Chamber and committees

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: S6T-01797

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether the A96 will be dualled from Inverness to Aberdeen.

Question reference: S6W-24887

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 8 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21884 by Graeme Dey on 27 October 2023, whether it will now provide the update that it has promised regarding the new funding model for post-school education provision announced in the 2023-24 Programme for Government.

Question reference: S6W-24885

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22891 by Graeme Dey on 27 November 2023, whether Scotland’s universities will receive the full £5.8 million in regional innovation funding before the end of the current financial year.

Ministers have decided that the £5.8m allocated to the Scottish Government, as consequentials arising from spending on the Regional Innovation in England, will be used to support university research and innovation in Scotland within the current financial year.

This is in recognition of the vital contribution our university sector make across the breadth of Scottish Government ambitions, including underpinning the excellence of our education system, creating new knowledge and impact for social benefit, and supporting Scotland’s sustainable economic transformation and the delivery of NSET.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has written out to universities to set out further details on this.

Question reference: S6W-24336

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to replace the ScotRail fleet of class 43 HST units; if so, when; what the on-costs of any replacement will be, including any break-fee with the current rolling stock provider, and whether there is a budget line in its 2023-24 Budget for this or whether any cost will come from elsewhere in the railway/transport budget.

It is clear that the High Speed Trains will need to be replaced as an early priority within a ScotRail fleet replacement programme. Work is currently underway, funded within existing rail budgets used for project development, to examine the business case of different options for replacement of these trains. Discussions continue to be held with railway unions to ensure that railway staff are properly engaged.

Question reference: S6W-24344

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12917 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2022, whether it has now finalised what the £200 million of funding on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, will be spent on, and by when, and, if not, when it anticipates it will.

The Scottish Government is continuing to develop the business case for the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancements project. This will be considered in in the coming months and within the context of the funding available for rail enhancements.

We remain firmly committed to infrastructure investment as a key factor in securing economic growth and high-quality public infrastructure across Scotland, including spending over £1.6 billion to operate, maintain and improve Scotland’s railway.

Question reference: S6W-24425

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23979 by Jenny Gilruth on 8 January 2024, whether it will provide the information requested, particularly in light of the actions proposed in its Budget 2024-25, regarding what it anticipates the cost will be of (a) consulting on, (b) establishing, (c) launching and (d) the ongoing running of the Centre of Teaching Excellence (CTE), and, if it is the case that it has not considered what these costs might be and is yet to establish them, whether it will confirm that.

Work to establish a Centre for Teaching Excellence, including co-design and consultation, is being taken forward by the already-established Education Reform Programme. As set out in my statement to parliament on 7 November 2023, the Centre for Teaching Excellence will be funded through repurposing investment currently directed to Regional Improvement Collaboratives. The overall establishment and launch costs for the centre itself will be scoped as part of the design process with key stakeholders.

Question reference: S6O-03014

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to businesses in Aberdeen.

Question reference: S6W-23940

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 15 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on education agents employed by Scottish universities to recruit overseas students; if it collects such information, how many such agents are currently in place, and how much has been spent on recruiting them in the last five years, broken down by university.

Question reference: S6W-23939

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have opted to take early retirement in each of the last five years, also broken down by (a) whether they were primary or secondary school teachers and (b) local authority area.

The figures in the following tables represent the number of members of the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme (STSS) and Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme 2015 (STPS 2015) who have opted to retire before the respective scheme's Normal Pension Age (NPA), in each of the last five years. The information includes only members employed by local authorities and is broken down by local authority area. Information is not held centrally on whether these members were primary or secondary teachers.

From 1 April 2022 all active members joined the STPS 2015. Table A shows members who have retired from the STSS before their NPA, which is age 60 for those who joined the scheme before 1 April 2007 and age 65 for those who joined thereafter. Table B shows members who retired from the STPS 2015 before their NPA, which is the later of age 65 or State Pension Age. Some members may be represented in both tables as they may have taken pension benefits from both schemes before the NPA in each scheme.

Table A: Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme

Local Authority	Number of members who opted to retire before Normal Pension Age
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023*
Aberdeen City Council	13	16	9	12	13
Aberdeenshire Council	30	16	19	22	30
Angus Council	12	13	10	19	11
Argyll and Bute Council	18	13	19	17	10
City of Edinburgh Council	34	24	24	24	20
Clackmannanshire Council	4	5	2	3	4
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	9	7	8	6	2
Dumfries and Galloway Council	28	24	19	16	21
Dundee City Council	14	9	24	16	13
East Ayrshire Council	10	12	14	11	9
East Dunbartonshire Council	14	15	10	9	6
East Lothian Council	9	10	9	13	7
East Renfrewshire Council	11	7	9	14	6
Falkirk Council	15	24	15	14	11
Fife Council	42	37	50	34	27
Glasgow City Council	47	60	39	38	30
Inverclyde Council	9	6	6	7	9
Midlothian Council	9	7	8	8	5
North Ayrshire Council	15	5	14	19	6
North Lanarkshire Council	38	49	34	26	23
Orkney Islands Council	2	6	4	3	2
Perth and Kinross Council	14	19	24	15	10
Renfrewshire Council	16	20	21	15	8
Scottish Borders Council	10	15	17	18	17
Shetland Islands Council	1	0	1	4	10
South Ayrshire Council	13	10	13	8	9
South Lanarkshire Council	33	24	26	20	29
Stirling Council	15	10	7	11	7
The Highland Council	35	27	29	38	22
The Moray Council	14	10	12	8	7
West Dunbartonshire Council	5	4	7	7	11
West Lothian Council	13	18	11	22	8
Total	548	522	514	497	403

*Data for 2023 is up to 19 December 2023

Table B: Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme 2015

Local Authority	Number of members who opted to retire before Normal Pension Age
	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023*
Aberdeen City Council	2	8	7	25	31
Aberdeenshire Council	14	8	13	55	58
Angus Council	1	4	9	34	19
Argyll and Bute Council	3	7	13	30	14
City of Edinburgh Council	6	8	17	54	43
Clackmannanshire Council	0	2	1	1	6
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	2	5	3	8	11
Dumfries and Galloway Council	10	16	18	32	36
Dundee City Council	2	2	17	29	22
East Ayrshire Council	1	4	13	17	23
East Dunbartonshire Council	3	10	3	24	18
East Lothian Council	4	3	5	22	15
East Renfrewshire Council	0	4	5	23	10
Falkirk Council	5	10	14	26	23
Fife Council	11	11	34	68	65
Glasgow City Council	5	21	27	92	88
Inverclyde Council	7	4	5	15	16
Midlothian Council	5	4	5	10	15
North Ayrshire Council	4	4	9	35	23
North Lanarkshire Council	8	22	23	47	60
Orkney Islands Council	0	1	3	5	5
Perth and Kinross Council	5	10	19	26	30
Renfrewshire Council	2	14	16	32	30
Scottish Borders Council	2	6	16	39	34
Shetland Islands Council	1	0	2	8	17
South Ayrshire Council	5	4	9	18	16
South Lanarkshire Council	5	5	13	65	61
Stirling Council	2	3	6	13	17
The Highland Council	5	10	21	63	50
The Moray Council	3	2	11	11	22
West Dunbartonshire Council	1	3	6	20	26
West Lothian Council	5	7	6	37	31
Total	129	222	369	984	935

*Data for 2023 is up to 19 December 2023

Source: Figures provided by SPPA

Question reference: S6W-23938

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are currently considered to be "missing from education" at schools in Scotland, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) reason recorded for being missing.