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-16090

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that CalMac’s new Ar Turas ticketing system no longer offers the option of a season ticket for residents of the Isle of Cumbrae, what plans are in place to offer suitable and appropriate discounts in line with historic benefits.

CalMac are focussing their efforts on the Ar Turas Go-Live event. However, TS officials have had an initial meeting with CalMac to investigate potential options for eBooking of multi-journey tickets. This is at an early stage. It is important to note the wider benefits that the Ar Turas System will bring for both customers and staff.

Wider fares policy will be considered as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan and future fares options will be considered through that process.

Question reference: S6W-16048

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 5 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15589 by Elena Whitham on 14 March 2023, whether it will list the stakeholders that it (a) has already consulted and (b) plans to gather views from on potentially raising the legal age of marriage to 18, in line with the recommendation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Scottish Government officials have met with the following groups and organisations on the minimum age of marriage and related matters:

AMINA- Muslim Women’s Resource Centre

Article 12 in Scotland

Association of Registrars of Scotland

Caledonian Humanist Association

Evangelical Alliance

Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid

Humanist Society Scotland

IKWRO Women’s Rights Organisation

Independent Humanist Ceremonies

JustRight Scotland

Karma Nirvana

Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project

Scottish Council of Jewish Communities

Saheliya

Scottish Women’s Aid

Shakti Women’s Aid

Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights)

UNICEF UK

They have also met with some Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament and with two Scottish family law academics.

I intend for these meetings to continue. My officials are planning to meet representatives of the following bodies, some of which will have received invitations to discuss the issues.

The Baptist Union of Scotland

The Church of Scotland

The Free Church of Scotland

The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland

Glasgow Central Mosque

Hindu Forum of Britain

The Methodist Church

The Muslim Council of Scotland

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers in Scotland)

The Roman Catholic Church (The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland)

The Salvation Army

The Scottish Association of Mosques

The Scottish Episcopal Church

Sikhs in Scotland

The Scottish Unitarian Association

The Synod of Scotland of the United Reformed Church

The United Free Church of Scotland

The member is welcome to write to me with details of other interested groups who want to be involved.

Question reference: S6W-16066

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Public Health Scotland report, Gonorrhoea infection in Scotland: 2013-2022, which shows that the incidence of diagnosed gonorrhoea infection has increased since May 2021 from three positives per 100,000 people to 17.2 positives per 100,000 people in November 2022.

The Scottish Government recognises the continuing rise in gonorrhoea diagnoses, and we are grateful for the efforts of the dedicated clinicians who continue to work to find and treat affected individuals.

We acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on service capacity and levels of routine testing. That is why the upcoming Sexual Health and Blood Borne Strategy, which will be published this Spring, has a strong Covid recovery focus, and why we have invested over £500,000 into development of online STI testing. A pilot of this has begun in NHS Lothian, and we will continue to work with our NHS partners to understand how it may be further expanded.

Question reference: S6W-16099

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 5 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of fires attended to by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that were caused by, or suspected to have been caused by, electric (a) scooters, (b) bikes and (c) cars, in each year since 2017.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are working with key stakeholders and partners to understand the risks that lithium-ion batteries (LIB), contained within most electric vehicles, present to communities across Scotland. A bespoke working group is focused on these risks, and its findings will strengthen SFRS’s community safety work going forward. SFRS urges users of LIB technology to take the appropriate steps when disposing of spent battery units to ensure reduced risk of fire.

Question reference: S6W-16220

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 31 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any analysis of the Sentencing Young People guidelines from the Scottish Sentencing Council.

The independent Scottish Sentencing Council's guideline for sentencing young people took effect from 26 January 2022. The development of a sentencing guideline has 8 stages associated with it. Stage 8 is monitoring and review once a guideline is in force. It is for the Sentencing Council to decide how best to monitor and review the operation of their guidelines. Further information is contained on the Scottish Sentencing Council website. https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/sentencing-guidelines/methodology/stage-8-monitoring-and-review/ .

Question reference: S6O-02097

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 30 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what feedback it has received from MSPs and their staff regarding the roll-out of Webex.

The roll-out of Webex, the new phone system being used to replace our aging phone system at Holyrood, began for MSPs and their staff in February. While it is still in the early stages, so far feedback from offices using the new system, has been very positive. I do appreciate however that a very small number of offices in the initial phase have been rescheduled while a solution which meets their needs can be delivered.

Question reference: S6W-15791

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Transport Scotland report, Women's and girls' views and experiences of personal safety when using public transport, which was published on 7 March 2023.

The research on Women and Girls’ safety on Public Transport Scotland makes 10 recommendations Transport Scotland will continue to work with stakeholders and operators to identify actions in the recommendations and work towards progressing those. As part of this work a Summit is being organised to bring together stakeholders and experts to discuss the recommendations and identify any specific policy actions for Transport Scotland, as well as any actions for operators, police authorities and local authorities.

A number of partner organisations are working to specifically challenging men’s behaviour through a number of education and training programmes. Transport Scotland continue to support other policy areas on the systemic issue of gender based violence. The outcomes of this research have been shared with colleagues in the Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Team who are working to deliver the Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-15764

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many train stations that are currently in use do not have full disabled access, and whether it will name any such stations.

As the member will know, rail accessibility is reserved to the UK Government. However, Transport Scotland continues to develop opportunities, where possible, to deliver accessibility improvements within larger projects, such as at Carstairs, and additionally at Pitlochry, Aviemore, Kingussie and Nairn stations.

A list of railway stations in Scotland, including accessibility categorisation, is available on the ScotRail website. https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/20221123/vW4AP--fp0CW1OEJTomvU8Old-7vG-_dxpytivxd8kA/in429_atp_station-accessibility_info_april_2022.v5.pdf

Since ScotRail’s publication of this information, Croy and Johnstone have been made fully accessible and two new fully accessible stations were opened at Reston and Inverness Airport. Of the 361 Scottish Stations, 181 have step free access to one platform and 42 have no step free access.

Question reference: S6W-15827

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that 180 Freedom of Information requests to the Scottish Government regarding Ferguson Marine and Scotland's ferry network remain outstanding, with many not being processed within the statutory timeframe.

The Scottish Government regrets any instance in which the statutory 20 working day deadline for responding to information requests is not met. It remains committed to its obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to ensure openness and transparency. The Scottish Government is working at pace to deliver the actions in its FOI Improvement Plan, including the target agreed with the Scottish Information Commissioner of answering 95% of requests on time.

The Scottish Government has received and responded to a large number of requests relating to the topics the Member highlights. The figure quoted by the Member relates to the number of such requests which remained outstanding in August 2022. Considerable progress in responding to outstanding requests has been made since that time.

Question reference: S6W-15826

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 23 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses in the West Scotland region had registered with the Deposit Return Scheme by 1 March 2023, and how this compares with the number of businesses that were expected to register.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

As the Deposit Return Scheme regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is required to publish a list of all producers registered with the scheme before the scheme launches in August.

This list will be searchable by producer name, business address, date registered, registration number, and brand information in cases where the producer does not use their name and address on their packaging.