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: S6O-03087

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plan to diversify land ownership in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-24790

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what proportion of all train delay minutes were attributed to rail infrastructure problems, in the period of April to December 2023, broken down by (i) drainage issues, (ii) track faults, including broken rails, (iii) overhead line failures and (iv) signalling failures.

Network Rail has an overall responsibility of the Scottish rail network infrastructure and Office of Rail and Road (ORR) holds Network Rail to account for the delivery of its obligations.

ORR publishes its quarterly and periodic (4-weekly) statistics on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay for passenger trains operating on the mainline network in Great Britain on its website: Passenger rail performance | ORR Data Portal .

Question reference: S6O-03072

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to encourage a modal shift to public transport.

Question reference: S6W-24326

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 31 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the savings that ScotRail passengers will make from the extension of the trial of the all-day, off-peak fare to June 2024.

The purpose of the ScotRail Peak Fares is broader, to find out whether such a measure helps move people from car to rail use, but also to help passengers facing cost of living pressures. We know that price and simplicity is crucial for people when choosing how to travel.

Many passengers will enjoy significantly reduced fares, with fares that are available all day, every day, which will hopefully encourage more people to reduce their car use and to use more public transport instead, in line with our Programme for Government commitment to encourage a shift towards sustainable transport.

Question reference: S6W-24328

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding the (a) safety and (b) accessibility of rail (i) services and (ii) stations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-24552

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the current salary and any other remuneration is for each of the directors of Caledonian Sleeper Ltd.

Question reference: S6W-24329

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the relationship between staffing levels at railway stations on the ScotRail network and the accessibility of public transport.

Question reference: S6W-24327

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has made to date of the trial of an all-day, off-peak fare on ScotRail services.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-21967 on 18 October 2023.

An interim value for money assessment, which includes cross-modal impacts, using a multimodal evaluation of current travel patterns and impact to date in line with His Majesty’s Treasury Green Book principles to be undertaken of value for money is underway. At the end of the Pilot a final evaluation will be undertaken and the Scottish Government will carefully consider its impact and the long-term sustainability of such a proposition.

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-24321

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the potential impact of its 2024-25 Budget on (a) projects in and (b) future expenditure on its Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan.

(A) Specific allocations for the Rail Enhancement programmes and projects in 2024/25 continue to be considered. The 2024-25 budget allocations for the portfolio of enhancements projects will be made in the coming months.

(B) The Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan commits to all passenger diesel trains being replaced with zero emission alternatives; the order and programme in which that is done continues to be subject to appropriate business cases and available budgets. Funding decisions for Rail Decarbonisation projects are, and continue to be considered against budgets and forecast funding availability.

Question reference: S6W-24324

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail staff have (a) ticket examination and (b) revenue protection responsibilities, and, of these, how many are (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff.