Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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-38935

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an economic impact assessment of its policy against the building of new nuclear power stations under current technologies.

Question reference: S6W-38934

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the role of nuclear energy in supporting industrial growth and reducing energy costs.

Question reference: S6W-38932

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs it estimates have been lost in Scotland due to its policy against the building of new nuclear power stations under current technologies.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested and has not had any recent discussions with the UK Government regarding Scotland's participation in the nuclear energy programme.

The Scottish Government has been clear that it does not support the building of new nuclear power stations under current technologies due to the legacy of radioactive waste that is created and the cost of nuclear development. Regarding cost, the Seventh Carbon Budget, published in March 2025, shows that the unit cost of onshore wind capacity in 2025 is £1410/KW compared to £12920/KW for nuclear.

The Scottish Government is instead focussed on supporting the deployment of renewables, which are both cheaper and faster to deploy than nuclear. This focus is delivering benefits to Scotland’s people and economy, with the Fraser of Allander Institute Report, published in May 2025, finding that Scotland hosts a thriving renewable energy sector, which supported approximately £15.5 billion of output, £6.6 billion of Gross Value Added (GVA), and more than 47,000 jobs in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-38933

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding Scotland’s participation in the nuclear energy programme, which was announced in the UK Spending Review 2025.

Question reference: S6W-39129

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that almost 400 landlords are leaving the rental market every month.

Question reference: S6W-38927

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 21 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Grangemouth, how many of the 80 reported investment approaches have been formally progressed.

Scottish Enterprise continues to work at pace to triage enquiries and identify a route forward for viable proposals at Grangemouth, with a focus on how the public sector might be able to support the deployment of near term propositions. Ministers are receiving regular updates on the most viable proposals that have emerged from the triaging process, and ways in which they could be deployed, via the Grangemouth Investor Taskforce.

Question reference: S6W-38926

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported decision to provide medical aid to Ukraine for civilian use only was signed off by the First Minister or a cabinet secretary, and whether it will publish any related decision-making record.

The decision to approve the donation of the surplus NHS Scotland medical supplies to Ukraine was made jointly by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself. The submission, dated 18 September 2024, was released under FOI/202500451642. The transport of the medical equipment was provided as Official Development Assistance which, according to The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD, cannot be spent on military aid and this is a rule that the UK as a whole, including Scotland, adheres to.

Question reference: S6W-38680

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 21 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the total cost of all public inquiries in each year since 2015.

Public inquiries are independent of the Scottish Government. Publication of information on costs is a matter for each individual inquiry and its Chair, and is typically done via their website. For inquiries established under the Inquiries Act 2005 there is a statutory duty on the Chair to "act with regard to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost" (s. 17(3)).

The Finance and Public Affairs Committee is currently undertaking a review of the cost effectiveness of Scottish public inquiries. As part of that review, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre produced a document detailing the cost of Scottish Inquiries, which is published on the Committee's web page Cost-effectiveness of Scottish public inquiries - updated costs of 29 May 2025 (parliament.scot) The Committee also wrote to all current or ongoing inquiries asking for details of their costs. Responses were provided by the individual inquiries and have been published on the Committee's web page.

Question reference: S6W-39157

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 18 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it (a) can do and (b) is doing to support the Type 26 and Type 31 frigate orders being delivered at the Clyde shipyards.

The shipbuilding sector plays a vital role in supporting jobs and driving economic growth across Scotland. We are committed to promoting manufacturing and innovation, and Ministers continue to engage with businesses in the sector as part of that commitment.

We are investing up to £2 million to develop engineering skills in the Glasgow City Region. This initiative has been designed by the Clyde Maritime Cluster in partnership with Skills Development Scotland.

In addition, Scottish Enterprise has recently provided a £7.4 million Research and Development grant and a £1.8 million Training Aid grant to BAE Systems to help them maximise skills development and support the establishment of a collegiate training facility which will provide access to the broader industry through the Applied Shipbuilding Academy, which is overseen by BAE Systems as custodians of the Glasgow shipyards.

Question reference: S6W-39148

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reform Social Security Scotland in order to deliver better value for money.

Social Security Scotland is successfully delivering 16 benefits - seven of them only available in Scotland. Since it was established in 2018 it has provided essential support to help more than one million people heat their homes, feed their families and meet the additional costs of disability.

The importance of value for money is clearly stated in the unanimously agreed Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 and was reiterated by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in her Medium Term Financial Strategy statement on 25 June where she set out Social Security Scotland’s “focus on how to process and deliver benefits with dignity, fairness and respect, while driving important efficiency savings and ensuring that people access the support they are entitled to.”