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-04123

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its Marine Directorate monitors international fishing vessels.

Question reference: S6W-31894

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many empty properties are currently in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Household estimates showing the total number of dwellings and long-term empty properties by the Scottish Government 8-fold rural classification are published on the National Records of Scotland website - [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Household and Dwelling Estimates by Urban Rural Classification (2011 Data Zone based) | National Records of Scotland. Data for council areas are available in the Data file for the publication Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2023 (total dwellings – table 2, long-term empty properties – table 6c). The latest data are for 2023.

Please note that the links take you to the archived version of the National Records of Scotland website. A new version of the website launched this month but is not yet fully populated with content from the previous website.

Question reference: S6W-31896

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties in the Highlands and Islands region are currently in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-31895

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes that have been returned to use through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership in each year since 2010 were in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-31680

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that, on several occasions, CalMac’s booking system stated that a ferry service was fully booked when it was not.

Question reference: S6W-31679

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date MV Glen Sannox is expected to begin its first timetabled service with passengers.

Question reference: S6W-31760

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of repairs to the MV Caledonian Isles has been to date, broken down by year, and what the total anticipated costs are going forward.

The maintenance costs for MV Caledonian Isles for the past three years are included within the following table:

Contract Year	Period	£000's
CY 6	01-10-2021 - 30-09-2022	1,955
CY 7	01-10-2022 - 30-09-2023	1,977
CY 8	01-10-2023 - 30-09-2024	8,310	*
		12,242	*
* includes £6.8m of additional steelwork and gear box repair work.

The anticipated costs going forward for MV Caledonian Isles are included within the following table:

Contract year 9 costs	£000s
P7	596
P8	131
24-25 overhaul costs (deferred**)	1,071
Open POs	1,143
Total committed and incurred costs CY 9	2,941
*included in the above is £1.1m of additional costs.
**incurred in preparation of overhaul being completed in January/February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-31759

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the MV Caledonian Isles was withdrawn from service, and when it is expected to return to service.

The MV Caledonian Isles entered dry dock for her annual overhaul at Dales, Greenock on 4 January 2024. The vessel moved to Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead on 11 February 2024 for additional steel works to be undertaken. She departed there on 14 September 2024 and was due to return to service on the on 23 September 2024. However, engineers identified metallic debris in the oil filter for the Port propulsion gearbox and she has remained off service. The vessel is currently at James Watt Dock Greenock undergoing further investigative works. As a precaution and to allow contingency measures to be put in place on affected routes CalMac have planned for the vessel being unavailable for the duration for the winter timetable period which ends on 27 March 2025.

CalMac anticipate having a more detailed estimate of the timing of the required work in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-31683

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the Isle of Colonsay will be without a Monday ferry service for up to nine weeks in the winter period.

Decisions on deployment of vessels and service provision are for the operator to manage. There are real challenges currently for CalMac in deploying the fleet as a result of vessels being out of service due to technical issues and the impact of annual overhauls.

I understand CalMac have been able re-instate some of the cancelled Monday sailings to Colonsay throughout the Winter Timetable.

We continue to impress upon CalMac the importance of finding the best available solution for the ferry network as a whole.

Question reference: S6W-31682

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many reported instances there have been of CalMac’s booking system showing that a ferry service was fully booked when it was not, in each month since the new ticketing system was introduced.