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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1894 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-16997

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 20 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of unemployment in the West Scotland region has been in each year since 2008.

Table 1 shows the overall level of unemployment for West Scotland in each year from Jan-Dec 2008 to Jan-Dec 2017.

Table 1: Unemployment in West Scotland, 2008-2017

Year	Unemployment (level)
2008	17,200
2009	23,800
2010	27,500
2011	29,100
2012	33,400
2013	28,000
2014	23,300
2015	22,300
2016	18,700
2017	16,500

Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec datasets.

Data are rounded to the nearest hundred

*Estimates for 2008-2011 are for the West of Scotland Scottish Parliamentary Region that was replaced by the West Scotland Parliamentary Region at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. These are therefore not directly comparable with estimates for 2012 onward.

Unemployment is for those aged 16 years and above and is defined based on International Labour Organisation definitions .

Question reference: S5W-16982

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 18 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to tackle rising energy costs, in light of reports that all of the big six energy providers have now increased prices.

The regulation of energy markets for electricity and gas are matters that remain reserved under the Scotland Act (1998). These are therefore matters for which UK Ministers are responsible.

However, Scottish Ministers take great interest in the issue, given our locus on tackling fuel poverty. Clearly, energy bills remain a huge concern for many consumers in Scotland and the steep price rises we have seen across the market, including the six largest suppliers will be worrying for many households. The UK Government has failed to provide a competitive market that puts consumers’ needs and interests at its heart. This is why the Scottish Government has committed – through the Scottish Energy Strategy – to produce an action plan which puts in place actions to engage and protect Scottish energy consumers both today and during the energy transition. Aligned with this, we will also introduce a Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill by summer and publish a Draft Fuel Poverty Strategy alongside it, reconfirming our commitment to taking action to address fuel poverty.

As stated above, the cost of energy is outwith the powers of the Scottish Government, but by ensuring consumers have advice and support on switching to the best offer available, we aim to help them reduce costs. We are working to ensure that Scottish consumers are informed, engaged and empowered as the energy system evolves and that is why in January we reconvened the Scottish Energy Summit to address issues affecting vulnerable Scottish energy users. This builds on our work to promote consumer engagement in the energy market:

We supported a partnership between Home Energy Scotland and the social enterprise Citrus Energy to promote impartial tariff-switching.
We backed the launch of Our Power in 2016 with £2.5 million Scottish Government investment and reaffirmed that support with a further investment of £3.5m in 2017. When launched it was the first independent and fully licensed energy supply company registered as a non-profit distributing organisation owned by its members. This ground breaking company is making a real difference to thousands of low income households who are currently disadvantaged in the energy market and struggling to pay their bills
We ran a pilot to examine how to extend the benefits of competition to vulnerable and disengaged consumers – including offline customers – through face to face advice and support to switch.
We have committed to introducing financial health checks to address the poverty premium, including helping people switch to the lowest tariffs.
We continue to engage with Ofgem on the database of disengaged customers and safeguard tariff to ensure Scottish consumers get positive outcomes.

In May 2018 we responded to Energy UK's Commission for Customers in Vulnerable Circumstances and remain committed to working with the Commission to ensure better outcomes for all Scottish energy consumers.

Question reference: S5W-16983

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 18 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce antisocial behaviour, in light of reports that there has been an increase in the number reports of it.

Statements regarding changes in the level of antisocial behaviour are best made using measures of the population’s experience and all the evidence points towards a long term and sustained reduction in levels of antisocial behaviour in Scotland. The Scottish Crime and Justice survey reports that the percentage of adults who think people behave in an antisocial manner in their local area fell from 46% in 2008-09 to 29% by 2016-17, whilst more adults than ever before feel safe walking alone after dark in their local area.

Despite this progress, we remain committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour and recognise that this can blight people’s lives. The Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a wide range of measures for dealing with all forms of antisocial behaviour and our national strategy is based on prevention, early intervention and diversionary activities. The Scottish Government is currently working with a group of local authorities to use their expertise and knowledge to inform, refresh and update all of the guidance documents on tackling antisocial behaviour.

Question reference: S5W-16985

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what Scotland's CO2 emissions were in 2017.

Question reference: S5O-02245

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action NHS Ayrshire and Arran is taking to tackle its gender pay gap.

Question reference: S5W-16991

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many passenger complaints ScotRail has received in each year since 2008.

The Scottish Government does not have the specific information asked for because it does not hold details of how many complaints ScotRail have received each year since 2008, which pre-dates the current ScotRail franchise which commenced on 1 April 2015.

However, Abellio ScotRail have reported total customer complaints of 28,956 for the 12 months ending 31 March 2018. This compares 26,996 total customer complaints reported for the 12 months ending 31 March 2017. There is no total figure available for the 12 months ending 31 March 2016 as customer services were initially delivered by Serco prior to transferring to Abellio shared services.

The latest ORR complaints rate by Train Operating Company (TOC) graph for 2016-17 shows that, of 22 TOCs measured, ScotRail were ranked the sixth best in terms of complaints per 100,000 journeys. Full details are available at:

http://orr.gov.uk/_data/assets/pdf_file/0006/24927/passenger-rail-service-complaints-2016-17-q4-pdf

Question reference: S5W-16990

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 13 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for how many of the trains between Edinburgh in Glasgow that have have been cancelled in 2018 was an alternative public transport method offered.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, Schedule 1.2 para. 8.3 of the Franchise Agreement requires ScotRail “to use all reasonable endeavours to secure the provision of alternative transport arrangements and passage on such alternative transport arrangements to enable passengers affected by such disruption to complete their intended journeys”.

During times of disruption, ScotRail will also enable ticket acceptance with local and regional bus operators.

Question reference: S5W-16984

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on a Scottish islands passport scheme.

Question reference: S5T-01147

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report by Crisis, which shows that the number of people living in temporary hostel and B&B accommodation in Scotland has risen.

Question reference: S5W-16993

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the percentage change in the GDP of the Highlands and Islands has been in each year since 2008.