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-27740

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the (a) Less Favoured Area Support Scheme and (b) Agri-Environment Climate Scheme in each year since 2015 have been (i) approved and (ii) are awaiting a decision.

Less Favoured Area Support Scheme

Year	Number of Applications Approved	Number of Applications awaiting decision
2015	11396	1
2016	11312	3
2017	11153	1
2018	11011	2
2019	Payments not due to start until April applications still being processed

Agri-Environment Climate Scheme

Year	Number of applications approved	Contracts not accepted by applicant
2015	594	36
2016	979	71
2017	807	62
2018	604	35
2019	492	1

There are no approval decisions pending.

Question reference: S5O-04269

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 12 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the decision by the National Laundry Programme Board not to maintain a full production laundry service at the Borders General Hospital.

No proposals relating to the future of NHS laundries have come to Scottish Government ministers to consider because NHS Chief Executives have still to review the business case.

It is unlikely that Chief Executives will complete this in the near future given the current challenge of COVID-19 and their focus on ensuring we are as prepared as we can be. So there will be no change to the current position whilst we are in this period of acute activity.

There after any review of the business case and any decision I take as Cabinet Secretary will be very mindful of the lessons the COVID-19 challenge will provide.

Question reference: S5O-04297

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-27596

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to the rural organisations, including the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Scottish Land and Estates and the Countryside Alliance, that are instigating a voluntary transition away from lead and single use plastics in shotgun ammunition within five years, and what assessment it has made of these efforts.

The Scottish Government welcomes the statement from UK field sports bodies on phasing out the use of lead shot and the use of plastics in shotgun cartridges. We look forward to working with shooting organisations to ensure the highest standards of protection for wildlife, the environment and human health.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has and will continue to provide training and advice on non-lead alternatives for those undertaking shooting in relation to geese and deer management activities.

For example, in Caithness and on Orkney and Islay, SNH has introduced, as part of their work on Goose Management Schemes, shooters to the different types of non-lead shotgun ammunition that are available, demonstrated the effectiveness of different ammunitions and provided the opportunity to shoot the ammunition at clay targets. At Wild Deer Best Practice events, SNH staff have provided opportunities for participants to try the different types of rifle ammunition that are available.

Question reference: S5O-04202

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement the communities secretary has had with community councils regarding community ownership of land through the Scottish Land Fund.

Question reference: S5T-02011

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to communities affected by recent flooding.

Question reference: S5O-04139

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of potential customs checks on the Scotland-England border, in light of comments by the First Minister during an address at the European Policy Centre.

Question reference: S5W-27030

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the last 10 years.

Scottish Ministers have invested in the region of £54m in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the last 10 years.

This has been invested through a range of programs.

Program	Investment £m
Local Authority Installation Programme	30
Switched On Towns & Cities	7.9
European Regional Development Fund	7
Energy Saving Trust Domestic and Workplace	4*
Energy Saving Trust Strategic	5*

*value invested since 2018

Scotland’s public charging network, ChargePlace Scotland, is one of the largest electric vehicle charging networks in the UK with over 1,200 publicly available charge points.

Support to third sector organisations, charities, private businesses and domestic applicants to install chargers is offered via the Energy Saving Trust. Since 2012 over 4,300 workplace (public and non-public) and domestic charge points have been supported throughout Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-27029

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many electric vehicle charging points there are in each local authority area.

At 31 December 2019 there were 1,226 publicly available charge points registered on Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network ChargePlace Scotland. The following table shows the number of publicly available charge points in each local authority area:

Local Authority Region	Publicly-Available CPS Charge Points
Aberdeen City	50
Aberdeenshire	48
Angus	42
Argyll and Bute	40
City of Edinburgh	69
Clackmannanshire	15
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	22
Dumfries and Galloway	26
Dundee City	73
East Ayrshire	34
East Dunbartonshire	15
East Lothian	53
East Renfrewshire	13
Falkirk	20
Fife	67
Glasgow City	119
Highland	78
Inverclyde	17
Midlothian	25
Moray	21
North Ayrshire	31
North Lanarkshire	37
Orkney Islands	23
Perth and Kinross	53
Renfrewshire	31
Scottish Borders	32
Shetland Islands	13
South Ayrshire	24
South Lanarkshire	50
Stirling	42
West Dunbartonshire	18
West Lothian	25
Grand Total	1,226

Funding is provided to all local authorities to expand charging infrastructure based on a funding model agreed with COSLA which takes into account population size and prevalence of existing infrastructure. Transport Scotland continues to work with local authorities on improving and enhancing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Additionally there are privately installed charge points but we do not collate data on these although the details are available on Zap-Map, website available here - https://www.zap-map.com .

The Department for Transport undertook analysis in October 2019 using Zap-Map data, which was summarised at the Local authority level and is available at the following link - http://maps.dft.gov.uk/ev-charging-map/ .

Question reference: S5W-27031

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what legislation is in place to ensure that new developments incorporate electric vehicle charging points into infrastructure plans.

At present there is no specific legislation in place requiring new developments to incorporate electric vehicle charging points into infrastructure plans. However, local authorities in Scotland have a statutory responsibility to prepare Local Development Plans, which are currently expected to be consistent with national policy set out in non-statutory Scottish Planning Policy (SPP). SPP states that electric vehicle charge points should always be considered as part of any new development and provided where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is currently taking forward plans to introduce legislation to support the installation of electric vehicle charge points in new developments and intends to consult on options later this year with requirements taking effect from March 2021.