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-22678

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy raised any concerns in relation to human rights during his visit to the United Arab Emirates in October 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to upholding its robust standards when it comes to Human Rights. I visited the UAE between 24-27 October and met senior government and business leaders to promote Scotland’s planned COP28 business programme and advance our bilateral trade and investment relationship with the UAE. I took the opportunity to raise Human Rights as part of the discussions around the Scottish Government’s commitment to creating a wellbeing economy to drive not just a wealthy society but a fair and just society. It was agreed to share further insight and intelligence about this work in Scotland and also to learn more about the measures the UAE has taken to tackle issues in their own society.

Question reference: S6W-22030

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out a risk assessment of any investment from China in Scottish universities, to determine what the impact on (a) universities and (b) university cities would be in the event that any such investment stopped.

Our universities are autonomous and responsible for ensuring their alliances and partnerships are safe and appropriate. The alliances that our further and higher education institutions forge across global academic networks are a matter for them and their governing bodies.

We expect all universities to understand and manage the reputational, ethical and security risks associated with international partnerships.

This includes conducting due diligence, complying with relevant legal requirements already in place and carefully considering guidance published by Universities UK to support them in managing risks of international partnerships.

Question reference: S6F-02537

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 November 2023

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-22364

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the current regulation for enforcement of taxi bays.

Taxis and private hire cars are licensed under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 ("the 1982 Act"). While the Scottish Government has responsibility for the overarching legislation, the day to day administration of the licensing regime is devolved to independent licensing authorities – in effect the 32 Scottish local authorities. The 1982 Act authorises a licensing authority to appoint, after consultation, stances for taxis.

There are no current plans to review the taxi licensing regime, as set out in the 1982 Act. If there are any issues with any specific taxi stances/bays this will be a matter for the relevant licensing authority to consider and address where appropriate.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government published updated ‘Best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and private hire car operators on the licensing of taxis and private hire cars and their drivers’.

This guidance offers best practice advice to licensing authorities on a range of issues relating to the licensing of taxis, private hire cars and their drivers and was revised with the assistance of a working group including representatives from the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, local licensing authorities, taxi and private hire car trade representatives and UNITE the Union.

Question reference: S6W-22431

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the work of Police Scotland in light of a reported decline in policing numbers.

The Scottish Government continue to invest in policing, investing £1.45 billion in policing in 2023/24, increasing the resource budget of Police Scotland by an additional £80m.

Police Scotland have utilised this additional funding to invest in their workforce - recruiting around 600 new officers this year alone and around 1,480 since the beginning of 2022. A 7% pay increase for 23/24 recognises the hard work and valuable contribution that officers and staff make each day and means that our officers remain the best paid in the UK, with the minimum and maximum salary higher for all ranks compared to their counterparts in England and Wales.

Question reference: S6W-21934

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Scottish Water has been fined by SEPA for sewage spills in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has a number of options in its enforcement toolkit, ranging from informal advice and guidance to the use of formal enforcement measures including final warning letters, statutory notices, monetary penalties, and reports to the Procurator Fiscal recommending prosecution.

SEPA’s licences set out actions operators are required to take and SEPA’s enforcement action is designed to secure compliance using the most appropriate and effective method. Scottish Water has received one fine in the last five years for a sewage spill.

Question reference: S6W-21946

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what NHS Grampian's (a) (i) NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula target and (ii) actual funding allocation and (b) distance from NRAC parity has been in each year since 2016-17.

The Scottish Budget provides additional funding of £730 million for frontline NHS Boards in 2023-24 and continues to ensure that no Board is further than 0.6% from its target funding allocation.

In 2023-24, NHS Grampian will receive additional investment of £57.7 million, and this will take the Board’s overall funding in excess of £1.1 billion for the fourth consecutive year. Since 2015-16, NHS Grampian has received additional funding of £56.2 million specifically to support the Board's movement towards NRAC parity.

Question reference: S6W-21943

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 24 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met (a) the Marine Conservation Society, (b) Keep Britain Tidy, (c) Friends of the Earth and (d) Surfers Against Sewage in the last two years.

Question reference: S6F-02458

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2023

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6W-21941

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Water has an estimate of the true volume of sewage that has been discharged into Scotland's waterways in each of the last five years.

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

"Typically, monitors are designed to measure the duration of spills and not flow or volume. Scottish Water is not required to measure the volume of spills other than in a specific limited number of locations where specific equipment is in place to do this. Where Scottish Water is required to measure this, it provides data to SEPA on an annual basis.

The new Event Duration Monitors that are being installed under the improving urban waters routemap will give spill numbers and durations, and not flows or volumes."

However, it should be noted that volume data is not always meaningful as spills are dependent on factors beyond Scottish Water’s control, most notably the weather. The more important metrics are the quality of water in receiving water bodies and as the member is aware, comprehensive monitoring of water bodies is already undertaken by SEPA to assess water quality, water resources, physical condition and aquatic ecology which are combined to produce an overall classification of the water environment. 87% of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a ‘high’ or ‘good’ classification for water quality and Scotland’s River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) have measures in place to achieve 92% ‘good’ water quality by 2027.