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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 44183 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-12852

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations about ensuring their homes are mould-free, and that any concerns or complaints regarding mould outbreaks are taken seriously.

Social Landlords are required to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which is monitored by The Scottish Housing Regulator(SHR). SHR wrote to all Social Landlords on 1 December 2022 on the importance of having appropriate, proactive systems to identify and deal with any reported cases of mould and damp timeously and effectively. The Regulator will also be working with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) to identify and promote good practice in the management of mould and dampness. Scottish Government officials will keep in close touch with the progress of this work.

Question reference: S6W-12923

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reference to its announcement of an additional £200 million of funding to improve capacity, connectivity, performance and journey times for passengers and freight between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, as set out on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, on what date the additional £200 million of funding was announced; how much has been spent to date; on what it has been spent, and whether it will provide details of any improvements to connectivity, performance and/or journey times that have been achieved.

The additional £200m of funding was first announced by Keith Brown MSP on 28 January 2016.

Network Rail advise that the cost of work done to date on the project is £6.5m (as of 12 November 2022).

Key areas of work completed to date include:

The development of a concept timetable that meets the projects stated output specification.
Design and development of infrastructure interventions that are required to deliver the proposed timetable.
Survey, site and ground investigations at the locations where each of the interventions is being developed.
Environmental assessment to support development of Environmental Screening for the project
Development of an Outline Business Case for the project, drawing on the information generated from each of the above activities

There has already been a number of improvements in recent years to the capability of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route, including signalling alterations in the Aberdeen area to create additional capacity.

Question reference: S6W-13350

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what projects will be supported by the Climate Justice Fund in financial year 2023-24.

The CJF in 2023-24 expects to fund the Climate Just Communities programme, which will operate in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia; the WEDO programme, which supports women delegates to be visible and heard during significant global negotiations; and a human rights defenders fellowship, which will support environmental fellows through the existing SG-led programme. In addition, once the selection process and delivery mechanism for the £5m funding for non-economic loss and damage is finalised, initiatives can begin to be funded through this programme.

Question reference: S6W-13219

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with airlines flying in and out of Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) airports regarding planned strike action on 19 and 22 December 2022.

Question reference: S6W-13218

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to limit the disruption of flights at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) airports due to the planned strike action on 19 and 22 December 2022.

HIAL worked to limit the impact of the industrial action where possible and were able to keep Campbeltown, Dundee, Inverness, Islay, Tiree and Wick John O’Groats Airports fully operational during the strikes. They were also able to facilitate reduced operations at Kirkwall and Stornoway Airports. Safety, however, is paramount and where there are insufficient staff available for airports to operate in a safe and regulatory compliant way, flights are not able to operate.

Question reference: S6W-13209

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the (a) provision and (b) maintenance and servicing of free bikes, since the 2021 election.

Provision, maintenance and servicing of bikes comes from our budget to support Active Travel in 2021-2022, that amounted to £115.5m in total, and in 2022-2023 that amounted to £150m.

Specifically we have three programmes which focus on the provision, service and repair of a bike. They are the Free Bikes Commitment, Access Bikes run by Cycling UK and Scotland’s Cycle Repair Scheme (SCRS) run by Cycling UK. Their financials since May 2021 are below:

Free Bikes Commitment - £4,495,106.72
Access Bikes - £594,583
SCRS - £3,215,123

Question reference: S6W-13167

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the total cost has been, in terms of public expenditure, for public bodies to deal with oil spills (a) from 1 January 2016 to 5 May 2021 and (b) since 6 May 2021.

Question reference: S6W-13044

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) scores the social value of shipbuilding tenders from overseas shipbuilders with the same weighting as tenders from Scotland or UK shipbuilders.

Question reference: S6F-01697

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2023

To ask the First Minister, in light of the extension of bus fare caps in England, whether the Scottish Government supports capping bus fares in Scotland for those aged between 22 and 60.

Question reference: S6F-01689

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2023

To ask the First Minister what the implications for Scotland and the Scottish Government are following Met Office reports that temperatures in Scotland and the UK reached the highest on record in 2022.