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-08765

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether ATMs at retailers’ premises will be exempted from non-domestic rates; how many ATMs will be affected by their removal from the valuation roll, and whether it will consider backdating refunds, in a similar way to that in Wales and England when ATMs were removed from the valuation roll.

The valuation of all non-domestic property, including sites of ATMs, is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.

We are aware that Assessors have been considering the valuation of ATM sites and recently concluded that in most retail premises it is likely that such sites will be deleted from the Valuation Roll. Assessors are now commencing the process of identifying the ATM sites this will apply to.

Where a property is removed from the Valuation Roll, the ratepayer will be entitled to a refund of any overpaid rates back to the effective date of deletion.

Question reference: S6W-08677

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings of the Cladding Stakeholder Group a minister, other than the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, has attended since the group was established.

Question reference: S6W-08647

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on travel expenses for ministers, civil servants or other staff to travel on Edinburgh’s trams network, in each year since 2014.

Edinburgh Tram tickets can be purchased in three ways: centrally via the Travel Management Team; via electronic procurement card (ePC); or the cost claimed back via a Travel and Subsistence (T&S) expenses claim. The total costs for Lothian Bus/Tram tickets are shown in the following table.

In all cases the tickets can be used on either Lothian Buses or Edinburgh Trams and it is not possible to disaggregate the cost for Trams only.

The cost of all tickets bought centrally in 2014 and 2015, and ePC transactions prior to 2019, are not held.

Calendar year	Lothian Bus/ Edinburgh Tram total spend
2014	n/a
2015	n/a
2016	£76,523
2017	£86,296
2018	£100,220
2019	£119,365
2020	£31,721
2021	£245
2022 to date	£153

The total spend includes all travel by Ministers and Civil Servants for travel to and from a range of government buildings, meetings and other government business in and around Edinburgh. Ministers and Civil Servants are encouraged to travel sustainably for work related travel and we are working to encourage more use of public transport by everyone in government in the future.

Question reference: S6W-08681

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in connection with the recommendations of the Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding, which reported in March 2021.

With the support of stakeholders across industry, the Single Building Assessment programme started in June 2021. All other recommendations are progressing and will further develop based on evidence from the Single Building Assessment pilot. The update to parliament on the 12 May 2022 provided more detail on progress: https://www.gov.scot/publications/update-cladding-remediation-programme-cabinet-secretarys-statement/ .

Question reference: S6W-08683

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings in Scotland have had combustible cladding (a) removed and (b) remediated since the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017.

Question reference: S6W-08648

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many vehicles are currently in its fleet, including its agencies, broken down by the number of (a) electric, (b) hybrid, (c) diesel and (d) petrol vehicles.

Question reference: S6W-08671

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take in to ensure that workers in Green Freeports in Scotland will have access to trade unions with collective bargaining rights.

Question reference: S6W-08686

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government has had with her counterpart in the Welsh Government regarding the sharing of best practice on building safety.

Question reference: S6W-08679

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings of the Ministerial Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding the previous Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning attended in the last parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-08682

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for how many of the 25 buildings identified in the Single Building Assessment pilot have payments been received to enable the assessments to take place.

Fuel type	Number on fleet
Electric vehicle (EV)	52
Range extender electric (REV)	5
Plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV)	75
Hybrid	5
Diesel	17
Petrol	47
Total	204