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-18572

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what explicit, quantified (a) commitments and (b) targets it has set to ensure that seafloor habitats are (i) healthy and (ii) sustainable.

The First Minister’s vision for Scotland published in April 2023 sets out the commitment for enhancing protection for our most precious marine areas. This commitment also includes making progress towards halting biodiversity loss and reversing declines, protecting at least 30% of our land and seas for nature by 2030.

Specific targets relating to ensure the seabed habitats are healthy and sustainable can be found within Part One of the UK Marine Strategy which provides an assessment of our seas and sets objectives, targets and indicators for achieving Good Environmental Status (GES). The high-level objective for GES relating to benthic habitats is “the health of seabed habitats is not significantly adversely affected by human activities.” Under this objective there are four criteria and targets for measuring process towards GES which includes:

1. Spatial extent of physical loss- the physical loss of each seabed habitat type caused by human activities is minimised and where possible reversed;

2. Habitat condition- habitat loss of sensitive fragile or important habitats caused by human activities is prevented, and where feasible reversed;

3. Spatial extent of habitat types adversely affected by physical disturbance- the extent of habitat types adversely affected by physical disturbance caused by human activity should be minimised; and

4. Extent of adverse effects- the extent of adverse effects caused by human activities on condition, function and ecosystem processes of habitats is minimised.

Question reference: S6W-18476

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to decarbonise the rail network between Aberdeen and Inverness.

Question reference: S6W-18609

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the successful tender was for the ScotRail Class 170 sander project, and in what location this project will be carried out.

Question reference: S6W-18747

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the amount of information detailed in the list of ministerial engagements, travel and gifts that is published monthly, in light of its commitment to transparency and accountability.

Question reference: S6W-18717

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were held in police custody suites in Scotland, under UK immigration legislation, in each year from 2016-17 to 2022-23 inclusive, also broken down by (a) nationality of those detained and (b) police station.

Question reference: S6W-18498

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17578 by Lorna Slater on 18 May 2023, whether it is aware that, on 24 March 2021, the then Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform wrote to Circularity Scotland stating that “the detailed schedule for you to collect scheme packaging from return point operators and pay them the deposit and handling fee has still to be agreed”, and that “we would consider a failure to provide a schedule (or at least to make such agreements) by 1 October 2021 as a material change in circumstances requiring notification to the Scottish Ministers”; whether any such notification was received by the specified date, and, if so, whether it will provide a copy of that notification.

The letter and anticipated schedule to which the member refers was in the context of a scheme launch date of July 2022. Following an independent Gateway Review in June 2021, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would conduct a review of that go live date, with input from Circularity Scotland, industry and independent advice.

As a result of that review, the Scottish Parliament voted to move the launch date of DRS from July 2022 to August 2023, accounting for the impacts of EU exit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Circularity Scotland has since published information on returns collections as part of their Blueprint for Return Point Operators and Hospitality Providers . You may wish to review section 9, starting on page 9 which sets out that Return Point Operators (RPOs) will provide details to support collection schedules as part of the DRS registration process. Page 28 provides a sample collection frequency and Circularity Scotland specify that collection frequencies and/or schedules will be agreed following the registration process. Please note that said schedules would be a contractual matter between Circularity Scotland and individual RPOs to manage and that they are not obligated to provide copies of these to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-18627

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many downloads there have been of the ScotRail app since 2019, and whether it can provide statistics on usage data for the app, such as the average time spent on the app.

The current ScotRail mobile app went live on 1 July 2019 and the following data, as provided by ScotRail, is relevant from that date until the present day:-

- App downloads: 1.4 million (this figure includes re-installs which ScotRail is unable to differentiate)

- Average users per month: 619,000 (average across last three months)

- Average sessions per user per month: six (average across last three months)

- Average session length: one minute, five seconds (average across last three months)

Question reference: S6W-18628

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17942 by Shona Robison on 30 May 2023, for what reason no EPC information is available for Strathbeg House in Thurso.

Question reference: S6W-18308

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of schools fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and what funding has been made available to fix any such buildings.

Health and Safety legislation is not devolved to the Scottish Government. The HSE are carrying out research currently across the UK focused on buildings which contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Building safety is a matter for the owner of the building, in this case local authorities are the relevant duty holder. For this reason the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of schools which contain RAAC. We remain in close contact with local authorities, and expect them to provide a safe environment for all users.

Question reference: S6W-18648

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs (a) last met and (b) will next meet with the Scottish Police Federation to discuss (i) pay and (ii) working conditions.

On 10 May I met with David Kennedy and David Threadgold from the Scottish Police Federation as part of my regular meetings where we discussed various topics of interest. As the pay claim for 2023-24 had been submitted, in line with the Police Negotiating Board, (PNB) protocols, it was not appropriate for us to discuss details of this during our meeting.

Our next planned meeting has been arranged for the 14 September 2023.