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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 MSPs 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

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Question reference: S6W-39747

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how Scotland’s income tax divergence with the rest of the UK impacts on talent attraction and retention.

Scottish Income Tax is forecast to raise a record £20.5 billion in 2025-26, £763 million more than they forecast at the Scottish Budget last year. We continue to use the additional revenue raised to support our investment in public services.

Latest figures show that Scotland continues to attract taxpayers from the rest of the UK with net migration of taxpayers positive across all tax bands and almost all age groups in 2021-22 Intra-UK migration of individuals: movements in numbers and income - GOV.UK.

Question reference: S6W-39939

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recently reported finding by the General Medical Council of an increase in the frequency of care failings in Scotland compared with a reduction in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S6W-39940

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent steps it is taking in response to the General Medical Council’s reported finding that 46% of doctors in Scotland witness patient safety failures weekly.

Question reference: S6W-39938

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the General Medical Council’s finding that Scotland performed worse than the UK average in 2024 on patient safety, and what it is doing to reverse this trend.

The Scottish Government welcomes the findings from the General Medical Council Report, and we will ensure any concerns raised are fully considered and addressed.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with Boards and Healthcare Improvement Scotland to discuss what actions can be taken to continue to build on the programmes of work already in place to improve the quality and safety of care delivered to patients in Scotland and to ensure a co-ordinated and holistic approach. These programmes and legislation include;

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme, underpinned by the Essentials of Safe Care, which is currently being refreshed for re-launch in October 2025.
Safe Delivery of Care Inspections, which were expanded in January 2025 to include inspection of maternity services.
A National Framework for Reviewing and Learning from Adverse Events in NHS Scotland, updated in February 2025, which provides a system-wide approach for identifying, reviewing, and learning from events.
The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland), which came into force on 1 April 2024, puts systems and processes in place to enable real-time assessment of staffing.
The Scottish National Audit Programme recently commissioned new audits which aim to improve service provision and patient outcomes

In addition, the Scottish Government introduced legislation for a Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland. Scotland’s first Patient Safety Commissioner, Karen Titchener, took up her post on 1 September.

A Quality and Safety Sub-group of the NHS Scotland Executive Group, chaired by Dr John Harden, Scottish Government National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety, meets regularly to review data and reports from across the system, including the above programmes, to support improvement in the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided by NHS Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39937

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have died or suffered serious harm in the past five years in circumstances linked to delays in emergency or corridor care.

Question reference: S6W-40106

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of workers made redundant by the closure of the Petroineos refinery who have secured new employment within the Grangemouth industrial cluster.

Question reference: S6W-39766

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what procedures are in place to ensure that any statements by its ministers on international law are properly verified.

Question reference: S6W-39994

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many workers made redundant by the closure of the Petroineos refinery in Grangemouth have received skills support from Forth Valley College.

The Scottish Government is working with Forth Valley College, UK Government, Skills Development Scotland and Petroineos as part of the Refinery Skills Intervention, which is currently ongoing.

To date the skills intervention targeted at Petroineos workers has had a high uptake. As of 20 August, 306 workers have enrolled in the reskilling programme and over 200 workers have either completed training or are actively undergoing retraining. The remaining individuals who are registered for training will commence according to redundancy schedule and personal preference.

Question reference: S6W-40267

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-39764

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 2 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what legal advice it received before its ministers publicly stated its position that Israel is committing genocide.