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-02447

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01877 by Michael Matheson on 20 August 2021, whether it will provide a breakdown of what proportion of household plastic waste has been recycled in Scotland in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S6W-02564

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a detailed plan for how the funding for rail infrastructure under the Borderlands City Deal will be spent and in which financial year(s); whether any of the funding will be used for a feasibility study on the rail extension from Tweedbank to Carlisle via Hawick, and, if so, what the timescale is for the (a) commencement of the study and (b) publication of its report.

The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal includes a commitment to progress work to assess the benefits and challenges of extending the Borders Railway. The Deal also states that the Scottish Government will progress the evidence base for extending the Borders Railway from Tweedbank to Carlisle through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) process which is ongoing through Transport Scotland. This forms the strategic case for extending the Borders Railway from Tweedbank to Carlisle. STPR2 is being funded separately from the Deal and will report later this year. A decision on progressing feasibility work will be made following the conclusion of STPR2.

Question reference: S6W-02464

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01360 by Graeme Dey on 16 August 2021, for what reason the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has no zero-emission vehicles in its fleet; whether it has provided COPFS with funding to obtain zero-emission vehicles and, if so, how much funding it has provided, and when.

The 2019-20 Programme for Government outlined our commitment to phase out the need for all petrol or diesel cars in the public sector fleet by 2025 and for all other new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

Crown office and Procurator Fiscals office (COPFS) is committed to moving its entire fleet to zero emission vehicles by 2025, has begun to install EV charging stations and will purchase its first zero emission vehicles before the end of the financial year.

Question reference: S6W-02440

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any improvements identified in capturing commercial and industrial waste data since 2016.

In 2016, SEPA developed and implemented an automated tool to capture and summarise commercial and industrial waste data from data returns. This automation reduces errors and allows revision of historical data to account for resubmissions of data more easily.

We are working with SEPA and other governments and regulators in the UK to develop and implement an electronic waste tracking system. This will provide a step change in the quality and timeliness of waste data. A joint consultation on the implementation of a mandatory electronic waste tracking system is planned for autumn on behalf of all four nations of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-02534

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many school age children there are in each local authority area, also broken down by how many have been provided with laptops or tablet computers in the last year.

The following table shows how many school-aged children are in each local authority (as at September 2020) and how many devices have been distributed by councils using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those local digital inclusion schemes, therefore, the table below only shows devices distributed through the funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

Local Authority	Pupils (as at September 2020)	Devices Distributed
Aberdeen City	23,695	1,777
Aberdeenshire	36,317	5,008
Angus	15,263	2,420
Argyll & Bute	10,167	1,317
City of Edinburgh	51,958	2,605
Clackmannanshire	6,661	828
Dumfries & Galloway	18,682	2,371
Dundee City	18,347	2,050
East Ayrshire	16,223	1,837
East Dunbartonshire	17,304	1,015
East Lothian	14,882	1,806
East Renfrewshire	17,392	623
Falkirk	21,926	1,840
Fife	50,287	5,465
Glasgow City	70,406	7,240
Highland	30,826	4,499
Inverclyde	9,811	1,107
Midlothian	13,458	1,235
Moray	12,114	1,315
Na h-Eileanan Siar	3,328	357
North Ayrshire	18,061	1,734
North Lanarkshire	49,232	6,026
Orkney Islands	2,804	275
Perth & Kinross	18,197	1,507
Renfrewshire	23,845	1,800
Scottish Borders	14,478	316
Shetland Islands	3,289	475
South Ayrshire	14,267	1,512
South Lanarkshire	45,091	5,544
Stirling	12,747	1,794
West Dunbartonshire	12,522	2,084
West Lothian	27,449	2,905

Scotland	701,029	72,687

Question reference: S6W-02444

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how long the Connecting Scotland initiative is planned to operate for.

Connecting Scotland was planned to run till the end of 2021. However, the depth of the challenges of digital exclusion that the pandemic has revealed mean we are extending the programme till the end of this Parliament in 2026, as set out in the Programme for Government.

The current phase is open for applications from organisations working to remove barriers related to digital exclusion for unemployed young people and adults until‎ 27 September 2021. From 28 September the programme will be accepting fast track applications from organisations that can identify users who are digitally excluded, on a low income, and at risk of social isolation and loneliness (particularly older people, people with disabilities, and single parents).

Question reference: S6W-02455

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress towards the 2025 food waste reduction target, including a tonnage breakdown for food waste (a) arisings, (b) incinerated/landfilled and (c) prevented and, if it is not possible to provide such figures, by what date the data will be available.

A full update on progress towards our target of a 33% reduction in food waste by 2025 will be provided in the upcoming review of Scotland’s Food Waste Reduction Action Plan. A detailed analysis on the composition of residual waste is currently being undertaken and will form part of this review, due in Spring 2022.

In addition, we are developing a Routemap to deliver our ambitious 2025 waste and recycling targets which will inform the development of the new Circular Economy Bill. There will also be further engagement and consultation to shape the Bill’s contents.

Question reference: S6W-02445

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider opening a Connecting Scotland phase of applications focused on refugees and asylum seekers, in light of previous phases having centred on certain other vulnerable groups.

Question reference: S6W-02371

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of where buses funded through the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS) are being built.

The completed bids are published on the Transport Scotland website. The manufacturer that has been contracted by the Bus Operators to supply the battery electric buses is noted at https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/scottish-ultra-low-emission-bus-scheme/scottish-ultra-low-emission-bus-scheme-completed-bids/ 207 of the total 272 buses funded under SULEBS have been ordered from Alexander Dennis Ltd, the bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02373

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it put in place to prevent money allocated through the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS) from being spent outside of Scotland and the UK.