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-04724

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the IT system for common agricultural policy (CAP) payments will be fully operational.

Question reference: S5O-00420

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when construction will start on the A90 grade-separated junction at Laurencekirk.

Question reference: S5W-04103

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on removing the fixed reference year requirement for applications to the Beef Efficiency Scheme to open it up for expanding and new herds.

Question reference: S5W-03879

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, whether it considers the comments by the Minister for Transport and Islands in the Sunday Herald on 16 October 2016 that “what I’ve been saying to [ScotRail] is...the wifi, the sockets, the nice seats, are all good. But what we need to do is get back to capacity issues, reliability, not skipping stops” is consistent with its news release of 3 October 2016, Over £3 million to improve passenger comfort and accessibility on our railways, which announced new funding for wifi, air conditioning and tables on rail services.

ScotRail recently published a Performance Improvement Plan [PIP] which outlines its commitment to increase reliability of fleets, infrastructure and operations to get back to the levels which I expect the franchisee to deliver every day.

As part of its obligations the franchisee has a significant number of front line passenger enhancements across the breadth of its services to deliver in the coming years. Amongst these it is committed to expand the current rolling stock fleet, delivering 23% more seats by 2019. Since 2007, 20% more carriages have been added with another 200 extra carriages due to be introduced to help meet increasing demand for ScotRail services, which are currently more popular than ever.

This increased patronage demonstrates the appeal of rail services and this is based on a number of factors including value for money, connectivity, integration and passenger facilities. The First Minister recognised the importance of rail travel to the wider Scottish economy in the recently announced £100M Capital Stimulus Fund which included funding of £3.1M for further rail improvements. Part of this funding will be used to install additional on train passenger counting equipment, beyond the 30% obliged in the Franchise Agreement, which will allow ScotRail to be better informed on usage and identify busier services where rolling stock can then be focussed.

This overall package will contribute towards better on train facilities being provided to support continuing growth on services and routes all across Scotland for those who use the railway for business, education and leisure purposes. Making rail travel more attractive, comfortable and accessible all helps to boost tourism and the economy.

Question reference: S5W-04440

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, following the comment "All I have to do is look at my Twitter feed to see that people are complaining largely about capacity issues during peak hours" by the Minister for Transport for the Islands at the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on 26 October 2016 (Official Report, c.16), to what extent it uses Twitter as a means of developing policy, and what steps it takes to ensure that ministers’ Twitter feeds are able to be accessed equitably by passengers from across Scotland.

In line with changing media consumption habits, and our ambitions for more open and accessible government, Scottish Ministers place increasing value on the importance of communicating and engaging with the public via social media, as well as continuing to engage through more traditional means. The Twitter system works such that all Twitter feeds are publicly available.

In terms of access to passengers, the Transport Minister regularly meets and engages with transport groups, most recently at the Cycling Scotland Conference in Perth on 8 November. Transport Scotland also receives passenger feedback on public transport performance, including ScotRail capacity issues, via email, letters, and telephone.

Question reference: S5W-04101

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage uptake of the Beef Efficiency Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-04104

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03324 by Fergus Ewing on 27 October 2016, whether it would implement the policies outlined in paragraphs three and four if agricultural subsidy rules were its responsibility.

The Scottish Government has been calling for full engagement with the UK Government on the EU exit negotiations and process. Agriculture is fully devolved and we must retain our powers to manage it appropriately and set future policy. How we organise agricultural subsidies in a post-EU scenario will then depend very much on the type of deal the UK Government reaches with the EU, compliance with World Trade Organisation rules and consultation with our stakeholders. For the moment, however, we are already using the flexibilities we have within the current EU CAP rules to help address slipper farming.

Question reference: S5W-04039

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 20 October 2016, Minister welcomes ScotRail Improvement Plan, whether the Minister for Transport and the Islands has seen the full plan.

Question reference: S5W-03649

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to it signing the memorandum of understanding with Heathrow Airport on 10 October 2016, whether the establishment of the £10 million route development fund to help support new domestic routes is compatible with its (a) environmental and climate commitments and (b) ambition to reduce the number of short-haul connections.

Applications for funding under Heathrow's fund for new domestic routes will be for airlines to progress with the support of airports.

Whilst we recognise that support for some policies designed to promote economic growth may lead to an increase in emissions, we are prepared to work even harder in other areas to ensure we are driving down overall emissions. Scotland is a world leader in tackling climate change with ambitious statutory targets, strong progress to date and a commitment to maintain this. As of 2014, we had delivered a 45.8% reduction from baseline levels, meeting our annual target for that year and exceeding the level of our 2020 target for a 42% reduction, six years early. We have included both domestic and international aviation in our emissions reduction targets.

Our policy on air route development is that we want to secure more direct international flights minimising the need for connections. We do need to maintain links to global hub airports such as Heathrow in view of the extended international reach they provide.

Question reference: S5W-03640

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) copies of all correspondence and minutes of meetings it has had with Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport in the last 12 months.