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-04798

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04433 by Graeme Dey on 30 November 2021, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether it has undertaken an assessment of introducing a specific scheme for island businesses that lose income as a result of ferry delays and cancellations, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

There are no plans for a compensation scheme to be offered to businesses due to travel disruption as a result of ferry delays and cancellations. Any such scheme would be extremely challenging and would ultimately draw resources otherwise intended for the operation of ferry services.

Scottish Ministers do fully recognise the importance of reliable ferry services to the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities. We have committed to investing at least £580 million in ports and vessels over the next five years to improve resilience.

CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL), have operational responsibility to deliver the lifeline services and work throughout disruptions to find ways to continue the freight and passenger service to the communities. However, it is impossible to completely remove the risk of disruption due to either inclement weather or other reasons.

Transport Scotland continue to work with CalMac Ferries Ltd and engage with local stakeholders in order to ensure any disruption to services have minimum impact on communities, and assess all the options available to maximise available capacity across the CHFS network.

Question reference: S6W-04729

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on developing ecosystem health indicators subsequent to those introduced in 2017, as referenced in one of the supporting documents to the 2018 document, Developing an Environment Strategy for Scotland: Discussion Paper, which states that "work is underway to develop a set of ecosystem health indicators for Scotland which will provide a comprehensive assessment."

There is now a suite of 15 ecosystem health indicators relating to condition, function and resilience of ecosystems, available on Scotland’s Environment Web at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/ . NatureScot is currently working on updates to the indicators to take advantage of new data that have become available.

At the time of the 2018 discussion paper, NatureScot and the James Hutton Institute were working to develop two new indicators, for nitrogen pollution and summer temperatures. Both indicators use bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) which are very sensitive to environmental change. This work has been completed and the additional indicators are available on Scotland’s Environment Web, at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/resilience-indicators/ .

Question reference: S6W-04739

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in the event that current ScotRail employees transfer to a new nationalised organisation under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations, which groups or grades of employees will remain on terms and conditions that include (a) bonuses, (b) car allowances and (c) private healthcare, and whether it will provide details of their (i) current and (ii) anticipated post-transfer renumeration packages.

Abellio ScotRail staff will transfer to the new operator, ScotRail Trains Limited on 1 April 2022. In accordance with the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations, all employees will transfer on their current contractual terms and conditions, which in some cases may include car allowances and healthcare provisions. Non-contractual bonus schemes are not covered by TUPE. As new staff are recruited, previous terms and conditions covered by TUPE need not apply to new contracts.

Question reference: S6W-04747

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the age is of ScotRail's (a) newest and (b) oldest rolling stock, and what the average age is of ScotRail's rolling stock.

ScotRail’s (a) newest rolling stock are the seventy class 385 trains which were introduced in 2018-19 and (b) oldest rolling stock are the twenty-five Inter-city High Speed Trains which were introduced from the late 1970s and extensively re-engineered and refurbished in 2017-2020.

The Scottish Government recognises the sustainability advantages of re-engineering older rail vehicle structures, when appropriate, thus avoiding the energy expended in the production of new rail vehicles.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures from 2020-21 calculates that the average age of the 350 trains in the ScotRail fleet is 21.69 years.

Question reference: S6W-04749

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Network Rail about the arrangements for the nationalisation of ScotRail.

A series of Transport Scotland led workshops has been held from June 2021 with Network Rail and ScotRail. The purpose of these workshops has been to develop the policies and strategies for the new ScotRail Trains Limited arrangements.

Transport Scotland is also engaging in bi-weekly joint steering group meetings with both Network Rail and ScotRail at senior level to ensure the coordination of mobilisation arrangements between the parties.

Question reference: S6W-04753

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates any voluntary redundancies or voluntary early retirement schemes to be offered to ScotRail employees as part of the nationalisation of ScotRail.

Question reference: S6W-04569

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02681 by Richard Lochhead on 22 September 2021, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding the budget stream(s) from which the 10-year £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray will be drawn.

Question reference: S6O-00555

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a timeframe for the implementation of the Scottish dog control database.

The Scottish Dog Control Database Order 2021 comes into force on 31 December 2021 and provides for the establishment of the database.

Technical development of the database will be complete by 31 December; January and the first half of February 2022 will involve security testing of the database, and for users of the database to receive training.

From mid-February 2022, it is planned the database will be available as a live operational database.

Question reference: S6O-00585

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value of applications received from local authorities was, as part of the £32 million Local Bridge Maintenance Fund.

Question reference: S6O-00584

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that opportunities for retraining in green skills are available to workers currently employed in the oil and gas sector, to enable them to assist in reducing Scotland’s carbon emissions.