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-26440

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of Brexit on the future of the Air Discount Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-26442

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that removing business-related travel from the Air Discount Scheme has had on businesses in the Highlands and Islands, and what consideration it has given to reinstating business-related travel within the scheme.

Question reference: S5W-26046

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the finding by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) that “at St Leonard’s Police Station, the delegation was informed that it was not the duty of custody staff to register or to report any complaints of potential abuse by arresting officers.”

The Scottish Government condemns any form of abuse.

The care and welfare of persons held in custody is of paramount importance to Police Scotland and any complaints made, or that become known to the police, are investigated in line with paragraphs 21.1 and 21.2 of Police Scotland's Care and Welfare of Persons in Police Custody Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and with the procedures outlined in the Complaints about the Police SOP.

A detailed vulnerability and risk assessment takes place at the point of processing into a custody facility which involves all visible and notified injuries being recorded on the National Custody System, with police officers always seeking to ascertain how any injuries occurred to best inform the care plan. Where appropriate, any referrals will be made to the NHS.

Question reference: S5W-26181

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many fines or repayments have been imposed for the alleged misuse of Air Discount Scheme (ADS) membership cards in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many times the difference between the full price and the ADS fare has been sought as a penalty.

Question reference: S5W-26180

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of the Air Discount Scheme have had their membership cards blocked or cancelled in each of the last five years.

There are around 77,000 Air Discount Scheme members. The number of scheme members who have had their membership cards blocked or cancelled is:

Year	Number of members blocked	Number of members cancelled
2014-15	948	127
2015-16	718	109
2016-17	798	133
2017-18	968	123
2018-19	964	104

A member has their card blocked if they are suspected of misusing it. If the issue is resolved then their card is released. If it is not, then their card is cancelled. A card could also be cancelled if a member did not respond to a request to confirm that they still lived at the address they were registered at.

Question reference: S5W-26182

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out into the effectiveness of current arrangements for ensuring that address and contact details for Air Discount Scheme members are kept up to date.

It is a requirement under the terms and conditions of the scheme for members to inform us if they change address. Whenever a member phones the ADS Admin Team they are asked to confirm their address. If we receive an application from an address where someone with a different surname is already registered we write to that member asking if they are still living at that address. If we receive no response then the member is removed from the system. When the scheme is renewed, we write to all scheme members. Where letters are returned marked that the addressee has gone away, they are removed from the system. We are content that these arrangements are effective.

Question reference: S5W-26183

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that Air Discount Scheme membership cards that have been blocked or cancelled cannot still be used to book flights.

Question reference: S5W-26045

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the occupancy rate is of the separation and reintegration units operational in Scottish prisons, broken down by institution.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

On 30 October 2019 there were 121 people in our care temporarily residing in SPS’ Separation and Reintegration Units (SRUs).

Prison	SRU Capacity	Population	Percentage Capacity
Addiewell	11	11	100%
Barlinnie	15	12	80%
Cornton Vale	4	4	100%
Edinburgh	14	12	86%
Glenochil	14	11	78%
Grampian	10	9	90%
Inverness	2	2	100%
Kilmarnock	14	14	100%
Low Moss	12	11	92%
Perth	14	13	93%
Polmont	12	8	66%
Shotts	14	14	100%
Total	136	121	89%

There are no SRUs at HMP Castle Huntly, HMP Dumfries or HMP Greenock.

Question reference: S5O-03775

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Destination Orkney and Orkney Islands Council about the future needs of the tourism sector.

Question reference: S5W-26135

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 13 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether its development of an interactive data hub to measure the fairness of delivery pricing in rural areas is expected to commence before 2020 and, if not, by what date it will do so.

Fairer Deliveries For All: An Action Plan sets out eight clear actions designed to tackle longstanding issues surrounding parcel deliveries, with particular regard to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

As part of the Action Plan, the Scottish Government committed to publishing an annual review setting out progress made on each of the actions. It was anticipated that this review would be published in November 2019. However, the Scottish Government has taken the decision to postpone this publication and associated announcements until early 2020 on account of next month’s General Election, and the restrictions that apply to it during the pre-election period. A full update will therefore be published early next year.

Year	Number of members	Amount reclaimed (£)
2014-15	113	6,509.60
2015-16	178	11,436.89
2016-17	182	15,282.30
2017-18	198	13,766.36
2018-19	217	18,375.57