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: S7W-01247

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the planned programme of discontinuous electrification of sections of Scotland's railway, what the total cost is and what the projected cost would be if those sections were to be covered by full overhead line continuous electrification.

Question reference: S7W-01248

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected whole-life cost is of the battery electric multiple units (BEMUs) to be used on stretches of Scotland's railway network with discontinuous electrification, and how this compares with the equivalent whole-life cost for locomotives with fully electric engines.

Question reference: S7W-01250

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any projected impact of the introduction of a £2 bus fare cap on income for Scotland's railway.

Question reference: S7W-01249

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to rail transport.

Question reference: S7W-01246

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the ScotRail Spirit of Scotland pass, (a) for what reason it is limited to trains departing after 9.15am, (b) whether consideration has been given to local exclusions and exclusions reflecting timetabling of services in areas outside the Central Belt, and (c) whether it plans to review this restriction.

Question reference: S7W-01245

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the financial case for the £2 bus fare cap, including the total projected (a) cost of reimbursements to bus companies and (b) reduction in rail ticket income.

Question reference: S7W-01221

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide its assessment of carbon dioxide emissions from all energy generation sources in Scotland over the last five years, including a comparison of total emissions by (a) type of energy generation and (b) fuel used, where applicable.

Question reference: S7W-01222

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what strategic transition plan it has in place to move from Scottish-generated nuclear energy to renewables, and whether it will publish this.

Question reference: S7W-00868

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 18 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many trees have been felled to accommodate (a) windfarms and their associated infrastructure and (b) other energy projects in each calendar year since 2022.

On Scotland’s national forests and land, tree felling associated with windfarm developments and associated infrastructure since 2022 is 922.30 hectares. Based on the average of 2000 trees per ha, this gives an estimated total of 1.84 million trees felled over this period.

Financial Year	No of Trees Felled
FY 22-23	450,300
FY 23-24	911,960
FY24-25	88,560
FY 25-26	393,780

Many of these trees will have been due for felling through ongoing forest management and will have been replaced through replanting and compensatory planting.

The Scottish Government’s Control of Woodland Removal Policy expects that compensatory replanting will take place in cases where trees are proposed to be felled for the purpose of building a wind farm or other energy development. This requirement would typically be imposed as a condition attached to a planning permission.

We do not hold information on wind farms regarding land that is not owned by Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S7W-00866

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 18 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings ministers have held with GB Energy sice May 2025, who attended and what was discussed.

The former Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, met Juergen Maier, interim Chair of GB Energy, and Dan McGrail, CEO of GB Energy, on 14 May 2025. A range of matters were discussed, focusing on how the Scottish Government, public bodies and GB Energy can work together to progress opportunities for Scotland’s businesses and communities.

I met Dan McGrail at the Global Offshore Wind conference on 17 June and we discussed GB Energy’s priorities in Scotland, the need to align with existing delivery mechanisms and the importance of support for our supply chain.