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: S6W-22482

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21841 by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023, who does have a remit to intervene should a broadband provider choose not to proceed with their commercial build plans.

The decision on whether or not to proceed with planned commercial rollout of broadband infrastructure is a matter solely for the relevant broadband infrastructure provider and their own internal governance. However, the Scottish Government is working to incentivise further commercial build through the series of pledges that comprise our Full Fibre Charter, and I am encouraged by discussions that took place with suppliers at last month’s Charter Forum.

Any homes or businesses not in a supplier’s commercial build plans, and which cannot access a superfast connection, are being supported to access a minimum of a superfast service through the Scottish Government’s R100 programme.

Question reference: S6W-22323

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to implement a fish counter on the River Dee, which is a Special Area of Conservation.

Question reference: S6W-22150

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Water has reviewed its emergency generator contingency plans in (a) general and (b) relation to pumping stations.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked its Chief Executive to respond. His response is as follows:

Scottish Water regularly reviews its generator strategy across the country for all water and wastewater treatment works to minimise disruption in the event of wide scale power outages. Significant work has also been undertaken to understand the medium to long term investment needs. This has identified additional sites that will receive a standby generator, or a hook up, to allow quicker deployment of temporary generators at pumping stations when needed.

Question reference: S6W-22310

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm the membership of the network of menopause specialists, including the representative of NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S6O-02695

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on eliminating long waiting times for NHS patients.

Question reference: S6W-22163

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify any economic and efficiency improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.

The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government and therefore the resilience of the UK’s energy network is the responsibility of the UK lead Government department, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The Scottish Government contributed to the Storm Arwen Ofgem review and supported the recommendation that work is undertaken by the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) to review current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify economic and efficient improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.

Any further information relating to progress of this recommendation is a matter for Ofgem.

Question reference: S6W-22162

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what online resources and training it (a) has provided and (b) plans to provide to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Our emergency planning portal, ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new "Learn" section to support the public, community groups and voluntary sector partners by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and helping them to understand how they may participate in an effective and joined up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023, we also ran a series of 4 online community resilience workshops which were attended by approximately 240 participants.

We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities, who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and provide additional resources if required.

Question reference: S6W-22154

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with energy network operators and the wider utilities sector to review their processes for (a) establishing restoration plans and timelines during times of severe weather and (b) communicating regular updates to responders and the public.

The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government. This limits the Scottish Government ’ s ability to directly engage with energy network operators and ask for a review of their processes.

However, the Scottish Government does regularly engage with UK Government Departments and the energy network operators in Scotland along with the wider utilities, particularly during severe weather events, where we encourage and emphasise the importance of accurate restoration plans and timelines.

In addition, we continue to work closely with the UK Government lead departments when they are developing statutory reporting arrangements and will make clear the requirements of the Scottish Government during a severe weather response.

The Scottish Government also supports the three Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRPs) who coordinate communications between Scottish Government, utility companies and categorised responder organisations who are working in affected areas during emergency responses. In this role the RRP coordinators engage with stakeholders on restoration plans at a local level as well as in the statutory requirement of category one responders to communicate with the public in emergency responses.

Question reference: S6W-22155

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it has done to review and expand the materials and training available to support the establishment and operation of local Community Resilience Groups during times of severe weather.

Our emergency planning portal; ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new ‘Learn’ section to support the public, community groups and Voluntary Sector partners, by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and to strengthen understanding of how they might participate in an effective and joined-up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023 a series of four online community resilience workshops took place, joined by approximately 240 participants. We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and to provide any additional resources required.

Question reference: S6W-22159

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has undertaken of any arrangements for an emergency that involves the loss of both power and telecoms, and engagement with utilities companies and local planning where required to ensure linkage with national developments.

The Scottish Government’s Storm Arwen Review provided a detailed review of such a situation, and our two follow-up reports made clear that the organisations who are responsible for emergency planning and response in Scotland had formally incorporated those recommendations into their workplans.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with UK Government Departments and the utilities operators in Scotland, as well as our own emergency responders, to ensure that information relevant to emergency planning is shared between the two.