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-28810

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) will be granted taught degree awarding power through secondary legislation, and, if so, within what timeframe.

Question reference: S6W-28811

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will grant Scotland’s Rural College taught degree awarding powers through secondary legislation for its veterinary training programme, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S6O-03662

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to local authorities whose housing stock and former housing stock requires demolition and rebuilding due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Question reference: S6W-28940

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has consented to Transport Scotland issuing a notice for the procurement of new rolling stock for ScotRail, and, if it is not the case, when it expects to do so.

Question reference: S6W-28939

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic value of a new train fleet procurement programme for ScotRail.

Question reference: S6W-28583

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 7 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27078 Natalie Don on 9 May 2024, in which it indicated its expectation that data on the scale, uptake and delivery models of breakfast provision across Scotland, both at local authority and schools' level, would be submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024, whether it has received this data, and, if this is not the case, what the reasons are for the delay in the data being provided, and when the Scottish Government will report on the next stages.

The Scottish Government has been working with AssistFM and Improvement Service to map existing breakfast provision across Scotland, including a survey to all primary and special schools to understand the scale and uptake of provision.

A report with the findings from the mapping exercise was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024. The findings are being used to inform the government’s approach and we will report any decisions made about next steps once the data has been fully considered.

Question reference: S6W-28490

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills held, between 1 April and 22 May 2024, to discuss its action plan on behaviour in schools, and what the outcomes were of any such meetings.

Between 1 April and 22 May 2024 I held four meetings to discuss the relationships and behaviour action plan:

? Two meetings with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS) on 16 April 2024 and 15 May 2024, the minutes of which are available at: .

? A meeting with Opposition Party Spokespeople on education on 16 April to discuss their priorities for the development of the action plan, with actions to provide further information and further explore some of the issues discussed.

? A meeting with the Head Teacher Taskforce on 22 May, the minutes of which can be found here:

Question reference: S6W-28481

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many discussions it has had with teaching organisations regarding its plans to deliver a national digital academy in 2024, and what the outcomes were of any such discussions.

Scottish Government and Education Scotland have begun user engagement around the development of a National Digital Academy. A survey capturing the views of 2,229 learners has been undertaken, and a series of interviews and focus groups have been held with learners, parents and virtual learning environment providers. Education Scotland will continue this engagement with teaching organisations and other national bodies over the next few months, with overall findings from engagement being shared in due course.

Question reference: S6W-28488

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it had (a) completed all the work required to produce and (b) finalised a draft action plan on behaviour in schools, prior to the commencement of the purdah period for the 2024 General Election.

The relationships and behaviour action plan had been agreed by the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS) at its meeting on 15 May 2024, subject to some identified drafting changes. The guidance was in the process of being finalised when the need to consider whether or not it could be published during the pre-election period arose. The guidance would otherwise have been published prior to the end of school year.

Question reference: S6W-28483

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many computing science teachers it expects will be recruited in 2024.

The recruitment of teachers is a matter for local authorities. Details on the number of teachers employed in Scotland’s schools will be available in the annual teacher census which is due to be published in December.

The university intake targets for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for the academic year 2024-25 are set by the Scottish Funding Council. The ITE target for Computing Science for 2024-25 is 52.