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-21166

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported disparity in average broadband connection speeds between rural and urban areas.

Despite the UK Government having responsibility for investing in broadband across the UK, the clear absence of a UK-wide strategy for improving rural connectivity has meant that the Scottish Government has had to step in, take the lead and use Scottish Government resources, given its economic importance to Scotland.

Scotland's unique geography and dispersed population has meant that speeds are often lower in Scotland's more remote and rural areas. However, the recent Which? report on Local Authority broadband speeds does not represent the full scope of superfast broadband availability; nor are they necessarily accurate.

Through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, we have already delivered truly transformative results across much of rural Scotland. Fibre coverage in Dumfries and Galloway alone has increased from just 18.9% in 2014 to 94.9% now, with superfast coverage of 30Mbps and above increasing from 17% to 83.3%. Average download speeds have increased as a result - from 7.7Mbps in Q1 2014 to 23Mbps now.

The R100 programme will deliver superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps and above to 100% of premises in Scotland, regardless of remoteness or rurality. We have also excluded urban premises from the R100 procurement, reflecting our view that public spending must be focussed where it is needed most - in rural Scotland and given limitations on our ability to intervene in areas when commercial operators plan to invest.

As the UK’s telecoms regulator, issues such as quality of service are the responsibility of Ofcom to remedy.

Question reference: S5W-21168

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures will be taken to ensure that the R100 broadband scheme meets its target by 2021.

We recognise the challenges associated with delivering such an ambitious procurement to deliver the Reaching 100% programme. Our investment of £579 million (96.5%) towards the £600 million R100 programme reflects the complexity of the challenge and represents, at this time of writing, the biggest ever public sector investment in the UK in a single digital connectivity project.

We are currently conducting a detailed, careful and competitive procurement process, designed to maximise competition and drive value, innovation and coverage. In parallel with R100, we are taking forward work to design aligned interventions, so that we can move swiftly to deliver access to any premises not met by the procurement exercise. The detail of which premises will be covered by the main procurement contract and those which may require aligned interventions will be determined later this year, once detail of bids are submitted.

Question reference: S5W-21167

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason spending on digital connectivity is reported to decrease in 2019-20.

Question reference: S5O-02810

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on staffing ambulances.

Question reference: S5O-02777

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it will put in place to support farmers in adapting and building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Scottish Government is developing a new Climate Change Adaptation Programme to be published this year, this will build on the 2014 previous report and will include agriculture.

We support farming and food production with high quality advice and information on environmental and business resilience through the Farm Advisory Service, and via the Agriculture Weather Advisory Panel. We continue to support on the ground actions through avenues such as the Forestry Grant Scheme and the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme which opens to applications shortly. This follows the announcement in December of a further £39.5 million committed, bring our total support under this one scheme to over £150 million since 2015.

Question reference: S5O-02747

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated in its draft Budget for capital expenditure on digital infrastructure in the next financial year.

Question reference: S5W-20621

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 8 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hen harrier nests there were on (a) RSPB and (b) non-RSPB reserves in each of the last six years, and what information it has regarding how many failed to have any chicks fledge, broken down by the reason for such failures.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on hen harrier nests broken down by nature reserves on which the nests are located, or on reasons for nest failure.

The Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (SRMS) and the RSPB have provided the data in Table 1 for RSPB reserves. The data are from 2013-2017.

Table 1

Year	No of pairs monitored	Successful	Failed/Outcome unknown
2013	37	12	25
2014	37	13	24
2015	43	15	28
2016*	60	12	48
2017	37	5	32

Around 80% of the records in Table 1 are from RSPB Orkney reserves. The Orkney harrier population is well known for high levels of polygyny with males often breeding with 2 or 3 females. Most of these additional females either fail or produce very few young, as normally males struggle to feed more than one female and brood. This affects the failure rate overall and the proportion of successful nesting attempts is higher on non-Orkney RSPB reserves compared to Orkney reserves.

Table 2 provides data on breeding hen harriers across Scotland from the SRMS. It does not include the data included in Table 1.

Table 2

Year	No of pairs monitored	Successful	Failed/Outcome unknown
2013	210	97	113
2014	256	164	92
2015	233	105	128
2016*	279	119	160
2017	215	114	101

* 2016 was the national survey year for Hen Harriers, so more data reached the SRMS for this species than in other years.

The number of Hen Harrier pairs recorded and monitored in and out of RSPB reserves should not be regarded as a complete inventory. Coverage of this species in Scotland is incomplete, so some pairs are not reported to SRMS.

Moreover, coverage on RSPB reserves may not be the same as coverage elsewhere. This means that the proportion of records the SRMS holds from RSPB reserves does not necessarily indicate the proportion of the population that breed on reserves.

Question reference: S5W-20361

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a national concessionary fare scheme for train travel for (a) disabled people and (b) people aged 60 or over.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Scottish local authorities for the provision of a range of local services and it is for these local authorities to decide how best to use that funding for the benefit of local people. Some local authorities offer rail discounts for older people and those with disabilities, while others do not.

The Scottish Government also ensures participation by the ScotRail franchisee in a range of UK-wide discount schemes, including: free travel for individuals who are blind; half price travel for wheelchair users; and Railcards, both for those with disabilities and for older people, which offer one third off most fares for an annual fee of £20 and £30 respectively.

Question reference: S5O-02668

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to Dumfries and Galloway Council to help deliver its vision for reshaping Stranraer.

The Scottish Government looks forward to engaging with Dumfries and Galloway Council on the new strategic plan for the development of Stranraer and its wider area. We share the Council’s view that Stranraer has significant strengths, and a range of opportunities to build a sustainable economic future. We look forward to receiving detailed proposals from the Council, and are committed to working with them to help deliver those plans.

Question reference: S5W-19704

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 20 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether shipping containers are appropriate for the storage of the type of weapons set out at section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968.