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-33339

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the date by which it plans to publish its Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

Question reference: S6W-33190

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the maintenance priorities for the A90 over the last five years have been aligned with future infrastructure development plans.

Current best practice for the management of large infrastructure networks is set out in the international standard for the management of assets ISO 55001, which requires organisations to adopt a formal asset management approach. Transport Scotland is the first UK trunk road authority to reach this standard demonstrating that public funds are being spent in the most efficient and effective manner.

We have developed and implemented a formal value management process for roads structural maintenance schemes for assessing the benefits of undertaking maintenance and the associated risks of not undertaking maintenance. Each scheme in the one-year maintenance programme is scored against a range of criteria:

a. Safety – to maintain a safe network and assess the level of risk to the road user. Those schemes that are safety critical or have a high level of risk will have the highest priority scoring.

b. Journey Time Reliability – to assess the level of risk to the service, e.g. route availability.

c. Environment and Sustainability – to assess the impact of a scheme on the environment, noise reduction, carbon factor, recycling and sustainability.

d. Value for Money – to consider the economic efficiency of the scheme and seek to minimise the whole life costs (i.e. invest now to deliver savings later).

The scores are used to determine which schemes should remain in the current year and which can be deferred until the following year. This ensures that those parts of the network with the greatest need are addressed and that the available funds are allocated in a fair, objective and transparent manner.

The prioritisation of bridges and structures maintenance follows as similar process with a Value Management Risk Approach using the following four criteria:

a. Safety – the overall effects on the end user, including fatalities and injuries that would be caused by a failure.

b. Functionality – the impact of a loss or reduction in service. This may be considered at route, structure or component level.

c. Environment – Environmental impacts, such as pollution caused through traffic delay, the sensitivity of the route/area, etc.

d. Sustainability – of both expenditure and workload, where the aim is to reach a state of steady expenditure and workload, avoiding the build-up of a backlog of unavoidable, essential work by doing effective, targeted preventative maintenance.

The tool includes work identified from inspections, structural capacity assessments, “At-Risk” supports, sub-standard parapets, flood risk, scour risk, environment and local factors for all structure types. It does not yet include other risk programmes, such as hidden defects or safety-critical fixings.

Question reference: S6W-33129

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which ideas suggested by the Young Islanders Network in relation to the Addressing Depopulation Action Plan were included in the final report.

The Addressing Depopulation Action Plan includes an action for Scottish Government to engage with Youth Scotland and the Young Islanders Network (YIN) to co-develop ideas to encourage young people to move to, or remain within our island communities.

Since publication, as part of this engagement the Scottish Government’s independent Expert Advisory Group on Migration and Population have met with a cohort from the YIN, to gather their input into a forthcoming report on the mobilities of young working age people in rural and island areas. It is envisaged that recommendations from this report will be considered by Scottish Ministers after publication, and where appropriate these will inform the development of future interventions to support population attraction and retention in rural and island areas.

Additionally, engagement with the YIN around the development of the next National Islands Plan (NIP) has already been conducted by Scottish Government officials, highlighting that the next NIP plans to have an overarching focus on population attraction and retention. This engagement will continue prior to publication and delivery of the next NIP, planned for later this year.

Question reference: S6W-33185

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times sections of the A90 have been closed for maintenance in each of the last five years, and what the average duration of closure was.

The mainline of the A90 trunk road has been closed to facilitate road maintenance on 12 occasions over the following 5 full financial years:

2019-20 - 0

2020-21 - 2

2021-22 - 0

2022-23 - 5

2023-24 - 5

These closures took place overnight and averaged 13.5 hours per night in duration.

Additionally, there has been 53 slip road closures on the A90 trunk road over the same period. These overnight closures averaged 12.5 hours in duration. During these closures the mainline A90 remained open.

Question reference: S6O-04266

Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on relaxing any conservation area restrictions that prevent the installation of solar panels and other energy saving initiatives.

Question reference: S6O-04269

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it protects the environment and the interests of local communities regarding the construction of battery storage plants within rural settings.

Question reference: S6O-04268

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its stated commitment to end charges for non-residential care by the end of the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6O-04270

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether feasibility studies and development expenditure for ports and harbours will be eligible for funding as part of the investment in maintaining and improving ports and harbours that is proposed in its draft Budget 2025-26.

Question reference: S6O-04273

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Falkirk Council is to consider a motion calling for immediate action by the Scottish Government to support the Grangemouth chemical cluster and the future of its industry.

Question reference: S6O-04271

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding safety measures at the Shawhead flyover on the A725 in Coatbridge.