Stephen Kerr
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party · Scotland
“My first priority is to prevent crime before it happens and, as a consequence, to reduce the number of victims. Therefore, the Government will continue to intervene early to steer people away from crime and focus on areas such as substance dependency, health, poverty, homelessness and employability, which are all significant contributing…”
“Alongside more places, a smarter approach to custody is needed, and I remain committed to using all levers at our disposal, including continuing to expand the use of home detention curfew, which supports reintegration of individuals by providing for their structured return to the community.”
“I expect HMP Highland to be completed in spring 2027— which is later than planned, due to construction issues—and HMP Glasgow, which I visited last week, is due to be completed in 2028.”
“I recognise that the proposed changes are bold, and I hope that they can contribute to a thoughtful debate today on the consequences of not addressing the rise in our prison population. The outcomes of any sentence for a crime committed should be that justice is served and no further reoffending happens.”
“That is why my priority is the prevention of crime and further reoffending behaviour. That approach makes financial sense: every prison place costs us more than £52,000 a year; this financial year, we are spending nearly £510 million in resource funding for the Scottish Prison Service to run our jails.”
“Yi-pei Chou Turvey sums things up very well. This whole issue has been at the bottom of the to-do list—that is exactly where we are. The title of the Government’s motion, which is the subject of today’s debate, is: “Achieving a sustainable prison population”. We can all share that perfectly reasonable objective.”
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“First, I compliment Michelle Thomson on the superb job that she does in filling our lobbies and spaces in the Parliament with music. She was also right about at least one other thing in her speech, which is that Labour is responsible for crashing our economy, and we are all going to be worse off for that. While we are in the spirit of agreeing with one another, let us also agree that Murdo Fraser was right when he said that the creative arts and our historical assets define us. Although the cabinet secretary showers himself with praise for restoring the culture budget, he must face up to the bitter irony that libraries, local theatres and our greatest galleries and historic sites face the real threat of closure. The SNP in government is guilty of cultural neglect. Keith Brown: Will Mr Kerr take an intervention?”
“This Government recognises the importance of our national cultural institutions, and that is why we are increasing funding to the national collections and our national performing companies, as well as to our national centre for design, the V&A Dundee. The Government believes that culture and creative expression enliven our communities, shaping their distinct identities and making them attractive places in which to live, work and visit. Every day, culture and creativity happen in communities across Scotland without Government support. However, to facilitate even greater access to community-driven creative activity locally, we have allocated additional funding to restart the award-winning culture collective programme and to expand the creative communities programme.”
“That is why new funding will also support the activity of the newly established partnership for Scotland’s festivals. Members of the partnership have been drawn from across the sector, and I am already impressed by the constructive, collaborative and inclusive approach that it is taking to develop priority actions that will help to bolster festivals, large and small, across the country. I turn to our national cultural institutions. Our national collections, our centre for design and our performing companies are hubs for international exchange and cultural excellence. They contribute significant amounts to the economy and support the lifelong learning, health and wellbeing of our communities.”
“An additional £4 million is earmarked to support Scotland’s festivals. That will include £3 million to significantly increase our festivals expo fund to expand its reach beyond festivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow, in recognition of the importance of festivals right across Scotland in providing opportunities for the wider culture sector. Stephen Kerr: Will the cabinet secretary give way? Angus Robertson: I have already given way a number of times to Mr Kerr’s colleagues. If he does not mind, I am going to make some progress. I will see how I am doing for time at the end, and I will be happy to give way to him then or during the summing up. I also understand that there is much more to be done to support Scotland’s festivals to reach their fullest potential.”
“If the budget bill is passed and the additional funds for culture are secured, we will introduce a brand-new £4 million culture and heritage capacity fund from the next financial year, to provide much-needed tailored support, funding and guidance to help build capacity and resilience in the organisations that need it most. That is also relevant when considering the opportunities and challenges for festivals. I am sure that there is not one person in the chamber today who has not attended and enjoyed one of Scotland’s local, national or international festivals. There is so much on offer, and 2025 is no exception. Celtic Connections, which is one of our most successful winter festivals, is set for another internationally acclaimed showcase of talent and diversity this week.”
“The Scottish Government has also launched a short survey that asks for the views of people who are working across or have an interest in the culture sector about what they value now and what their priority needs will be going forward. That marks the beginning of an on-going conversation with the culture sector about its future requirements, which will inform the scope of the sector support review. I am always particularly interested to hear the views of our cultural and creative workforce about how they can best be supported. I also encourage the political parties represented here in the chamber and MSPs of all parties to take part in the survey. I turn to the budget.”
“Will the cabinet secretary give way? Angus Robertson: I would like to make some progress, if Mr Kerr would allow. As part of that work, it is important that the remit and functions of Creative Scotland—one of the main distributors of public funding for culture—are reviewed to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the sector. As I announced yesterday, I am delighted that Dame Sue Bruce has agreed to be the independent chair of the Creative Scotland review. My officials are already in discussion with Dame Sue about her role, with a view to the chair publishing recommendations by the end of the summer 2025.”
“I would also want to be able to point to increasing engagement with some of the statutory and community services in Glasgow by people we have been unable to engage with previously. The evidence from the first day, yesterday, is that some of the people who were coming through the door were accessing those services for the first time. Those people were able to have conversations on taking a different path, and on starting a road to recovery, for the first time. I understand that there is some vagueness to that, because the service is a preventative measure that it is hard to measure aside from through hard-nosed drug deaths statistics. However, I hope to point to the safer consumption facility making a difference in those areas. Winter Heating Payment”
“Douglas Ross asked specifically about the metrics for measuring success. Ash Regan asked the same question, and I will ask the question again, because I am not sure that the cabinet secretary is being anything other than vague. He is definite about the fact that one key measurement will be the reduction in drug deaths in Glasgow—we get that. He then talked about harm reduction. What metrics will be used to measure harm reduction? What does that mean? Neil Gray: I know that Stephen Kerr will be aware of international evidence about the efficacy of drug consumption facilities in reducing wider harms. There is evidence of a reduction in the infections, such as HIV and hepatitis, that come from sharing needles and that type of behaviour. Those are some of the areas of harm reduction that I am talking about.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reform planning regulations to enable the construction of new nuclear power stations. (S6O- 04179)”
“Crucially, with the budget that we are putting forward, I am confident that we have adequate resources to support individuals’ employability and skills journeys to enable them to move from economic activity into employment, and—for individuals who face challenges from the changes required because of decarbonisation in our economy, for example—to acquire the skills that they require to make progress in our economy.”
“In the First Minister’s opening remarks, he talked about the root issues, and one that he correctly identified is good jobs. Good jobs are fuelled by skills, and colleges are one of the key engines of skills in this economy. Why, then, has the Scottish Government cut the amount of resource expended in our college sector over this year and in previous years? The First Minister: We must ensure that we are able to make the appropriate provision that is necessary for the size and scale of the population that requires to be educated in our colleges. That will vary from year to year, of course, depending on levels of employment within the economy.”