- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many children have died in the past five years as a result of a late diagnosis of cancer.
Answer
Scottish Government does not hold this information.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that all perspectives, including those of women’s rights campaigners, are included in future stakeholder consultations on sex-based rights and equality policy.
Answer
There are many ways in which the Scottish Government consults citizens and organisations. For example, through written consultations, which are open to anyone who is interested in contributing their views, public and stakeholder meetings, focus groups, and questionnaires. In addition, the Scottish Government engages regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including organisations working to promote gender equality and women's rights.
We will shortly begin engaging with stakeholders and women with diverse lived experience on the development of a strategy to tackle gender inequality and realise the rights of women and girls and we will take steps to ensure that we hear the perspectives of a range of organisations that work with women and girls and advocate for their rights.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it is acceptable for different parts of the public sector to apply different policies regarding access to single-sex facilities.
Answer
It is not for the Scottish Government to issue immediate instructions or temporary guidance to public bodies or services, and we are not responsible for monitoring or enforcing compliance with the Equality Act 2010. That is the statutory role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Each public body should consider the impacts of the Supreme Court ruling and prepare for the updated Code of Practice from the EHRC.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued to the Care Inspectorate in relation to children in care and the protection of biological sex-based rights.
Answer
As an independent non-departmental body, the Care Inspectorate operates at arm’s length from Government and issues its own guidance independently from the Scottish Government to maintain its role as an impartial and objective regulator.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Care Inspectorate's Guidance for children and young people’s services on the inclusion of transgender including non-binary young people is compatible with the value of free speech.
Answer
As the Care Inspectorate is an independent non-departmental body, it operates at arm’s length from Government. The Care Inspectorate issues its own guidance independently from the Scottish Government to maintain its role as an impartial and objective regulator.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its potential applicability in Scotland, what analysis it has undertaken of Singapore’s low-tax regime, and whether it will consider measures to make Scotland a more competitive destination for business and talent.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to making Scotland a competitive destination for business and talent. While key tax powers such as Corporation Tax remain reserved to the UK Government, we use our limited devolved powers to deliver a fair, progressive tax system that raises significant revenue. Tax and economic policy decisions made by the UK Government have a direct impact on Scottish finances and the delivery of our priorities, including economic growth.
Since the introduction of Scottish Income Tax more taxpayers have come to Scotland than have left. In 2021-22, the latest year of data, net migration of taxpayers was positive across all tax bands and almost all age groups. We closely monitor the impacts of our policy decisions on taxpayers, businesses, and the economy using a range of evidence such as real time economic data, formal evaluations and engagement with stakeholders, including the business community. We are also committed to directly supporting businesses including maintaining the Small Business Bonus Scheme at the rates and thresholds introduced in 2023-24. This scheme remains the remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to attract inward investment in high value sectors, such as AI, advanced manufacturing and life sciences, in light of reports of Singapore’s targeted cluster model.
Answer
Scotland has a strong record in attracting foreign direct investment and our Inward Investment Plan (IIP) plays a central role in supporting this by targeting key sectors including HealthTech, energy transition and advanced manufacturing.
Scotland’s IIP outlines a plan for Scotland to be a leading destination for inward investment aligned with Scotland’s values of fair work, net zero and inclusive prosperity. It takes an evidence-led approach to identifying Scotland’s strengths, aligning these with current and projected global investment flows, and set out a series of actions to attract high quality inward investment to Scotland.
The Scottish Government and Enterprise Agencies work closely with both domestic and international businesses to secure and grow their operations in Scotland, ensuring long-term economic benefit and job creation.
ZeroAvia’s recent investment at Glasgow Airport, is one example of how our approach to inward investment, aligned with our values and net zero goals, is delivering real results, and creating high-value jobs. Scotland remains the top UK location for inward investment outside of London for the ninth year running, securing a record 142 projects in 2023 – a testament to the strength of our strong investment approach.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any inflationary impact of the NHS pay deal.
Answer
Forecasts for the Scottish economy, including inflation, are produced by the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission. Their most recent forecasts were published on 29 May (https://fiscalcommission.scot/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Scotlands-Economic-And-Fiscal-Forecasts-May-2025.pdf).
The Scottish Government has costed the one percentage point above inflation that the Agenda For Change pay deal for 2025-26 and 2026-27 guarantees and is monitoring monthly.
- 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 Jenny Gilruth on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many laptops it has purchased since 1 March 2020, broken down by the brand of laptop, and what the total cost was of these purchases.
Answer
Scottish Government centrally purchased 25,000 Chromebooks at a cost of £6m in 2020-21. A further 47,000 devices were centrally funded at this time but purchased locally. Decisions on device types were taken by each authority in line with their needs, and so SG does not hold this information. A total of £25m was provided for this investment. Additionally, we have allocated £10m in 2025-26 to continue improving digital access for learners.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37224 by Ivan McKee on 13 May 2025, what the average occupancy rate has been over the last five years for its offices at (a) 10 Commerce Street (Fraserburgh Fishery Office), (b) 28 Cunzie Street (Anstruther Fishery Office), (c) 40 Hall Street (Campbeltown Fishery Office), (d) 5 Atlantic Quay, (e) 7 Ferry Terminal Building (Kirkwall Fishery Office), (f) AB1 Building, (g) Alexander Fleming House, (h) Alexandra Buildings (Lerwick Fishery Office), (i) Bothwell House (Ground and First Floors), (j) Brooms Road - Dumfries, (k) Bute House, (l) Caley Building (Peterhead Fishery Office), (m) Charlotte House, (n) Compass House, (o) Culag Pier (Lochinver Fishery Office), (p) Custom House (Stornoway Fishery Office), (q) Denholm House, (r) Fishmarket Building (Eyemouth Fishery Office), (s) Garage No.2 Lockup, North St, Fraserburgh, (t) Hadrian House, (u) Harbour Buildings (Mallaig Fishery Office), (v) Inchbraoch House, (w) James Street, (x) Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 7, (y) Ocean Trade Centre, (z) Office at Tarbert Fish Market, (aa) Russell House, (ab) Kinlochbervie Fishery Office - Number 5, (ac) Saughton House - land, (ad) Scotland House - Brussels, (ae) Scotland House - London, (af) St Ola House (Scrabster Fishery Office), (ag) Strathearn House, (ah) The Douglas Centre (Buckie Fishery Office), (ai) The Island Centre, Crossapol, (aj) The Links, Golspie, (ak) The Zoology Building, (al) Unit 4, Seagate, Peterhead, (am) Unit 4B Kinlochleven Business Park, (an) Unit 5, Old Quay - Campbeltown and (ao) West Shore Street (Ullapool Fishery Office).
Answer
The Scottish Government does not have all the information requested because it does not retain data in relation to office usage for a period of time greater than 24 months. Furthermore, the Scottish Government can only provide data on those buildings where its own data systems are in place. Some locations have landlord data systems in place and the Scottish Government does not have access to that data.
Average occupancy levels are shown in the following table for the buildings where we hold this data, these are taken as an average of attendance levels for a full day every second Tuesday. Bothwell House closed for use by SG core staff in April 2025.
Building Name Average Occupancy rate |
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Atlantic Quay 5 (Glasgow) | 36.89% | 48.25% | 77.72% |
| | | |
Bute House (Edinburgh) | 39.82% | 63.71% | 50.59% |
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Bothwell House (Hamilton) | 9.25% | 6.25% | 8.33% |
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Compass House (Dundee) | 38.36% | 61.73% | 36.36% |
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Denholm House (Livingston) | 30.37% | 27.82% | 22.10% |
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Alexander Fleming House (Elgin) | 28.48% | 26.09% | 41.74% |
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Hadrian House (Falkirk) | 37.94% | 36.56% | 28.33% |
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Marine Scotland (Eyemouth) | 77.50% | 62.50% | 90.00% |
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Marine Scotland (Peterhead) | 16.65% | 26.25% | 7.00% |
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Saughton House (Edinburgh) | 16.97% | 21.42% | 23.84% |
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Scotland House (Brussels) | 54.84% | 55.72% | 55.00% |
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Scotland House (London) | 46.03% | 36.17% | 37.71% |
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Strathearn House (Perth) | 30.54% | 29.05% | 24.58% |