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: S5W-02894

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what level of simultaneous use would cause an appreciable break or slowdown in broadband service.

Question reference: S5W-02896

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with the UK Government regarding the negotiations for a universal service obligation for broadband suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-02874

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how it calculated the savings set out at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update.

The savings outlined on page 10 of the Audit Scotland report emerged due to BT’s actual costs being lower than expected. These calculations were made by BT not by the Scottish Government or Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The budget freed up by lower than expected actual costs will be redirected into extending the coverage footprint of both projects further, reaching more premises than originally anticipated.

Question reference: S5W-02875

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with BT regarding how the savings referred to at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update will be used to increase broadband coverage.

Question reference: S5W-02878

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how BT calculated the estimated 30% take-up rate of broadband that is referred to at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update.

Question reference: S5W-02879

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the shortfall in European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support that is referred to at page 10 of the August 2016 Audit Scotland Report, Superfast broadband for Scotland: A progress update.

The Scottish Government’s original application for European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) resources sought £20.5 million for the Rest of Scotland Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project. The Scottish Government subsequently reduced the funding sought from the ERDF programme in light of revised criteria for calculating eligible capital expenditure. £12 million was subsequently drawn down.

Question reference: S5W-02872

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many premises in each Scottish Parliamentary constituency will have access to broadband speeds of (a) up to and (b) above 40mb/ps by 2018.

At least 95% of premises across Scotland will have fibre broadband access by the end of 2017, as a result of our investment in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme and commercial rollout.

It is not possible to state definitively at this stage what speeds will be accessible by 2018. Much of this is dependent upon the commercial deployment of superfast broadband, which the Scottish Government does not hold information on.

The Scottish Government plans to launch an Open Market Review, ahead of new procurement activity in 2017, to determine (a) what has been delivered commercially and (b) what will be delivered commercially over the next 3 years. This will require suppliers to provide speed information at premise level. We will use this information to define a new intervention area for future public investment in broadband.

Question reference: S5W-02907

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £20 billion referred to in the 2016-17 Programme for Government that is to be allocated to transport, housing, digital and water infrastructure projects will go to digital projects, broken down by project.

Question reference: S5O-00199

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the number of people that choose teaching as a career.

The Scottish Government is taking a series of actions to increase the number of people that choose teaching as a career. These include building on the success of our 'Inspiring Teachers' campaign with a more substantial recruitment campaign to be launched by the end of the year.

In addition we are working with the university sector and the General Teaching Council for Scotland to introduce new and innovative routes into teaching, including distance learning routes, that are designed to be attractive to a wide range of potential student teachers. Throughout we will ensure that Scotland’s high level of teacher professional standards is maintained while enabling suitably qualified individuals to make a positive contribution in our schools.

Question reference: S5W-02202

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to secure a fair share of the red meat levy.

After taking up my position of Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy I wrote to the Defra Minister of State, George Eustice in June 2016 asking if he agreed in principle to the repatriation of the levy. I also confirmed that I was in favour of moving ahead with the Levy Body Forum proposal, and urged that we should now move forward rapidly with a legislative measure that gives full effect to the Forum's solution to this long standing issue, in particular to identify a primary legislative vehicle which can achieve the repatriation. Mr Eustice recently replied to this letter and we are to meet to discuss this along with other important areas of work.