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-16023

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any discussions with (a) commercial landlords, (b) local authorities and (c) community groups regarding developing a strategy to ensure that premises rented by M&Co Trading Limited are put to productive use once they default back to their owners.

The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth met with the appointed administrators for M&Co on 19 January 2023 and offered his support, including via Government engagement with Scottish Enterprise. He also met with Katy Clark and Neil Bibby MSPs, and offered to support engagement with local authorities if it would be helpful once there was clarity about when stores will close.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with local authorities, commercial and community partners via its Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) Forum and its Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG). The TCAP Forum established jointly with COSLA brings together stakeholder expertise across the public, third and private sector to help to progress key actions. The sector-led Retail ILG has been established to drive, and support delivery of the actions set out in the Retail Strategy for Scotland. Both the Action Plan and Strategy aim to put town centres at the heart of decision making.

Question reference: S6W-16588

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12940 by Jenny Gilruth on 22 December 2022, whether it will provide an update on the service continuity plan for the transfer and timetabling of services from Troon.

The service continuity plans for the Ardrossan-Brodick/Campbeltown route are currently being reviewed by CalMac following the recent announcement of the delivery date and deployment of the MV Glen Sannox to the route. CalMac are engaging with relevant partners including the Isle of Arran Ferry Committee on the Troon timetables and are expected to publish the Timetable Consultation Report (as part of a public consultation exercise undertaken in August and September 2022) in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-16093

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15024 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023, whether (a) the Minister for Transport, (b) CMAL and (c) Transport Scotland officials have held meetings with representatives of Pentland Ferries, from 1 October 2022 to date, regarding the chartering of the MV Alfred for the Clyde and Hebrides network, and, if so, when any such meetings took place.

Question reference: S6W-15957

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether Biffa is an appropriate logistics partner for the Deposit Return Scheme, given that the company has previously been prosecuted for breaches of environmental waste export laws.

Circularity Scotland, the scheme administrator is a private non-profit company and is responsible for operating the scheme, including logistics. Decisions regarding their contracts are for them – this is entirely appropriate for a scheme that has industry responsibility at its heart.

An extensive tender process was carried out by Circularity Scotland over a period of around 12 months and was open to businesses of all sizes. The process involved extensive due diligence by Circularity Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15960

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with Circularity Scotland regarding the decision to appoint Biffa as its logistics partner for the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6O-02075

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to carrying out a review of the use of public private partnerships for public infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S6W-15950

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many people have been excused as of right from jury duty in the past year, and, of those, how many were excused because they had (a) already served on a jury in the last five years and (b) been cited but not selected in the last two years.

Question reference: S6W-15024

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings (a) CMAL and (b) Transport Scotland officials have had with representatives of Pentland Ferries, from 1 October 2022 to date, regarding vessel chartering on the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract.

There have been no such meetings with Pentland Ferries on this matter. Any discussions regarding the chartering of vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract would be a matter for the operator CalMac Ferries Limited. However, the Minister for Transport met with Pentland Ferries 20 December 2022 for general discussion on the MV Pentalina Charter with Transport Scotland officials present in a supporting role.

Question reference: S6W-15953

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many people have been cited for jury duty more than once in the past year.

Question reference: S6W-15951

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the percentage of the eligible population that have been cited for jury service in the past year.