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: S6W-12650

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported cost overrun of the Cairngorm funicular railway repairs will have an impact on the funding available to other outdoor ski centres.

The cost of repairing the funicular has been met by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Scottish Government following approval of the business case by HIE’s Board and Scottish Ministers. Funding was ringfenced for this purpose and did not impact the funding available to other outdoor ski centres. Following the identification of the cost increases, additional funding has been provided by the Scottish Government to HIE in the current financial year. This has been funded by emerging underspends elsewhere across the capital budget and does not therefore impact on the funding available to other outdoor ski centres.

Question reference: S6W-12470

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much its Justice Directorate has spent on external management consultants in (a) 2012 and (b) each year since 2016.

The Justice portfolio has spent a total of £301,853.07 on external management consultants in 2012 and 2016-2019. This data relates to direct spend by the Scottish Government and does not include expenditure on consultancy services by public bodies. There was no spend on management consultancy services in the years 2020-2022. A breakdown of these costs is provided in the following table:

Year	Total	Business area
2012	£216,511.61	Police and Fire policy
2016	£3,904.60	Digital evidence sharing capability
2017	£26,973.46	Digital evidence sharing capability Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) job evaluation

	£2,000
2018	£51,168	Roadmap for transformation of the criminal justice sector
2019	£5,200	Independent Review into Police Complaints

Question reference: S6W-12667

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on proposals for extending fibre broadband coverage to the Uig area of the Isle of Lewis under the R100 programme.

According to Scottish Government records, there are a total of 361 properties in the Uig community council area. As of 5 December 2022:

234 properties are within R100 North contract build plans, with build expected to be completed no later than 2028.
127 properties are not included within R100 North contract build plans and, therefore, are eligible for a main voucher – worth up to £5,000 – through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS).
The Scottish Government’s address checker ( www.scotlandsuperfast.com ) shows the most recent plans and timescales for residential and commercial properties across Scotland with regards R100 contracts and R100SBVS.

Question reference: S6W-12621

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for the reported removal of average speed cameras on the A9 between the Keir and Broxden roundabouts.

Question reference: S6W-12617

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authority-funded care home places there have been in each year since 1999, and, of those, how many were provided by (a) local authority- or charity-run and (b) independent care homes.

The number of resident places by funding category (i.e. publicly funded) is not available. However, Public Health Scotland have published the estimated number of long stay residents in care homes for older people by funding category and by local authority since 2009.

These figures are available in two parts:

The latest Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults publication contains figures from 2012 - 2022. The figures can be found in the “Funding and Charges” section of the dashboard.

The Public Health Scotland Care Home Census for adults 2020 publication contains figures from 2009 – 2011. The figures can be found in Table 13C of the accompanying Care Home Census Data Tables.

a) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

b) This information is not held centrally and is not published by Public Health Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12649

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the cost of the Cairngorm funicular railway repairs reportedly increased from £16 million to £25 million.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has confirmed that the timetable for repairs to the funicular had to be extended due to unforeseeable delays caused by the weather and Covid. In addition, technical challenges resulted in additional works needing to be carried out. Significant cost inflation in the construction sector and the weakness of sterling in international exchange rates also contributed to the cost increase.

I have asked Stuart Black, HIE’s Chief Executive, to write to you direct with a full explanation of the cost increase.

Question reference: S6W-12419

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been created in renewables in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Scotland’s green jobs revolution is underway and a recent report from the Universities of Strathclyde and Warwick provided an initial estimate that up to 100,000 roles are ‘new and emerging’ green jobs in Scotland. Although the researchers regard this as an upper estimate, it is encouraging to see a strong greening of jobs in Scotland.

ONS are also exploring a methodology of measuring green jobs separately. They have launched a consultation and expect to produce estimates around mid-2023.

Statistics from the ONS Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey provide estimates of renewable FTE employment statistics in Scotland. No data is available to provide additional geographic breakdowns below the Scotland level at present.

As the flowing table shows, for the 5-years 2016-2020 (latest data available), the estimates of direct jobs in renewable electricity increased from 5,000 to 6,800, an increase of 36% over the period.

Full-time equivalent staff directly employed within the LCREE
	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Total	5,000	5,600	5,400	5,200	6,800

As these estimates are subject to uncertainty, due to the relatively small sample size, the level of increases during the period are not statistically significant. Therefore, this data shows that direct FTE employment in renewables in Scotland has remained relatively stable over the period.

Other estimates of FTE employment in the renewable electricity sector exist, such as those used in the linked 2022 study by Fraser of Allander Institute (totalling 27,000 in 2020), however these do not include a historical time series, and they also include indirect and induced employment estimates. The FAI study does however use the LCREE estimates for direct FTE figures.

The-Economic-Impact-of-Scotlands-Renewable-Energy-Sector1-1.pdf (fraserofallander.org)

Question reference: S6W-11568

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the minutes from the June 2022 meeting of the Ardrossan Harbour Task Force.

Question reference: S6W-12658

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to provide local authorities and its agencies with support to uninstall any Hikvision cameras that are currently installed across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-12661

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to prevent the use by Police Scotland of cameras and other items manufactured by (a) Hikvision and (b) Dahua Technology.