- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to protect freedom of speech for public servants, teachers and other professionals who hold or express gender-critical views, in light of the Supreme Court ruling regarding For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers.
Answer
There are existing protections for freedom of speech and the Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination or harassment at work or in other areas of their life, because of their religious or philosophical beliefs.
The Equality Act 2010 is mainly reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Government. The regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has issued guidance on avoiding discrimination and harassment in the workplace and there is a Statutory Code of Practice on Employment.
Freedom of speech is a qualified right and the ways in which a person’s religion or belief is manifested might not be protected if this impacts on the legal rights of others, including those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, not to be discriminated against or harassed.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment to abolish non-residential care charges, for what reason the number of local authorities introducing or raising such fees has reportedly increased since 2022.
Answer
Under Section 87(1A) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, a local authority may charge for the adult non-residential, non-personal care it provides such as day care, lunch clubs, meals-on-wheels, community alarm and help with shopping and housework.
Local authorities have the powers to develop their own charging policies for non-residential social care and support. These charging policies are designed with the primary objective of offsetting the costs of providing services at a local level.
COSLA produces annual guidance to help promote consistency in policies, however variation often exists due to local accountability and conditions. COSLA and the Scottish Government recognises that local authorities require autonomy and flexibility to adapt to their local circumstances.
COSLA guidance recommends that charges should be reasonable and must be no higher than the cost to the local authority of providing the service. In reality most charges are much lower than the cost of providing the service.
The Scottish Government recognises that the cost of care can be high for people particularly in the current financial climate. We are committed to working with COSLA to review non-residential charges.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has issued any guidance or expectations to university governing bodies regarding executive pay restraint during periods of public funding pressure, in the last five years.
Answer
The Minister addressed the issue of executive pay and the need for restraint when he attended the Meeting of the Committee of Scottish University Chairs on 27 March 2025.
Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own pay and remuneration decisions.
However, the Scottish Government expects universities to exercise restraint in setting senior pay, and senior pay packages should be in step with the salary, terms and conditions offered to other university staff.
Universities are also required to comply with the terms of the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memorandum as a condition of grant funding. This includes compliance with the principles of The Scottish Code of Good HE Governance, such as the expectation that universities’ remuneration committees seek the views of student and staff representatives in relation to the remuneration packages of Principals and senior executive teams, represent the public interest and avoid any inappropriate use of funds.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the £14.2 million investment programme at Ferguson Marine will commence.
Answer
The Scottish Budget: 2025-26 published on 4 December 2024 allocated £46.0 million of capital to Ferguson Marine for the financial year commencing 1 April 2025 (with details in Table 9.13: Ferguson Marine Spending Plans (Level 3).
This allocation is designed to cover capital spending associated with completion of the MV Glen Rosa and investment in yard capital equipment and infrastructure in the current financial year. Over the current and next financial years, 2025-26 and
2026-27, the Scottish Government is committed to invest up to £14.2 million in Ferguson Marine’s investment programme subject to standard commercial tests being met.
Work on Ferguson’s investment programme began in December 2024, with approved funding being directed towards addressing essential repairs and new equipment to enhance yard productivity.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when a decision will be made on reallowing alcohol at certain times on ScotRail services.
Answer
The First Minister announced to the Scottish Parliament on 6 May 2025 that we intend to remove the ban on alcohol on trains and replace it with new restrictions which will allow alcohol consumption between from 10am to 9pm every day. ScotRail will reserve the right to implement alcohol restrictions on specific services where BTP and rail industry intelligence indicates it necessary, for example major concerts or sporting events.
The current ban will be lifted and the new rules will come into force on 2 June 2025.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has conducted on any impact of current business rates on small independent retailers in town centres, and whether it is considering any reforms or relief to support such businesses, in light of reported declining high street footfall.
Answer
The Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts estimate that £3 billion will be raised in non-domestic rates revenue in 2025-26, and £731 million of reliefs will be provided.
Those reliefs, including the UK’s most generous Small Business Bonus Scheme relief, deliver direct support to small independent retailers, with almost 62% of all shops on the valuation roll benefiting from one or more reliefs.
As at 1 June 2024, almost 34,000 shops in Scotland benefited from non-domestic rates relief, with an estimated value of over £113 million. The Non-domestic rates relief statistics 2024 provide a further breakdown of relief awards by property type and local authority area.
The next revaluation will take effect from 1 April 2026, which will ensure rateable values reflect current market conditions. Decisions on non-domestic rates and reliefs are generally considered in the context of the Scottish Budget.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of zonal electricity pricing on electricity generation projects that were awarded under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round, AR6, and what the findings were.
Answer
Decisions on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) are reserved to the UK Government. The UK Government has published impact assessments and is updating its analysis ahead of a final decision this summer. We are awaiting sight of this updated modelling.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which stakeholder organisations its ministers and officials have met to discuss zonal electricity pricing since 1 January 2024, broken down by (a) organisation, (b) date of meeting, (c) attendees and (d) purpose of discussion.
Answer
We have had extensive engagement with stakeholders – including consumer organisations such as Consumer Scotland – to ensure we understand all perspectives in this debate and represent this in our engagement with the UK Government.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its latest understanding is of the timetable for UK Government decisions on zonal electricity pricing, and what preparatory work it is undertaking in response to this.
Answer
The UKG have committed to publish a decision on REMA in the summer ahead of the CfD allocation round 7 commencing.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards operate their own shingles vaccination programme, and how it is ensuring equitable access to the vaccine across all NHS boards.
Answer
All Health Boards in Scotland have the responsibility for delivering the shingles vaccination programme and have operational flexibility to reflect local needs.
Each year, individuals become eligible for vaccination depending on their age on 1 September. Boards can decide when it is most suitable to deliver this effectively alongside other immunisation programmes.
The Chief Medical Officer publishes advice for health professionals which includes the programme eligibility, priority and asks Health Boards to include an element of proactive inclusion work to reduce health inequalities. He also asks for a particular focus on underserved communities; this might include people living in the areas of highest deprivation and certain ethnicities who may experience lower vaccine uptake.
