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-22878

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered extending concessionary travel for over-60s to include the Edinburgh Trams, in light of a reported reduction in the number of buses and trains running from West Lothian to Edinburgh city centre.

Any decision to extend local concessions to the trams rests with the City of Edinburgh Council. The Scottish Government has no role in the ownership and operation of the tram system which is run by Transport for Edinburgh. The Scottish Government currently has no plans to extend the National Concessionary Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled Persons to Edinburgh Trams.

In addition, Edinburgh Trams do not run to West Lothian. Lothian Country is due to take over some of the bus services due to be withdrawn and West Lothian Council are in the process of tendering other routes.

More widely, the Fair Fares Review is progressing to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares. The review is considering both the cost and availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry to ensure our public transport system is more accessible, available, and affordable, with the costs of transport more fairly shared across government, business and society.

Question reference: S6W-22823

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the monetary value is of the Scottish Water contract with Clancy for (a) the current financial year and (b) each of the last 10 financial years, broken down by the area of business.

Scottish Water holds information for seven years, in line with HMRC guidance. The following information has been provided for the last seven years across water and waste water. A new framework was put in place in 2021-22.

		Numbers in £
Area of Business	Contractor	FY16-17	FY17-18	FY18-19	FY19-20	FY20-21	FY21-22	FY22-23	FY23-24 (forecast)
Waste Water	Kier	16.6M	17.7M	19.0M	19.7M	20.2M	13.2M	0M	0M
Waste Water	Clancy	0M	0M	0M	0M	0M	9M	14.5M	15.8M
Water	Clancy	10.1M	12.8M	16.1M	13.8M	12.7M	11.5M	21.8M	17.5M

Total		26.7M	30.5M	35.1M	33.5M	32.9M	33.7M	36.3M	33.3M

Question reference: S6W-22820

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what sites are currently identified by the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland as being of potential concern and requiring sampling by Scottish Water.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland’s active and past Enforcement Notices are published on www.dwqr.scot/regulator-activity/enforcement/ . Monitoring requirements for Scottish Water are set out in The Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014. Some additional sampling is specified as a requirement of Enforcement Notices, and Scottish Water is expected to undertake additional operational sampling based on its assessment of risk.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator’s annual reports summarise data on water quality in public and private supplies across Scotland, as well as covering water quality events and incidents and consumer contacts to Scottish Water. They are available at www.dwqr.scot/information/annual-report/ .

Question reference: S6W-22819

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much Scottish Water has paid to private sector contractors in each year since 2007, expressed both in monetary terms and as a percentage of overall spend.

Question reference: S6W-22817

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what amount of Scottish Water’s (a) construction projects and (b) maintenance, operation and repairs have been delivered (i) in-house and (ii) by external contractors, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-22814

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the trade unions involved in the planned industrial action at Scottish Water.

Question reference: S6W-22825

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether an equality impact assessment was carried out by Scottish Water regarding its recent job evaluation proposals.

Question reference: S6W-22988

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of drugs deaths in the Lothian region in each year since 2018 have been linked to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids such as Captagon.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The annual National Records of Scotland publication on drug-misuse deaths does include data on the geographic split of drug deaths by substance, but the categories only include ‘any opioid’, ‘heroin/morphine’, ‘OST’, and a few medicinal opioids (such as codeine). There is not any information provided specifically on fentanyl, or any other synthetic opioids, broken down by geographical area.

Across Scotland the number of deaths where fentanyl was implicated since 2018 are as follows:

	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Number of deaths where fentanyl implicated	12	25	7	7	6

The separate Public Health Scotland operated RADAR system does publish some data on synthetic opioid detection in post-mortem forensic toxicology testing which is available at the following link, but this is not broken down by geographical area - https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/rapid-action-drug-alerts-and-response-radar-quarterly-report/rapid-action-drug-alerts-and-response-radar-quarterly-report-october-2023/#section-6-2

There is no mention in the NRS statistics of any deaths from the amphetamine stimulant Captagon, or under its chemical name fenethylline.

Question reference: S6W-22954

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023

The Scottish Government has not assessed the potential for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production or supply in Scotland by specific dates. However, we continue to explore options for incentivising the production and use of SAF including the support the Scottish Government could provide. We will take account of proposed UK Government action on SAF, recognising that significant levers remain reserved. In considering options, we are drawing on the responses to our consultation on the aviation strategy and the main findings from Scottish Enterprise’s recent SAF supply chain study. We will also involve stakeholders as appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-22953

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the proportion of sustainable aviation fuel that will be able to be supplied to Scottish airports from domestic production by 2025.