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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.

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Question reference: S6W-35065

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role it envisions for its economic agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway, in addressing the reported gender export gap and supporting women-led businesses to expand internationally.

The Scottish Government is committed to addressing the gender export gap in Scotland, confirmed by the findings in the recent Gender Export Gap research report.

Recognising the significant economic potential of women-led businesses, we are determined to ensure they are supported to expand internationally.

Our delivery agencies, including Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, play a pivotal role in delivering this support. Working with the Scottish Government, they will be instrumental in implementing the report's recommendations, providing tailored advice, assistance, and international market access opportunities to help women-led businesses succeed on the global stage. Through these efforts, we aim to foster a more inclusive and dynamic exporting landscape in Scotland.

The Gender Export Gap report and Scottish Government’s response to it is available here: Gender export gap report: response - gov.scot.

Question reference: S6W-35059

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many socially rented properties were vacant in each of the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area.

The information is not available in the format requested, however, the Scottish Government routinely publishes data on local authority voids, with the latest data available here: Housing statistics: Local authority housing stock - gov.scot.

Social housing landlords will start collecting data from 1 April 2025 which will report the number of self-contained properties void at the year end and, of those, the number that have been void for more than six months by category. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) will then collect this information in May 2026, to monitor performance over that year. In addition, the SHR has recently supported an ad hoc data collection on behalf of the Scottish Government, to collect information on empty homes/voids. The letter can be accessed here:Letter to Registered Social Landlords - collection of information on empty homes / voids | Scottish Housing Regulator.

THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Question reference: S6W-34832

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many stroke patients have required mechanical thrombectomy in each of the last five years, and what proportion of these procedures took place outside daytime hours.

Question reference: S6W-34833

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what impact adopting the BE FAST (balance, eyes, face, arms, speech, time) test could have on the number of additional strokes that could be detected quicker annually.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of additional strokes that could be detected by adopting BE FAST.

The Scottish Government’s position is that the current evidence base does not support a move to the use of BE FAST, and this is supported by Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and Stroke Association, however we will regularly review this position based on the best available evidence.

Question reference: S6W-35055

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to harmonise the reporting of violent and abusive behaviour towards teachers and staff in schools.

The Scottish Government expects all incidents of violent and abusive behaviour towards staff to be recorded.

In Scotland our local councils employ education staff and we expect all local authorities to be ensuring that their schools have policies in place which determine clearly what action should be taken to address challenging behaviour and to best protect their staff in the workplace. This would include having processes in place to record violent and abusive incidents towards teachers and staff.

The joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan includes an action to review all current processes for recording incidents, to identify potential means of streamlining processes and improving consistency. An update on the plan will publish in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-34831

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of strokes recorded in each of the last five years were posterior circulation strokes, and what information it has on how many of these were initially missed despite using the FAST (face, arms, speech, time) test.

Question reference: S6W-35051

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what resources it is making available to support teachers dealing with violence and abuse in schools, and what plans are in place to introduce further training or intervention strategies.

Any form of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Schools should be safe and consistent learning environments for all.

Since May 2023, we have responded to teachers’ concerns about relationships and behaviour in a number of ways. This includes the publication of new guidance on gender-based violence, updating our guidance on mobile phones and anti-bullying, and providing £900k to local authorities to support training of support staff.

In August 2024, we published a joint relationships and behaviour in schools action plan with COSLA. The action plan sets out 20 actions to be taken by 2027 at both national and local level to help support schools to improve relationships and behaviour. This includes guidance on the use of consequences in schools and updating our national guidance on exclusions.

In addition, in 2025-26 we are providing:

A further £29 million of additional investment to local authorities for additional support needs.
£130 million Pupil Equity Funding to schools.
£186.5 million to local authorities to restore overall teacher numbers across the country to 2023 level, and maximise the number of teaching posts available.

Finally, through implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland, we have invested over £4m in the last two years to help prevent and reduce violence across Scotland. Over 2024-25, £2m of this investment has been used to support delivery of prevention activity including action focussed specially towards young people in collaboration with a range of partners.

Question reference: S6W-34821

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of people who have sought transgender chest surgery privately in each of the last five tears, including those who fundraise through online platforms.

Question reference: S6W-35061

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to ensure that Transport Scotland takes action to mitigate any safety concerns regarding the Shawhead flyover in Coatbridge.

Regular updates will be provided by Transport Scotland to Ministers to ensure appropriate action is taken to address concerns at the Shawhead Flyover. The current position is that Transport Scotland has asked its maintenance contractor (Scottish Roads Partnership) to assess several options for works at the junction to improve driver confidence. This work is underway. In addition, Transport Scotland has also asked Police Scotland for the junction to be assessed by their Police Camera Safety Team in the next site selection exercise, which is due to begin in April.

Question reference: S6W-34822

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs took early retirement in each of the last five years, also broken down by what proportion of the total GP workforce this represented.