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-08958

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm how much it has committed to spend through the Beef Efficiency Scheme in light of a freedom of information request in March 2017 suggesting that the figure was £8.2 million and an article in the Scottish Farmer in February 2017, which reported that it was £32 million.

Regrettably, an administrative error occurred in the preparation of the reply to the FOI request referred to in the question. The £8.2 million figure provided for BES commitment should in fact have been £28.2 million. We are contacting the FOI correspondent to clarify.

Further work has been done since then to refine the overall total, including both committed and estimated expenditure, which now stands at around £25.4 million. The reduction from the total quoted in the Scottish Farmer is due to several factors including an expectation that the cost of providing advisory services to scheme members will not consume as much of the overall budget as previously estimated.

Question reference: S5W-08975

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the money that it has committed to spend through the Beef Efficiency Scheme will go directly to farmers.

Question reference: S5T-00532

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures showing that the average income of commercial farms decreased by 48% in 2015-16.

Question reference: S5O-00941

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the cost of delivering 100% broadband coverage by 2021, and how much it has invested in this programme to date.

Question reference: S5W-08730

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what maximum number of cycles could be carried on the class 125 trains that are joining the ScotRail fleet; what agreement it has reached with Abellio regarding the number of cycle spaces that will be made available; whether this took account of the presentation to the Cross-Party Group on Cycling on 25 February 2015 at which Abellio indicated that there would be capacity for more than 20, and what minimum number of spaces it will impose.

£54M is being invested to significantly refurbish 26 High Speed Trains (HSTs) before they enter service on Scottish inter-city routes adding 40% more seating than at present. The re-engineered HSTs will offer significant improvements in inter-city standard travel for all passengers.

Abellio ScotRail is currently reviewing the number, design and operational proposals of how on-train cycle storage will be managed in order to enhance and maximise the number it can carry when HSTs enter service next summer.

The introduction of HSTs and retention of class 170s will also support the delivery of more services and greater capacity all across the north and east of Scotland during 2018-19. This will provide all passengers including those with bicycles many more opportunities to travel on ScotRail services in the coming years.

Question reference: S5W-08734

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) discussions, (b) meetings and (c) correspondence it has had with (i) Abellio, (ii) passenger groups, (iii) cycling groups and (iv) other stakeholders regarding cycle spaces on the class 125 trains that are joining the fleet, and what part the health ministers played in these.

Transport Scotland and Abellio ScotRail (ASR) meet regularly to discuss issues around integration, including on-train cycle carriage. We are working together to understand the impact, develop options and assess how to deliver value for money solutions which will balance the needs of all passengers who wish to travel by rail, in conjunction with relevant cycling groups.

ASR is obliged through the current FA to provide many enhancements and it will invest around £4M in those projects with the aim to boost rail/ cycle integration by improving facilities for cyclists at either end of their journey to reduce demand for taking bikes on trains. Our view is that the ASR approach offers the greatest contribution to encourage more people to integrate cycling into their journeys in an affordable and efficient manner.

Question reference: S5O-00895

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what role the Lord Advocate has in determining the competency of legislation.

Question reference: S5W-08324

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has asked Virgin Trains East Coast for a report on the fire on the Leeds-Aberdeen high-speed train on 21 March 2017 that caused the line to be blocked at Leuchars.

Transport Scotland officials raised this matter with Abellio ScotRail and information was provided on the incident. The incident on a Virgin East Coast HST train on 21 March was caused by an electrical machine failure in service that was 1000 hours away from heavy overhaul and Abellio ScotRail have highlighted the incident to both the vehicle owner and their overhauler to ensure that any issues are addressed at HST overhaul once the Abellio ScotRail HSTs are released from the Great Western franchise.

Question reference: S5W-08323

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the fire on the Leeds-Aberdeen high-speed train (HST) on 21 March 2017 will have on the plans for HST services to be introduced by ScotRail from 2018.

Question reference: S5W-07963

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity on 19 January 2017 (Official Report, c. 104) that "we will therefore heed the call in the Lib Dem amendment" to establish a review group to develop options for agricultural support beyond 2020, when the group will be established; what its remit will be, and what work it will carry out.

The Scottish Government is currently working up proposals for an external group to provide advice on future agricultural support, including how this new group should fit with the work being taken forward by the four Agriculture Champions - Education and Training Champion Henry Graham; Food and Drink Champion Archie Gibson; Sustainability Champion John Kinnaird; and Public Value Champion Marion MacCormick. Members will be updated in due course.