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: S6O-00493

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when ministers last met with key stakeholders, including business owners, to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine certification scheme.

Question reference: S6O-00508

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what compensation will be made available to farmers who have been impacted by beaver activities.

Question reference: S6O-00505

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the energy sector in the West Scotland region.

Question reference: S6O-00501

Asked by: Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available to people in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency who are in fuel poverty.

Question reference: S6O-00496

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how its policies across government will support families on low incomes to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6O-00494

Asked by: Dr Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how its policies across government will support island communities to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6O-00500

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its pilots to provide free bicycles for school-age children.

Question reference: S6O-00498

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, A Vision for Scotland's Railways, produced for Scotland's rail unions.

Question reference: S6W-04400

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in the (a) North Ayrshire and (b) Inverclyde local authority area have experienced fuel poverty in each of the last 10 years.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) local authority tables.

The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 is available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Local Authority figures are based on a 3-year pooled sample to allow sufficient sample sizes to produce results on each local authority. The figures in the table below show number of fuel poor households, and the fuel poverty rate, based on the last 10 years for North Ayrshire and Inverclyde.

	North Ayrshire		Inverclyde
Publication years	Estimated households in Fuel poverty 000's	La fuel poverty rate	Estimated households in Fuel poverty 000's	La fuel poverty rate
2010-12	23	38%	12	34%
2011-13	24	38%	13	37%
2012-14	25	40%	16	42%
2013-15	23	36%	15	41%
2014-16	19	30%	14	38%
2015-17	17	26%	11	31%
2016-18	18	28%	12	31%
2017-19	18	28%	11	28%

* Results from 2010-12 to 2015-17 are based on the definition of fuel poverty set out in The Scottish fuel Poverty statement 2002 .

Results from 2016-18 to 2017-19 are based on best estimates under the new definition of fuel poverty as set out in the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 . They reflect amendments made to the legislation during the Bill process up to and including Stage 2.

By the end of 2021, we will have allocated over £1 billion since 2009 to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency, including £114 million on our Warmer Homes Scotland and local authority Area-Based Schemes this year alone.

This has included over £11 million in funding for Inverclyde Council as part of our Area Based Schemes to target support on fuel poor communities and similarly, over £14 million in ABS funding for North Ayrshire since 2013.

The budget for Fuel Poverty/Energy Efficiency in 2021-22 is £145.6m. This compares to £137.1m in 2020-21 and £119.6m in 2019-20.

Notes

1. Source Scottish House Condition Survey.

2. The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size. For the table above, the 95% confidence intervals for the fuel poverty rates range between +/-5.9 and +/-7.0 percentage points.

Published Local Authority estimates along with confidence intervals around the survey based results for 2010-12 to 2016-18 are available here:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/keyanalyses

This has included over £11m in funding for Inverclyde council as part of our Area Based Schemes to target support upon fuel poor communities and similarly over £14m in ABS funding to North Ayrshire council since 2013.

Question reference: S6W-04304

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 1 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the RSPB report, Birdcrime 2020, which states that there were 26 confirmed incidents of raptor persecution in Scotland in 2020.

The Scottish Government is clear that wildlife crime is abhorrent, reprehensible and unacceptable. The persecution of birds of prey has no place in modern Scotland. It is also completely at odds with our work to address the biodiversity crisis, which is supported by so many people and organisations across Scotland.

That’s why we have taken a number of steps over recent years to strengthen the law on wildlife crime - most recently through the introduction of the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act which makes a number of important changes to wildlife legislation.

The Act, which was passed by the Parliament in June 2020, increases the penalty for a range of wildlife offences, including the killing of birds of prey. Individuals found guilty of those types of offences can now face up to five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The Act also gives Police Scotland more time to investigate wildlife crimes.

Furthermore, we commissioned, and committed in our 2021-22 Programme for Government to delivering the recommendations of, the Grouse Moor Management Review Group. This is being done as a matter of urgency and includes the licensing of grouse moors.