- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has reportedly been a reduction of nearly 800 police officers since 2013, and what plans it has to reverse any such trend.
Answer
The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable. The Scottish Government has increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17, investing more than £14.6 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013, with £1.64 billion being invested this year. Scottish Government funding in 2024-25 enabled Police Scotland to undertake the highest level of recruitment since its inception and Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales.
The Chief Constable has made it clear that she intends to bring the frontline of policing to its strongest possible position and that frontline strength goes beyond an overall officer headcount to focus on the whole policing workforce. Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out an ambitious programme of workforce modernisation, reducing back-office duplication and creating capacity to deal with new and emerging threats. The current Police Scotland workforce figures indicate that the total policing workforce stands at 22,482 (FTE).
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to close the reported (a) funding gap faced by Integration Joint Boards and (b) £560 million NHS-related deficit.
Answer
We sympathise with the pressure the social care sector is facing and that is one of the reasons that the 2025-26 budget includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration – exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by almost £350 million. At £21.7 billion, the overall financial envelope for Health and Social Care also reached record levels.
However it is important to note that while the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, it is for local authorities and health boards to work with the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to ensure that social care support services are in place to provide people with the appropriate support.
While agreeing budgets is the responsibility of partnerships, The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the health and social care sector to understand key pressures and opportunities to ensure we achieve best value of money and improve the outcomes of our population.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to restore police officer numbers to 2013 levels, and, if so, what its timeline is for achieving this.
Answer
The recruitment and deployment of police officers is a matter for the Chief Constable.
Police Scotland’s three-year Business Plan 2024-2027 sets out the Chief Constable’s vision of a thriving workforce which goes beyond an overall officer headcount and that of a police workforce which includes police staff.
The Chief Constable aims to make maximum impact with a workforce that has the right skills and capacity to keep people safe. Through the Chief Constable’s workforce modernisation plan, Police Scotland are developing an operating model that will create capacity to deal with new and increasing threats by moving more officers to frontline roles, to strengthen community confidence.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported recommendation from the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents to end routine police involvement in social media disputes.
Answer
The deployment of officers and staff is a matter for the Chief Constable. It is vital that the Chief Constable has the flexibility to develop her workforce to respond to new and emerging operational demands.
Investigation of reports to Police Scotland are quite rightly operational matters for the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that every crime report is assessed for threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence, as soon as it is reported.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the detailed Project Willow report by EY-Parthenon and in relation
to Project 4, how it plans to increase the production of Scottish softwood from
approximately 6.2 Mtpa in 2023 to approximately 10.1 Mtpa by 2040, as set out
at page 88 of the report.
Answer
Forest Research publishes production forecasts every 5 years for softwood availability in Scotland and the UK. The most recent forecast, published in 2022, estimates that over 8 million cubic metres (m3) of softwood is currently available annually in Scotland. The current the average annual harvest is 6.82 million m3.
The volume forecast to be available annually by 2040 is expected to rise to over 12 million m3. This means that if demand increased to 10 million m3 by 2040, approximately 2 million m3 of surplus timber would still be available.
Project Willow predicts a requirement of 2.1 million m3 of feedstock by 2040 under their growth case scenario. This is just over half the predicted increase in timber availability over that period.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported £10,000 budget for the recent summit on "shared values" came from core ministerial spending, or a separate fund.
Answer
Costs for The Gathering were met from within relevant portfolio budgets which include budget cover for a range of day-to-day spend, including events and engagements.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to Police Scotland survey data, which reportedly shows that only 31% of officers feel supported by their executive team and many are leaving due to stress.
Answer
Officer wellbeing and retention are operational matters for Police Scotland. I refer the member to my response to S6W-35420 on 17 March.
The Chief Constable has stated to the Criminal Justice Committee that the wellbeing of police officers and staff is one of her main priorities. Police Scotland has made a £17 million investment in wellbeing, which includes a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme and enhanced occupational health services, to support officers and staff wellbeing.
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, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what accountability mechanisms are in place to monitor the delivery and impact of its Just Transition plans on energy workers.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the importance of accountability in relation to our plans for a just transition. This is why we established the Just Transition Commission in 2019 to advise on and scrutinise our journey to net zero.
The Commission has published a number of reports which consider our approach to delivering a just transition for energy workers. These include the July 2024 publication ‘A Just Transition for Grangemouth’, which has informed the development of our Grangemouth Just Transition Plan; and its most recent report, ‘A Just Transition for Aberdeen and the North East’. The Scottish Government accepts in principle the headline recommendations in the latter report, but will take time to consider them in detail, before providing a full response.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 19 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason £85,000 was provided to Sikh Sanjog between 2017-18 and 2020-21 as part of the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund; what this funding was used for, and what the outcomes were of the Open Door Project.
Answer
Answer expected on 19 June 2025
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) regarding political neutrality among publicly funded charities, and whether it is aware of any concerns that have been raised regarding so-called boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) advocacy.
Answer
We have not held specific discussions with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator on the political neutrality of charities that receive public funding.
We are not aware of concerns about any charities in relation to ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions advocacy’. As the Regulator is a non-ministerial office and independent of government, concerns about a charity’s conduct should be raised with them to determine their validity.
