime reported in any given year is prosecuted in court: the number of people prosecuted for rape and attempted rape in one year cannot be seen as a subset of the number of crimes reported in that year.

Question reference: S6W-38518

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30469 by Fiona Hyslop on 1 November 2024, whether it will provide an update on the number of commercial (a) vehicles carried and (b) vehicle lane metres used in (i) 2024 and (ii) 2025, broken down by individual routes.

Transport Scotland does not hold this information. However, CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL) has provided the information as they do capture the number of Commercial Vehicles carried, and the number of Commercial Vehicle lane metres used.

A table has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib Number 65902) that provides a breakdown, by individual routes and calendar year from 10 October 2024 up until June 2025, detailing the total number of Commercial Vehicles carried and the total number of Commercial Vehicle lane metres used only.

This information will now be available via the CalMac website by following the link

https://corporate.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/about-us/performance-reports/island-performance/.