- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what role it has in overseeing financial agreements at Ferguson Marine; what its response is to reports that there was a “verbal agreement” with a subcontractor that led to the shipyard facing a bill for almost £48,000 in unpaid tax, and whether it was aware of any such deal.
Answer
The Framework Agreement that exists between Ferguson Marine and the Scottish Government, dated September 2024, outlines the role of the Scottish Government regarding the financial arrangements of the business. The agreement is available from the website of Ferguson Marine.
The Scottish Government was not made aware of the agreement made by the former CEO of Ferguson Marine, David Tydeman, with a subcontractor that resulted in unpaid tax until it was reported to the Chair, the Board of Ferguson Marine, and the sponsor department.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any informal pay arrangements at Ferguson Marine and, if so, what action it has taken in response to these.
Answer
The current The Chief Financial Officer David Dishon has confirmed to the Scottish Government that there are no informal pay arrangements at Ferguson Marine.
Should any pay settlements be required, Ferguson Marine have to go through the Remuneration Committee, the FMPG Board, and also Scottish Government officials for clearance.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish any data analysis that it has carried out on any regional differences in health outcomes for young women.
Answer
Our Women’s Health Plan Data Landscape Review examined the publicly available data on the health of women in Scotland and is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-health-plan-review-data-landscape.
This report highlights the data and data sources that are available on health outcomes for women and girls in Scotland and includes information on young women.
The report covers data at Scotland level, but much of these data are disaggregated by age and region, health board or local authority at the data source.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Business and Employment met representatives of PetroChina during his visit to Beijing on 9 April 2025, and, if so, for what reason, and what the outcomes of the meeting were.
Answer
On 9 April, the Minister for Business and Employment met the vice president of PetroChina and the China National Petroleum Cooperation to discuss our shared ambitions for the future of the Grangemouth refinery site. It was agreed that the Scottish Government and PetroChina will continue to explore all routes to deployment of new industrial and employment opportunities at Grangemouth.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37224 by Ivan McKee on 13 May 2025, what the annual running cost was for each of its offices from January to December 2024.
Answer
The following table shows the annual total running costs for each of the leased Scottish Government offices as per the response to question S6W-37224. These figures include all associated costs for running each office building and cover January to December 2024.
Property | Total running costs |
10 Commerce Street (Fraserburgh Fishery Office) | £29,809.00 |
28 Cunzie Street (Anstruther Fishery Office) | £32,356.75 |
40 Hall Street (Campbeltown Fishery Office) | £25,895.50 |
5 Atlantic Quay | £3,982,638.25 |
7 Ferry Terminal Building (Kirkwall Fishery Office) | £36,320.00 |
AB1 Building | £77,675.50 |
Alexander Fleming House | £139,131.50 |
Alexandra Buildings (Lerwick Fishery Office) | £64,520.00 |
Bothwell House (Ground and First Floors) | £50,159.25 |
Brooms Road - Dumfries | £379,197.75 |
Caley Building (Peterhead Fishery Office) | £94,501.00 |
Charlotte House | £205,861.75 |
Compass House | £107,486.25 |
Culag Pier (Lochinver Fishery Office) | £17,765.75 |
Custom House (Stornoway Fishery Office) | £48,248.50 |
Denholm House | £231,818.50 |
Fishmarket Building (Eyemouth Fishery Office) | £29,355.75 |
Hadrian House | £125,719.50 |
Harbour Buildings (Mallaig Fishery Office) | £18,971.75 |
Inchbraoch House | £69,534.75 |
Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 5 | £1,985.00 |
Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 7 | £17,557.75 |
Office at Tarbert Fish Market | £3,759.50 |
Russell House | £529,154.00 |
Scotland House - Brussels | £282,994.08 |
Scotland House - London | £753,112.00 |
St Ola House (Scrabster Fishery Office) | £83,325.25 |
Strathearn House | £954,122.75 |
The Douglas Centre (Buckie Fishery Office) | £17,243.25 |
The Island Centre, Crossapol | £31,108.75 |
The Links, Golspie | £42,587.00 |
Unit 4B Kinlochleven Business Park | £157,549.00 |
Unit 5, Old Quay - Campbeltown | £3,884.50 |
West Shore Street (Ullapool Fishery Office) | £41,350.25 |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the total lease cost is for its offices at (a) Tankerness Lane, Kirkwall, (b) Longman House, Inverness, (c) Marine Scotland (Eyemouth), (d) Marine Scotland (Peterhead), (e) St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, (f) Cadzow Court, Hamilton and (g) 4 Atlantic Quay, Glasgow.
Answer
Tankerness Lane, Kirkwall; Longman House, Inverness; St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh and Cadzow Court, Hamilton are all owned under the core Scottish Government core estate.
The lease at 4 Atlantic Quay, Glasgow expired on 14 July 2024. Therefore, there are no lease costs applicable to these properties.
For the remaining properties, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37224 on 13 May 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many working groups currently exist within its (a) departments and (b) agencies, and how this compares with each year since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24570 on 29 January 2024.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many incidents of aggression or violence towards female teachers in schools have been recorded in the past five years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as local authorities are the employer of school staff. Local authorities may hold this information.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which international markets are currently being prioritised by Scottish Development International, and for what reasons.
Answer
Scottish Development International prioritised 26 international markets as set out in our export strategy, A Trading Nation, which is available on the gov.scot website. At the time of publication in 2019, these 26 markets account for 80% of strongest export growth opportunities.
These priority markets were selected using a comprehensive evidenced based approach that reviewed over fifteen years of Scottish export data, alongside fifteen economic and political variables, to better focus Scottish Development International export support to match Scottish exports strengths with international demand.
The Scottish Government recently concluded further work on updating our priority markets. This revised list will ask SDI to transition towards focusing on twenty priority markets and six Special Interest Markets that have near term potential for export growth. The revised list is as follows.
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| Belgium Denmark France Germany Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Spain Sweden Switzerland | | |
Special Interest Markets include: Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Ukraine.
For opportunities in other markets SDI will leverage the international network of the Department of Business and Trade, and the expertise of our Global Scots, Trade Envoys.
The Scottish Government plan to publish the priority market update, including a methodology note, in due course.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 1 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions for group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse there have been since 2010.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
The Scottish Government publishes data on individuals prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. Although this data set includes information on individual charges prosecuted (e.g., those under Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 Part 4 Children) it does not allow for group-based charges to be identified.
We have been in touch with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, who confirmed that they are unable to provide this information, as group-based crimes cannot be reliably identified from their data either.
