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-01637

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what proportion of homes have been delivered at or below the Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark in (i) total and (ii) each of the last five years, also broken down by (A) local authority and (B) registered social landlord.

24,596 homes, which is 64% of homes assessed against benchmarks, have sought grant funding either at or below the relevant grant subsidy benchmark over the last five years. The table showing Affordable Housing Supply Programme Affordable Homes Approved At or Below Published Benchmarks has been placed in SPICe under BIB number 62585.

The table contains data submitted by delivery partners through our digital programme management system called HARP (Housing and Regeneration Programme) and provides the breakdown as requested. The analysis is based on information provided at tender approval stage which is when projects are assessed against benchmark grant subsidy levels. Only projects which have a relevant benchmark have been included i.e. social rent homes provided by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), social rented homes provided by Local Authorities, and affordable homes for Mid Market rent provided by RSLs and their subsidiaries.

Question reference: S6W-01638

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01292 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2021, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of (i) homes and (ii) projects seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant benchmark have been subject to a more detailed value-for-money assessment in (A) total and (B) each of the last five years, also broken down by (I) local authority and (II) registered social landlord.

13,743 homes, which is 36% of homes assessed against benchmarks, have sought grant funding in excess of the relevant benchmark over the last five years. These homes were spread across 476 projects. All projects seeking grant funding in excess of the relevant grant subsidy benchmark will have been subject to more detailed value-for-money assessment. The tables showing the Affordable Housing Supply Programme Homes and Projects Approved Above Published Benchmarks have been placed in SPICe under BIB number 62586.

The tables contain data submitted by delivery partners through our digital programme management system called HARP (Housing and Regeneration Programme) and provide the breakdown as requested. The analysis is based on information provided at tender approval stage which is when projects are assessed against benchmark subsidy levels. Only projects which have a relevant benchmark have been included i.e. social rent homes provided by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), social rented homes provided by Local Authorities, and affordable homes for Mid Market rent provided by RSLs and their subsidiaries.

Question reference: S6W-01653

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations were consulted during negotiations regarding the time charter agreement between CalMac Ferries and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for the MV Arrow.

Question reference: S6W-01649

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government which company employs the crew of the MV Arrow during CalMac Ferries' time charter of the vessel on the Ullapool-Stornoway route.

Question reference: S6W-01656

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that crew members on the MV Arrow are paid in line with the collective bargaining agreements that are in place between CalMac and the recognised trade unions on Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Question reference: S6W-01641

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to review the access arrangements to the Ferrymuir Gait housing development, and what its position is on the impact of the current road traffic on the (a) environment and (b) health and quality of life of residents.

Ferrymuir Gait is a ‘private’ road, as defined by the Roads (Scotland ) Act 1984 and serves land owned by Scottish Ministers and infrastructure required for the safe operation and maintenance of the Forth Bridges. Ferrymuir Gait housing development shall not be accessed from this road and shall instead takes access from the local road network, which is the responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council.

Consequently, and as this is a planning issue, it would be for the City of Edinburgh Council as local Planning authority to consider the access arrangements to the Ferrymuir Gait housing development and resultant impact of road traffic on the environment and the health / quality of life of residents.

Question reference: S6W-01659

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the current crew of the MV Arrow will be employed on the vessel for the duration of the six-week charter agreement between CalMac and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

Question reference: S6W-01360

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of (a) its and (b) each of its agencies' vehicle fleet is comprised of zero-emission vehicles, also broken down by what information it has for other public bodies.

The Scottish Government hold central records for its own and Crown Office Procurator Fiscals Service fleets. The proportion of zero-emission vehicles currently operated is provided in the following table.

Organisation	Zero-emission vehicles (%)
Scottish Government (including Transport Scotland)	13
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service	0

The Scottish Government has committed to decarbonising public sector fleet vehicles and has supported the uptake of ultra-low and zero emission vehicles, through initiatives such as the Switched on Fleets programme. No up-to-date information on the public sector fleet is held centrally, but, according to the most recent information available from 2020 over 10% of the cars in the Scottish public sector fleet were ultra-low or zero emission at that time.

Significant additional investment has continued to be made in decarbonising the public sector fleet since 2020 but will not be reflected in these figures.

To help the public sector lead from the front, since 2014 , we’ve invested over £47 million in 3,463 low and zero emission vehicles across the public sector fleet. We will continue to work with public bodies to achieve the decarbonisation of all public fleets in Scotland, beginning by phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel light vehicles by 2025 and the need for all types of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

In addition, we have supported trials of zero emission specialist Heavy Goods Vehicles, such as Dundee’s Council’s electric zero emission Refuse Collection Vehicles, alongside other pioneering work with Scottish Enterprise to enable the development and future procurement of a ground breaking prototype zero emission fire engine.

Question reference: S6W-01487

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the First Minister on 13 July 2021 that, “We are determined to make sure that volunteers who have participated in the Novavax trials are not disadvantaged in any way. Work is on-going to ensure that their vaccine status is correctly shown on NHS systems, so that that can be relied on… I gave the assurance that we will continue to do everything that we can to make sure that those who have participated in the Novavax trials are not disadvantaged”, whether it will provide further detail of what work is being carried out, and what progress has been made with this.

Work is ongoing to ensure the vaccine status of those who volunteered for clinical trials in Scotland is correctly presented on the vaccine database. A letter confirming their involvement in the trials is being issued to those who participated. Any participant who has not yet received a letter should contact their respective research team. The letter can be used for domestic purposes as proof of trial status. However, it’s important to note that we have no plans at present to make vaccine certification a requirement of access to services in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-01433

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) houses, or (b) flats (i) in total (ii) of those which were completed in the last five years, are connected to heat networks.

The following data was collected via energy performance certificates (EPCs) submitted for all new build completions in Scotland since 2016. This indicative data is based on analysis of new build EPC records lodged on the EPC register between Q1 2016 and Q4 2020. A total of 92,900 EPC records were analysed.

Numbers in the tables have been rounded to the nearest ten. This is the best currently available data:

Total New Build Completions, as per records lodged on EPC register
	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
Houses	11,230	11,790	14,460	16,580	10,950	65,010
Flats	5,460	5,290	5,590	7,060	4,500	27,900
Total	16,690	17,080	20,050	23,640	15,450	92,900

Number of new build completions connected to heat networks
	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
Houses	80	210	120	150	70	620
Flats	400	500	300	840	220	2,250
Total	470	710	410	990	290	2,870

Share of new build completions connected to heat networks
	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Average
Houses	1%	2%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Flats	7%	9%	5%	12%	5%	8%
Total	3%	4%	2%	4%	2%	3%

Source: Management information as extracted from the EPC database {December 2020, 2020 data accessed July 2021}, published and available at statistics.gov.scot : Domestic Energy Performance Certificates - Dataset to Q4 2020