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: S6F-00412

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to Glasgow City Council cleansing workers taking strike action from 1 November and throughout COP26 due to low pay.

Question reference: S6F-00411

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

To ask the First Minister what public advice the Scottish Government has issued regarding the discharge of fireworks, given that new regulations came into force on 30 June 2021.

Question reference: S6F-00410

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

To ask the First Minister what immediate steps the Scottish Government is taking to address the reported continuing inequalities in cancer mortality rates across Scotland.

Question reference: S6F-00402

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

To ask the First Minister whether Scotland is on track to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.

Question reference: S6F-00399

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00400

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2021

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-03821

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with high street banks regarding reports that they do not recognise its COVID-19 support grants as income in the context of business loan applications.

The regulation of financial services is reserved to the UK Government and as such Scottish Ministers are unable to directly intervene in the commercial decisions made by financial services companies or comment on individual complaints. Scottish Ministers engage regularly with their UK counterparts and we engage with the industry via the Financial Services Industry Advisory Board (FiSAB) as well as meeting regularly with representative bodies.

The Scottish Government stands ready to work constructively with the UK Government, banks and other stakeholders to ensure that customers, local communities and businesses have access to the banking facilities they require.

Question reference: S6W-03834

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its policy announcement on 15 October 2021 regarding trade support and promotion for the fossil fuel sector overseas differs from the UK Government’s strategy on this matter published in March 2021, and what its position is on whether it has sought to present the UK Government's policy as its own.

The Scottish Government first announced this policy regarding trade support and promotion for fossil fuel goods and services overseas, in January 2021 in Scotland’s Vision for Trade . This was in alignment with the 2019 Program for Government commitment to ensure all support for the Oil and Gas sector is conditional on enabling a sustainable energy transition.

Our policy cover note published on October 15 2021 explains the rationale for the decision to align with the UK Government’s guidance and relevant exemptions. This decision was made following wide stakeholder engagement and responds to strong feedback from stakeholders on the importance of technical alignment in order to avoid any unintended confusion for our agencies and the industry in the practical implementation of this policy.

Question reference: S6W-03458

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties in each local authority area in the North East Scotland region are subject to the Higher Property Rate poundage for non-domestic rates, also broken down by industry sector.

There are a total of 2,603 properties in the Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, and Moray local authority areas subject to the Higher Property Rate. Please note that this includes the entire local authority areas, as data by parliamentary constituency or region is not available.

Table 1 presents a breakdown of this figure by local authority and property class (data on industry sectors is not available). Property class is a classification used by the Scottish Assessors to describe the type of a property, and may not accurately reflect its use. For example, a property classified as a ‘shop’ may in fact be used to offer financial services. Properties across all classes may be eligible for rates reliefs which may reduce or eliminate their rates liability.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for the Higher Property Rate by property class in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, and Moray

Property class	Aberdeen City	Aberdeenshire	Angus	Dundee City	Moray	North East Scotland
Shops	220	54	24	122	32	452
Public Houses	15	5	-	4	1	25
Offices	370	61	4	39	7	481
Hotels	56	17	3	16	7	99
Industrial Subjects	425	280	32	66	85	888
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.	37	12	11	26	3	89
Garages and Petrol Stations	14	5	3	3	1	26
Cultural	3	2	-	6	-	11
Sporting Subjects	1	-	-	1	-	2
Education and Training	68	52	31	39	20	210
Public Service Subjects	33	25	11	19	16	104
Communications	6	11	-	-	6	23
Quarries, Mines, etc.	1	5	-	-	-	6
Petrochemical	2	11	2	-	1	16
Religious	1	-	-	1	-	2
Health and Medical	29	14	8	16	3	70
Other	17	1	-	6	-	24
Care Facilities	21	11	6	4	2	44
Advertising	1	-	-	-	-	1
Statutory Undertaking	5	6	9	7	3	30
All classes	1,325	572	144	375	187	2,603

Source: Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2021.

Question reference: S6W-03449

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much active travel funding it has provided to each local authority in each of the last three years, also broken down by support from the (a) Spaces for People and (b) Places for Everyone Fund.

Our active travel funding is predominantly provided to local authorities through national enabling bodies who have the expertise and manpower to appraise and work with them and other community partners to deliver local projects.

In this financial year two of our largest funds are being delivered by Sustrans, with over £55 million provided through the Places for Everyone programme, and over £6 million through the Spaces for People programme.

In addition to this, £23.9 million is being provided directly to local authorities, on a pro rata basis, through the Cycling Walking and Safer Routes programme.

These three major programmes together account for around 75% of the total
‎ 2020-21 Active Travel budget of £115.5 million. A breakdown of this funding, by local authority and for each of the last three financial years, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. 62827).

The remaining 25% of the budget is provided through partners who deliver projects across many or all of the local authorities. This funding information broken down by local authority area may be held locally by some of these delivery partners, but it is not centrally collated by the Scottish Government.