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-04582

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set a target of heating 45% of homes and 25% of commercial, industrial and public buildings from renewable sources by 2030, as recommended in the Scottish Renewables publication, Beyond COP26: Next steps for Scotland’s clean energy revolution.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out that, to meet our emissions reduction targets, by 2030 the vast majority of the 170,000 off-gas homes that currently use fossil fuel heating systems, as well as at least 1 million homes currently using mains gas, must convert to zero emissions heating. Together these amount to around half of domestic properties, on top of the 11% of homes that currently use zero emissions heat. In addition, the equivalent of 50,000 non-domestic buildings, around a quarter, must also switch from fossil fuels to zero emissions heating, which will bring the total using zero emissions heat to around three quarters.

Our existing commitments are therefore broadly equivalent to those recommended by Scottish Renewables in terms of numbers of heating system conversions. However, at this time we have not adopted these as specifically renewable heat targets, in order to accommodate other sources of decarbonised heat. We will review our provisional minimum renewable heat target of 22% in the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan which we will publish for consultation in spring next year.

Question reference: S6W-04330

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported comments by the Chair of the Scottish Police Federation that there is concern about the impact of large caseloads on the ability of police officers to monitor registered sex offenders.

It is the responsibility of the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable to allocate resources across policing priorities, and to allocate officers to cases.

Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) provide a strong statutory framework to manage the risks posed by registered sex offenders with the greatest resources put towards those who present the highest risk to the public. Under MAPPA, Police, local authorities and other agencies work together to assess and monitor these individuals to reduce the risk they pose to the public. This includes proactive policing and zero tolerance of non-compliance which involves reporting cases to the Procurator Fiscal.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government invested an additional £75.5 million in policing bringing the total policing budget to more than £1.3 billion, including £15 million one-off funding specifically to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the police budget. Police officer numbers in Scotland have been maintained and are favourable relative to elsewhere in the UK with around 32 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland compared to around 23 in England and Wales.

Question reference: S6O-00519

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve the support that is available for people who are affected by strokes.

Question reference: S6O-00517

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on the roll-out of superfast broadband in Orkney.

Question reference: S6O-00514

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its NHS Recovery Plan.

Question reference: S6O-00516

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that the views of Argyll and Bute’s diverse communities are taken into account in the development of its policies.

Question reference: S6O-00520

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the self-referral breast screening programme will resume for non-symptomatic women over 70 who have had breast cancer.

Question reference: S6O-00518

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the actions underway to tackle the reported inequalities experienced by ethnic minority communities in the north east.

Question reference: S6O-00515

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the resolution at the recent SNP conference reportedly calling on the Scottish Government and COSLA to work together “to ensure that the pay and conditions for councillors will significantly improve”.

Question reference: S6O-00490

Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to increasing the maximum spend on both long and short campaigns for the forthcoming Scottish local council elections in May 2022.