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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2049 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-40455

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that it has abandoned its zero tolerance policy on knife crime.

In 2016, Scottish Government legislation came into force that increased the maximum sentence for weapons possession from four years to five years. The average length of custodial sentence for weapons possession in 2022-23 was 332 days; this compares with 218 days in 2007-08 and represents an increase of 52%.

The investigation of knife crime is an independent operational matter for Police Scotland. The prosecution of knife crime is an independent operational matter for COPFS. Sentencing in any given case is a matter for the independent court within the overall legal framework.

Question reference: S6W-40454

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what proportion of people convicted of knife crime possession in each of the last four years have received the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.

Section 49 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 provides for a custodial sentence of up to 5 years for the offence of having an article with a blade or point in a public place. In any given case, sentencing is a matter for the independent court. They take into account all the facts and circumstances of a case before imposing a sentence within the legal framework. It is not possible to disaggregate these figures by the specific type of weapon involved (e.g. knife).

Over the last four financial years, for which data is available, there was only one custodial sentence of 5 years or more under this section of the Act, in 2019-20.

This sentence exceeds the statutory maximum and may reflect either additional charges being dealt with concurrently or an aggravation, rather than a sentence based solely on the possession offence alone. This represented approximately 0.09% of all (1,141) convictions under this section of the Act in that financial year. Please note that the latest criminal proceedings data is for 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-40389

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government (a) what the cost has been of and (b) how much time has been spent on inspection and repair work between the St Ann’s and Keithock junctions of the A90 near Brechin, (i) in each year since 2015 and (ii) since April 2025.

The cost of repair work on the A90 between St Ann’s and Keithock junctions near Brechin is not available. This is because expenditure is not recorded for specific sections of the trunk road. Instead, costs are collated and reported as a total spend for the A90 as a whole. The following table shows the expenditure breakdown for the A90 as a whole for the years 2015-2025.

Year	Expenditure
2015-16	£7,217,750
2016-17	£8,434,733
2017-18	£11,991,347
2018-19	£12,963,705
2019-20	£12,486,316
2020-21	£20,673,965
2021-22	£23,045,538
2022-23	£22,553,979
2023-24	£21,685,051
2024-25	£25,717,305
Total	£166,769,689

The Operating Company for the A90, Amey, undertake two driven safety inspections weekly and an annual walked survey. Any defects identified are repaired in accordance with contractual requirements.

Question reference: S6O-04962

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scotland will see the slowest GVA growth of the devolved nations over the next three years, according to the EY UK Regional Economic Forecast 2025.

Question reference: S6W-40337

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Drug Treatment and Testing Orders were imposed in each calendar year from 2021 to June 2025, and how many were successfully completed in each of those years.

Across Scotland from April 2020 to March 2024 a total of 1,179 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) were imposed by the courts. There were 743 DTTOs completed or subject to early discharge from the court on the basis of sufficient progress being observed between April 2020 and March 2024.

Please note, Justice Social Work data is published by financial year. Data for 2024-25 will be published in January 2026.

The breakdown of DTTOs imposed in this period and the number of completions is in the following table. Please also note that orders can be completed in a different year from which they were imposed.

Year		Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed	Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) finished which were successfully completed or had an early discharge
2020-21	Scotland	228	259
2021-22	Scotland	368	170
2022-23	Scotland	303	161
2023-24	Scotland	280	153

The information for years 2020-21 to 2023-24 for Scotland is published in the – Table DTTO_7 and DTTO_15.

It should be noted that the trend data supplied was affected by the Coronavirus (Covid) pandemic. There were significant public health measures, including two national lockdowns, in place during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 recording years. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years to other years.

Question reference: S6W-40225

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Retail Consortium’s suggestion in its Scottish Budget 2026-27 recommendations paper that funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce should be sustained and ideally enhanced for the coming year.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling retail crime was reaffirmed in our Programme for Government, which makes clear our strong support for Police Scotland’s robust approach in addressing this issue.

The Scottish Government has commenced work on the 2026-27 Budget and the Scottish Spending Review in order to set out our spending plans to 2029-30.

Policing is a priority for the Scottish Government, as demonstrated by investing more than £14.6 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013.

Question reference: S6W-40336

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Drug Treatment and Testing Orders were imposed in Edinburgh in each calendar year from 2021 to June 2025.

From April 2020 to March 2024 there were 202 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed in Edinburgh.

Please note, Justice Social Work data is published by financial year. Data for 2024-25 will be published in early 2026.

The breakdown is as follows:

Year	Local Authority	Number of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) imposed
2020-21	Edinburgh, City of	55
2021-22	Edinburgh, City of	92
2022-23	Edinburgh, City of	26
2023-24	Edinburgh, City of	29

This information is published in the – Table DTTO_7.

Question reference: S6O-04899

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the justification was at the time for the purchase of Glen Prosen by Forestry and Land Scotland in November 2022, with a reported cost to the public of £17.6 million.

Question reference: S6T-02626

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the overall increase in recorded crimes in the past year, including rape, violent crime, antisocial behaviour and shoplifting.

Question reference: S6O-04882

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what alternatives are being piloted to enable older patients to be cared for outside of hospitals.