Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 1925 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-28455

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling any work-related stress in the teaching sector that results from teachers working beyond the 35-hour working week.

The Scottish Government values teachers and is committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support.

While teacher wellbeing is ultimately a matter for the employer, since 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce. In 2023-24 we provided £0.2 million to Know You More, to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scotland.

We also worked in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland to fund an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce. We are currently considering the outcomes of this work and next steps to improve the existing wellbeing support that is provided by local authorities and teaching unions.

Question reference: S6W-28452

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that teachers are spending an average of 11.39 hours a week outside contracted hours on work-related activity, undertaken in the morning before work, into the evening and at home at the weekend.

Question reference: S6W-28450

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) research suggesting that, on average, teachers in Scotland work 46 hours per week.

Question reference: S6W-28451

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning to update the Teachers’ Agreement 2001, in light of recent reports that its provisions do not match the current workload that teachers undertake.

Question reference: S6W-28434

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 16 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-27078 by Natalie Don on 9 May 2024, whether "the data from that exercise" was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024 as anticipated in order to inform the Scottish Government's approach, and, if this is not the case, for what reason, and when it anticipates that the data will be submitted.

Question reference: S6W-27958

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the conclusions of the UK Parliament Education Committee regarding a consultation on a total ban on smartphones for under-16s and a statutory ban on mobile phone use in schools, what its position is on the committee's conclusions and any relevance that these may have in Scotland.

The findings of the UK Parliament Education Committee are noted. It is recognised that the Committee's considerations and recommendations are rightly focussed on the interests of the UK Government and that the legalities around ‘banning’ mobile phones elsewhere in the UK differ from those in Scotland. This is because in Scotland our Local Authorities have statutory responsibility for the delivery of Education and it is consequently a decision for our Headteachers currently, whether or not they would wish to enforce a ban in their school estate.

Nonetheless, the Scottish Government is committed to bringing forward national guidance on mobile phones in schools in Scotland. The guidance has been informed by a range of research and evidence and will make clear that should Headteachers wish to do so, they are empowered to ban mobile phones within their school estate.

Question reference: S6O-03603

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to tackle long ambulance turnaround times.

Question reference: S6W-27686

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the average reduction in journey times has been on each of the national train routes across Scotland in each year since 2016.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

The Scottish Government’s High Level Output Specification (HLOS) strategy requires Network Rail to take full advantage of maintenance and renewal works and timetable development processes to enable ScotRail to achieve improved journey times. It is also a requirement of the ScotRail Policy Compendium and Grant Agreement that ScotRail works with Network Rail to deliver a high performing railway, with competitive journey times.

Office of Rail and Road's Annual Assessment of Network Rail, which is published on its website, provides information on average national journey time for year 2022-23:

Annual Assessment of Network Rail - April 2022 to March 2023 (orr.gov.uk) , which the member might find of interest.

Question reference: S6W-27642

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what data it has on the (a) uptake and (b) outcomes of support from the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme in each year of its operation.

The following table shows the level of Mode Shift Revenue Support grants awarded by the Scottish Government since the introduction of the scheme plus details of the committed traffic.

Year	MSRS - Grants Awarded	Containers Moved by Rail or Water
2010-2011	£753,751	121,100
2011-2012	£739,280	115,740
2012-2013	£759,801	114,930
2013-2014	£751,575	121,280
2014-2015	£727,327	132,453
2015-2016	£636,899	103,148
2016-2017	£638,157	122,565
2017-2018	£688,480	129,537
2018-2019	£776,484	140,441
2019-2020	£597,714	124,143
2020-2021	£574,903	151,224
2021-2022	£477,423	85,099
2022-2023	£539,853	129,872

The Scottish Government has a range of annualised data on the uptake and outcome of the Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme including the value of Grants Awarded and the number of containers moved by rail or water. In total, between 2010-11 and 2022-23, £8,661,647 of awards were made leading to 1,591,532 containers moved by rail or water.

Question reference: S6W-27679

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding it has provided to ScotRail in each year since 2016.