Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-37834

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any inflationary impact of the NHS pay deal.

Question reference: S6W-37840

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any link between teacher assessed grades and the reported increase in university drop-out rates.

Question reference: S6W-37852

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the University of Edinburgh regarding reports that the university plans to reduce jobs by up to 1,750.

Question reference: S6W-37776

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37224 by Ivan McKee on 13 May 2025, what the average occupancy rate has been over the last five years for its offices at (a) 10 Commerce Street (Fraserburgh Fishery Office), (b) 28 Cunzie Street (Anstruther Fishery Office), (c) 40 Hall Street (Campbeltown Fishery Office), (d) 5 Atlantic Quay, (e) 7 Ferry Terminal Building (Kirkwall Fishery Office), (f) AB1 Building, (g) Alexander Fleming House, (h) Alexandra Buildings (Lerwick Fishery Office), (i) Bothwell House (Ground and First Floors), (j) Brooms Road - Dumfries, (k) Bute House, (l) Caley Building (Peterhead Fishery Office), (m) Charlotte House, (n) Compass House, (o) Culag Pier (Lochinver Fishery Office), (p) Custom House (Stornoway Fishery Office), (q) Denholm House, (r) Fishmarket Building (Eyemouth Fishery Office), (s) Garage No.2 Lockup, North St, Fraserburgh, (t) Hadrian House, (u) Harbour Buildings (Mallaig Fishery Office), (v) Inchbraoch House, (w) James Street, (x) Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 7, (y) Ocean Trade Centre, (z) Office at Tarbert Fish Market, (aa) Russell House, (ab) Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 5, (ac) Saughton House - land, (ad) Scotland House - Brussels, (ae) Scotland House - London, (af) St Ola House (Scrabster Fishery Office), (ag) Strathearn House, (ah) The Douglas Centre (Buckie Fishery Office), (ai) The Island Centre, Crossapol, (aj) The Links, Golspie, (ak) The Zoology Building, (al) Unit 4, Seagate, Peterhead, (am) Unit 4B Kinlochleven Business Park, (an) Unit 5, Old Quay - Campbeltown and (ao) West Shore Street (Ullapool Fishery Office).

Question reference: S6W-37828

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what capital investment it has made to reduce water leakage since 2016.

Question reference: S6F-04139

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2025

To ask the First Minister, in light of it being almost five years since the Scottish Government committed to spending £60 million to renew every play park in Scotland and of reports that less than half of the funding has been spent, what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that children do not miss out on renewed facilities.

Question reference: S6W-37674

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it spent £2,609.78 on belongto.org on 12 March 2025.

The Ireland Scotland Joint Bilateral Review 2021-25, co-produced by both Scottish and Irish governments, recognises the strong cultural and people-to-people links between the two countries and commits to strengthening these.

The funding from the Scottish Government to Belong To in Ireland is a contribution to the Empowering Voices project, which is also supported by the Welsh Government and British Council. The project is coordinated by Belong To (Ireland), and involves LGBT Youth Scotland (Scotland), Education Authority (Northern Ireland), The Proud Trust (England), and Viva LGBT+ (Wales). The project provides a platform for young LGBT+ people from each of the five nations to share their lived experiences.

Question reference: S6W-36975

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the main reasons are for the highest S4 school leaver numbers in more than a decade, in light of recent statistics for 2023-24.

While the percentage of school leavers in S4 remains unchanged in 2023-24 from the previous year at 14.4%, we acknowledge the importance of understanding the factors influencing early school leaving.

After a rise last year, the Scottish Government have been exploring with partners factors influencing young people deciding to leave school at S4. These include the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis, and also an increase in availability of entry-level jobs.

We are continuing to work with our partners to find ways to support young people to stay in learning.

Scotland continues to demonstrate strong participation in education among 15–19-year-olds, as recognised by the OECD, with over half of pupils (57.1%) leaving school at S6.

Question reference: S6W-37026

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its public service reform programme, what proportion of its planned £280 million savings by the end of 2024-25 will have come from reductions in pay costs for the board members of (a) public sector and (b) other non-departmental bodies.

The Scottish Government is committed to driving key efficiency programmes such as Scottish Single Estates, Commercial Value for Money (CVfM), Collaborative Procurement frameworks, the Intelligence Automation Centre of Excellence, and Digital programme. There has been strong progress across these programmes which are expected to reach up to £280 million of cost avoidance and cash releasing savings over a two-year period by the end of 2024-25. This figure is not related to pay costs for board members of public sector or other non-departmental bodies.

Question reference: S6W-37641

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent steps it is taking in light of reports that nearly one in five people abandoned their call to NHS 24 in 2024.

Calls to the 111 service can go unanswered for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them – including an NHS 24 callback service during busier periods.

Other options include accessing self-care advice via the NHS Inform website or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

We continue to support NHS 24’s ongoing work to help reduce unanswered calls, including recently revising NHS 24’s key performance indicators to better reflect and understand the current demands on the service.

This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

In addition, over the past two financial years NHS 24 has received additional funding of £28.3m to support their wider role in the re-design of unscheduled care. This has allowed the service to boost their staffing numbers with 22 WTE additional clinicians recruited this year and the Service now almost at desired capacity in terms of call handlers.

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