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-08913

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of current projections for the rate of inflation, when it plans to increase the level of the Water Charges Reduction Scheme in order to protect people on the lowest incomes from any effect of high inflation on the amount that they pay each year in water charges.

Question reference: S6W-08911

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it calculates the average water charge in (a) Scotland and (b) England that it uses for comparative purposes.

Question reference: S6W-08907

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what Scottish Water’s total capital spend has been in each of the last 10 financial years, and how much of the total capital spend in each year was (a) on funding projects not undertaken in the previous regulated period and carried forward and (b) for capital investment projects intended to be funded for the then current regulatory period.

Information is provided in the following table.

	2020-21 £m	2019-20 £m	2018-19 £m	2017-18 £m	2016-17 £m	2015-16 £m	2014-15 £m	2013-14 £m	2012-13 £m	2011-12 £m
Projects not undertaken in the previous regulated period and carried forward	17.2	31.3	41.2	59.2	123.2	76.7	1.3	11.7	27.7	47.1
Projects intended to be funded for the then current regulated period	594.4	641.7	618.7	587.4	503.4	405.9	479.8	468.2	461.3	444.4
Total	611.6	673	659.9	646.6	626.6	482.6	481.1	479.9	489	491.5

Question reference: S6W-08908

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what Scottish Water’s end-of-year cash balance has been at the end of each of the last 10 financial years, broken down by funds attributable to (a) the Scottish Water Group and (b) Scottish Water itself.

This information is provided in Scottish Water’s Annual Report and Accounts which is published on Scottish Water’s website and laid before Parliament each year. The information is copied in the following table.

2020-21

£m

2019-20

£m

2018-19

£m

2017-18

£m

2016-17

£m

2015-16

£m

2014-15

£m

2013-14

£m

2012-13

£m

2011-12

£m

Cash - Scottish Water Group

570.4

531.6

434.8

406.4

429.6

539.3

491.4

416.6

415.6

355.2

Cash - Scottish Water

428.7

391.4

310.9

270.6

235.2

368.6

345.5

270.3

245.5

241

Question reference: S6W-08910

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been transferred by Scottish Water to Business Stream with no requirement for repayment in each of the last three financial years.

Question reference: S6W-09008

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason £97 million has been removed from the Scottish Water budget in 2022-23, and then £98 million in each of the next four years, in the Resource Spending Review.

The Scottish Government Budget for 2022-23 sets out that during this financial year, the Scottish Government intends to lend £170m per annum in capital funding and to receive some £105m income per annum which is the interest on loans issued to Scottish Water. Across the 2021-27 period Ministers have committed to lend Scottish Water up to £1.03bn. Lending in future years will be agreed in future Budget Acts.

The quoted figure of -£97m is the resource budget for the Water Industry portfolio. This reflects some £105m income of interest payments by Scottish Water less amounts of spend on Hydro Nation and Private Water activities. The breakdown of spend is included within table 9.16 of the Budget.

Scottish Water is financed through revenue raised from customer charges and loans issued by the Scottish Government. The spending review has simply confirmed the intention to lend £170m per annum to Scottish Water and hence it has no impact on customers’ bills.

Question reference: S6W-09009

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the removal of £489 million from the Scottish Water budget in the Resource Spending Review will have any impact on water charges for customers.

Question reference: S6F-01228

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to tackle the reported growing use of locum staff in the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-08443

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07924 by Humza Yousaf on 27 April 2022, whether its active engagement with partners, including local government, has included any meetings with COSLA, and, if so, when any such meetings took place.

Question reference: S6W-08611

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07714 by Maree Todd on 25 April 2022, when the final project reports referenced in the answer will be published on the Chief Scientist Office website.

Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

CSO funded research project start dates are confirmed through submission by the corresponding host institution of a completed start certificate ( Form7-Start-Certificate.docx (live.com) )

The following table shows the confirmed start dates and derived end dates for the 9 projects funded through the Long-term effects of COVID-19 call

Project	Start Certificate	End Date
COV-LTE-20-04	01-03-21	28-02-23
COV-LTE-20-06	01-02-21	31-01-23
COV-LTE-20-08	01-04-21	31-03-23
COV-LTE-20-10	01-02-21	31-01-23
COV-LTE-20-15	01-03-21	28-02-23
COV-LTE-20-26	01-04-21	31-03-23
COV-LTE-20-28	01-02-21	31-01-23
COV-LTE-20-29	01-05-21	30-04-23
COV-LTE-20-32	01-05-21	28-02-23

Final reports will be published on the CSO website upon completion of the projects.

Project final reports are the result of a collaborative effort between the individual project teams and members of the CSO Public Engagement Group who work together to ensure the reports are written in accessible language. There is therefore an inevitable short delay between the project end date and the publication of the final report on the CSO website.