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-11745

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 26 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to have to extend the suicide consultation events, which are planned for Glasgow, Dumfries and Inverurie, to cover Tayside.

Question reference: S5W-11477

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-11317 by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2017, whether (a) it expects to receive a report on the engine fire before the start of the refurbishment work on the fleet in preparation for its service with ScotRail and (b) the lease agreement with Angel Trains allows for the fleet to be rejected if concerns exist about its reliability and safety.

Question reference: S5W-11317

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is the reports that a 40-year-old high speed train (HST), which was scheduled to be transferred to the ScotRail fleet, caught fire on 14 September 2017; whether it has asked for a report on the incident, and what the implications of this are for the HST units that are due to enter service with ScotRail.

Question reference: S5W-11132

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 28 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many companies that employ people in Scotland are headquartered in the rest of the EU.

Statistics on the number of businesses, operating in Scotland, by country of ownership are produced by the Scottish Government within the Businesses in Scotland 2016 publication, available at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Corporate

The latest figures show that, as at March 2016, there were 1,000 EU (excluding UK) owned companies operating in Scotland - these companies employed 127,110 people in Scotland.

Note that the number of companies is rounded to the nearest five and employment is rounded to the nearest ten.

Question reference: S5O-01319

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 October 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the number of planned operations that have been cancelled in NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S5W-11248

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10759 by Humza Yousaf on 6 September 2017, which cycling organisations it has met to discuss the issue of cycle provision on high-speed trains, and on what dates.

The ScotRail chaired Cycle Forum meets three times a year with the frequency approved by the members. This forum is attended by a variety of stakeholders including Transport Scotland, Cycling Scotland, SUSTRANs, CTC (Cyclists’ Touring Club), SPOKES and RTPs. All ScotRail’s franchise obligations related to cycling are discussed, including cycle provision on high-speed trains.

Transport Scotland also meet ScotRail every four weeks to review, monitor and challenge the franchise obligations related to cycling, and Transport Scotland’s senior management met with SPOKES on 23 August to discuss the issue of cycle provision on high-speed trains.

Question reference: S5W-11247

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10759 by Humza Yousaf on 6 September 2017, whether it expects to reach agreement on increasing cycle provision before the start of the overhaul and refurbishment of the high-speed trains and, if so, whether this will also include provision on services to the intermediate stations between Edinburgh/Glasgow and Inverness.

Question reference: S5W-11022

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01123 by Humza Yousaf on 21 July 2016, whether it will provide the data for 2016.

The following table shows the number of fatal and serious accidents on each road in the Scottish trunk road and motorway network in 2016.

Road	FATAL	SERIOUS
A1	3	4
A6091	0	1
A68	4	8
A7	0	2
A701	2	2
A702	3	4
A720	1	5
A725	0	4
A726	0	1
A737	1	9
A738	0	0
A75	2	7
A76	2	7
A77	3	7
A78	2	3
A8	0	0
A82	7	25
A828	0	1
A83	2	8
A830	0	1
A835	1	3
A84	0	3
A85	4	9
A86	0	2
A87	2	4
A876	0	1
A887	0	1
A898	0	1
A9	7	20
A90	5	29
A92	1	4
A95	0	1
A96	2	15
A972	0	0
A977	0	0
A985	1	3
A99	0	0
M73	0	0
M74	5	9
M77	0	2
M8	2	12
M80	0	5
M823	0	0
M876	0	2
M898	0	1
M9	1	3
M90	1	5
Total	64	234

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere because they were exported on a different date and the database may have changed between the dates extracted, e.g. due to late returns or corrections to earlier returns.

Question reference: S5O-01262

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the merger between Police Scotland and the British Transport Police.

The Railway Policing (Scotland) Bill passed Stage 3 on 27 June and received Royal Assent on 1 August, becoming the Railway Policing (Scotland) Act 2017. This was a key step in the process of delivering integration and realising its benefits. Since then, significant progress has been made in developing more detailed arrangements for the transfer.

Work is being taken forward by a Joint Programme Board, jointly led by the Scottish Government and the UK Government Department for Transport with representatives from both police authorities, the British Transport Police and Police Scotland. The programme comprises a series of separate, but interlinked project workstreams, each dealing with specific components of the transfer, led by those with the greatest knowledge and expertise in that area.

For example, there has been significant collaborative work in line with the commitment that both Scottish and UK Ministers have made to ensure seamless cross-border railway policing. Good progress is being made on secondary legislation on cross-border jurisdiction to ensure that this meets the full range of operational requirements including ongoing joint working and mutual aid arrangements.

As the Programme is now entering its delivery phase, policy and operational decisions are being made, and it is vital that messages to staff and officers regarding the delivery of the Programme are consistent and co-ordinated effectively with all Programme partners. Scottish Government officials are actively engaging with officers and staff representatives to develop materials for them to understand what the transfer will mean for them.

Question reference: S5W-11087

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10151 by Derek Mackay on 4 August 2017, whether it will answer the question that was asked regarding what information it has on how many businesses in the North East Scotland parliamentary region have closed or downsized due to an increase in business rates, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its response.