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-07084

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many vouchers have been received in each local authority area as part of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

Figures for vouchers requested, vouchers issued and installations completed to date through the use of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme are provided in the following table:

	INTERIM VOUCHER SCHEME			MAIN VOUCHER SCHEME
Local Authority	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Installations Completed	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Installations Completed
Aberdeen City			1		8	13
Aberdeenshire	3	41	75	12	175	271
Angus	4	1	8		103	39
Argyll & Bute		8	13		24	37
City of Edinburgh					14	12
Clackmannanshire	1	1	7		1	5
Dumfries & Galloway		7	110		28	23
Dundee City					17	1
East Ayrshire		1	16		6	7
East Dunbartonshire					2	1
East Lothian			3		15	7
East Renfrewshire	1		5		4	4
Falkirk		1	4	2	10	2
Fife		1	10	1	16	21
Glasgow City					9	9
Highland	1	7	45	1	161	196
Inverclyde			1			1
Midlothian			11		15	6
Moray	1	5	27	1	75	75
North Ayrshire			10		1	16
North Lanarkshire		1	7		18	11
Orkney Islands				5	60	9
Perth & Kinross	1	17	78	1	37	45
Renfrewshire			7		11	4
Scottish Borders	2	14	154		31	57
Shetland Islands
South Ayrshire			2		1	11
South Lanarkshire	1	3	39		6	21
Stirling		5	104	7	17	24
West Dunbartonshire			2
West Lothian			1			2
Western Isles
Blanks *
Total	15	113	740	30	865	930

Question reference: S6W-06652

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-30436 by Michael Matheson on 27 July 2020, whether it remains committed to the memorandum of understanding that it signed with Heathrow Airport, and what further consideration it has given to withdrawing from it, in light of the reported comments in October 2021 of Lord Deben, the chair of the Climate Change Committee, that “there is not any space for airport expansion”.

Question reference: S6W-07169

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06718 by Keith Brown on 2 March 2022, whether it will provide the information requested regarding precisely how many hubs for regional restorative justice services it plans to establish by 2023, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

A final decision on the number of hubs has not yet been taken. A paper to the Restorative Justice Stakeholder Group, published on the Scottish Government website in 2021, set out a proposal to develop up to 6 administrative restorative justice hubs based on sheriffdom areas, and discussion is underway with our stakeholders and partners on this. The precise number of regional hubs in place by 2023 will be subject to these discussions and a range of factors such as level of demand, and cannot be confirmed at this stage.

Question reference: S6W-07050

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06126 by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022, by what date it estimates that all screening centres will have offered women aged 53 to 70 their breast screening appointments within 39 months of their previous screening.

Modelling work completed prior to omicron suggested it would be March 2023 before all screening centres in Scotland would reach the point of being able to offer breast screening rounds of 39 months. There are however a number of factors at play including the ongoing pandemic, the steps we are continuing to take to increase capacity in the screening programme, as well as options that are being considered to accelerate the recommencement of self-referrals for women over-70.

Question reference: S6W-06991

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many people have applied for a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme, and how many passes have been issued.

The Improvement Service (IS), which manages the application process, has confirmed that at close of business on 15 March 2022 there had been a total of 226,484 online applications submitted.

Because the offline application process is undertaken by local authorities using multiple routes, including schools, libraries and council offices, there are practical challenges currently to providing an accurate national picture of offline applications. However, it is possible to provide details of how many applications in both settings have been processed.

By close of business on Tuesday 15 March 2022, IS confirmed that a total of 187,345 National Entitlement Cards with free bus travel had been produced and dispatched. This total includes cards generated from both online and offline applications.

In addition, by the end of 14 March 2022, 4,696 travel products have been added to existing National Entitlement Cards through the Transport Scot Collect App which was launched on 28 February 2022.

Question reference: S6W-07457

Asked by: Jim Fairlie, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, given the current global supply chain issues resulting from the Russia/Ukraine war, what engagement it is having with the food and drink industry.

Following a meeting of the Food Sector Resilience Group, a short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce is being established by the Scottish Government jointly with key food and drink industry leaders.

The taskforce will monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the impact of the war in Ukraine. It will also seek to recommend any short, medium and longer term actions that can be taken to mitigate impacts, resolve supply issues and strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. This will include actions to be taken by business and Government.

The taskforce will draw on technical and scientific knowledge and expertise from across a range of sectors, agencies and organisations. It will also consider any future structures and policy measures needed to monitor, address and strengthen food security and supply in Scotland.

Crucially, the Taskforce will support the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to use all powers it has available to support people in Ukraine.

Membership will be drawn from relevant sector organisations and the Food Security and Supply Taskforce will be co-chaired by myself and Chief Executive of Scotland Food and Drink, James Withers. It is intended for the Taskforce to meet frequently in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-06653

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee in its sixth carbon budget advice for the aviation sector that “there should be no net expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory and can accommodate the additional demand”, what its assessment is of whether this test (a) is currently being met and (b) will be met in the future, and if so, by what date; and what the implications are of this for its memorandum of understanding with Heathrow Airport to support the building of a third runway.

COVID-19 has reduced the number of flights to/from Scotland and resulted in a sharp decrease in aviation emissions. As we work with the aviation sector to restore and grow the connectivity which is essential to Scotland’s economy, we are committed to doing so without restoring previous levels of emissions.

In the short term, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation. Longer term hydrogen/electric aircraft could play an important role, and we remain committed to working to decarbonise all scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040.

Regarding the implications for Heathrow expansion, it is for the UK Government to respond to the Climate Change Committee recommendations for airports in England. The Scottish Government has been clear that the expansion of the UK’s only global hub airport should deliver economic benefits for all the nations of the UK, which is why the memorandum of understanding remains in place.

Question reference: S6W-07157

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans to create a register of beneficial ownership for firms involved in Scottish freeports to help prevent the freeports from becoming hubs for money laundering and illicit trade.

The governance body of a Green Freeport, which will need to be approved by the Scottish and UK Governments, will be required to maintain a record of all businesses operating, or applying to operate, within the tax site. That record must be kept up-to-date, contain information about the beneficial owner of the business, and be readily accessible to law enforcement agencies, including HMRC and the National Crime Agency. Law enforcement will use this information to carry out checks on the businesses and their beneficial owners before businesses are authorised to operate within the tax site.

Question reference: S6W-07205

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of grant support options for SME hospitality businesses seeking to fund expansion and growth projects.

Hospitality businesses, like all other businesses, may seek advice on SME funding sources from the Business Gateway ( https://www.bgateway.com/ ) who have a network of offices across Scotland and will tailor the advice dependant on the particular business needs and location. This could include advice on possible grant support in areas such as Research and Development to help bring new ideas to market, on technical and commercial feasibility studies, or on knowledge transfer partnerships with educational institutions. Hospitality businesses can also search the ‘FindBusinessSupport’ portal ( https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ ) which lists all the main sources of advice, training and funding – including the loans and equity funds under the Scottish Growth Scheme - for businesses in any sector.

Question reference: S6W-07210

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been prosecuted for riding an e-scooter in the last 12 months.

The Scottish Government criminal proceedings database does not hold information on the specific type of powered transporters involved in charges prosecuted in Scottish Courts.

Please note: The Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for 2019-20 financial year. Information for 2020-21 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 Statistical Bulletin. This is planned to be published later in 2022.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs