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-05848

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that 33% of remote rural households are living in extreme fuel poverty compared with 11% of households in the rest of Scotland, how its Fuel Poverty Strategy will deliver improved fuel poverty outcomes for people in off-gas-grid homes.

Our Fuel Poverty Strategy recognises the challenges that households in Scotland’s remote rural and island communities face in heating their homes for an affordable price, including the high proportion of properties located off the gas grid. That is why the new fuel poverty definition takes account of the additional costs associated with living in these areas, as well as other unique issues they face like differences in weather and housing stock characteristics.

We are determined to address the higher levels of fuel poverty found in remote rural communities and have already taken action to ensure our energy efficiency schemes spend more per head on installations in such areas, where we know costs are higher.

Through Warmer Homes Scotland we have also made available a number of renewable heat and micro generation measures some of which may be particularly beneficial to rural and remote communities not served by the gas grid. These include: ground source heat pumps, micro-wind and micro-hydro systems.

Question reference: S6W-05784

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to enforce the incorporation of whole life carbon into the costing of all public sector investment and spending decisions.

The Scottish Government published new guidance, Public Sector Leadership on the Global Climate Emergency , on 29 October, to provide advice for public bodies on robust, consistent and comprehensive carbon management.

The guidance says it is vital that public bodies understand the carbon impacts of their decisions and therefore embed carbon into decision-making processes. The guidance says that any investment should consider the whole life impact with regards to climate change to ensure that truly sustainable options are selected. The guidance defines whole life costing as referring to the total cost of ownership over the life of an asset and that typical areas of expenditure which are included in calculating the whole-life cost include planning, design, construction and acquisition, operations, maintenance, depreciation and cost of finance and disposal. The guidance also says that budget holders must understand and actively support a strong focus on climate considerations within procurements and that additional focus must be placed upon whole life costing.

The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2020 requires that, from this year, public bodies must report how they will align their spending plans and use of resources to contribute to reducing emissions and delivering emissions reduction targets.

I also refer the member to the answer to your question S5W-05786 on 31 January 2022 and the Scottish Government’s commitment to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-05394

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the use of the CitizenCard as valid ID for the purposes of the vaccine certification scheme.

Question reference: S6W-05503

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to deliver a fair and managed transition for workers currently working at the Torness nuclear power station, following its closure.

Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan is currently being developed. This will include co-design as a key underpinning principle, ensuring workers from across the energy sector have the opportunity to contribute towards this process.

In addition, the Scottish Government is investing £300m in the Edinburgh and SE Scotland City Region Deal, which will create new economic opportunities across the area and is expected to provide up to 21,000 jobs. This includes £25m for an Integrated Regional Skills and Employability Programme, which will help local people prepare for the changing regional labour market and benefit from the many new jobs that the Deal and other investments across the region are creating.

Question reference: S6W-05758

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Sustainable Scotland Network in each year since 2014.

The following table sets out Scottish Government funding offered to the SSN Secretariat since 2018-19:

Financial Year	Amount £
2018-2019	Contract payments £303,988.00 excluding VAT
2019-2020	Contract payments £267,072.11 excluding VAT
2020-2021	3 grants paid totalling £118,525
2021- 2022	2 grants offered totalling £75,000

Prior to May 2018, the Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN) Secretariat was funded under a Scottish Government grant to Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB). In 2018-19 and 2019-20 the SSN Secretariat was funded by a Scottish Government contract won by Edinburgh University Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI). Since 2020-21 the Secretariat has been supported under a new hybrid funding model with grant from the Scottish Government, local authorities and NHS Scotland to ECCI.

Question reference: S6O-00747

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported calls for the Head of the Civil Service to investigate and rule on the deployment of Scottish Government civil servants to develop policy on independence.

Question reference: S6O-00740

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding how its international development programme can help to support less developed countries that are at the forefront of climate damage.

Question reference: S6O-00728

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to improve the provision of services for NHS Tayside breast cancer patients.

Question reference: S6O-00724

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free personal care, under Frank’s Law, since it came into effect in 2019.

Question reference: S6O-00744

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what legal advice it has received on introducing the proposed referendum bill on Scottish independence.