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: S5W-22834

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides for trades people who have difficulty in paying for their Construction Skills Certification Scheme accreditation card.

Skills Development Scotland provides support for individuals to undertake Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Training which is necessary to obtain the CSCS accreditation card. This support is offered either through Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks, which in some cases offer a CSCS accreditation card as part of the framework; or through support from Training Providers who, depending on the individuals needs and the accreditation card they require, offer support to obtain a card.

Question reference: S5W-22969

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on placing a statutory duty on local authorities to maintain a register of people and groups that have acquired service plots for self-build homes and for the councils to employ a named officer to take such interests forward, including by ensuring that there are enough plots to meet expected demand.

The Scottish Government has no plans to place a statutory duty on local authorities to maintain a register of people and groups that have acquired service plots for self-build homes. We support self-build and want to see this sector grow, providing more options for people to own their own home across Scotland. We are supporting the development of an online resource, Scotland's Self and Custom Build Portal , through funding from the Self and Custom Build Challenge Fund. The portal includes a plot finder function which lists sites suitable for self and custom build projects across Scotland.

It is for Councils to determine if they wish to employ a named officer to take forward local interests in self build including facilitating access to suitable serviced plots.

Question reference: S5W-22967

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many units have been constructed with support from the Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund, and what plans it has to expand the fund.

To date, 14 homes have been constructed with support from the Self Build Loan Fund pilot in the Highland Council area. Fund administrators, The Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust, has approved two loans from the national fund to a value of £265,000 and is currently considering a further eight applications with a loan value of £935,000.

Following feedback from applicants and to stimulate uptake of the fund, we have recently amended the fund criteria to allow current homeowners to apply to the fund and have removed the requirement to repay the loan with a mortgage.

Question reference: S5O-03253

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is satisfied that everything possible is being done to aid the recovery of Sauchiehall Street following the Glasgow School of Art fire.

Question reference: S5W-22887

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what conditions are attached to the £30 million that has been provided by the Building Scotland Fund to the property group, Sigma.

The £30m is a commercial loan between Scottish Ministers, via the Building Scotland Fund, and a Sigma Capital Group company. Key aspects of its design are that:

The loan is a revolving credit facility.
The loan is interest-bearing and repayable on commercial terms.
The completed properties will be used for private rent and professionally managed by Sigma.
The finance will help deliver up to 1,800 new homes for private rent across Scotland.
Scottish Government has the appropriate financial and commercial controls to ensure that these homes are delivered in line with the terms of the agreement.

Further details are considered commercially confidential and I am therefore unable to provide additional information on the individual terms of this agreement.

Question reference: S5W-22900

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage the use of smart ticketing across public transport, and what progress is being made with this.

Transport Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government, is undertaking a portfolio of projects to enhance Scotland’s smart services and deliver on the vision that ‘all journeys on Scotland’s public transport network can be made using some form of smart ticketing or payment’.

There has been significant progress on smart ticketing - rail, subway, tram and 99% of bus operators are now smart enabled. Annually over half a billion journeys are made on Scotland’s public transport network, and over a third of these journeys are now made using smart ticketing or payment technology. Current projects include work to expand the successful Dundee ABC smart integrated bus to bus ticketing scheme to include North East Fife; working with transport operators, public bodies and local authorities to enhance smartcard interoperability across all modes; and delivery of a £1.1m Smart Pay Grant Fund to support bus operators with improving their equipment to accept contactless payment.

Marketing projects undertaken in partnership with transport operators, local authorities, Young Scot and Regional Transport Partnerships also aim to promote smart ticketing services to the public, such as the joint Stagecoach, ScotRail and Transport Scotland ‘Fife in the Fast Lane’ campaign last winter to mark the reopening of the Forth Road Bridge as a public transport corridor, as well as supporting ScotRail and Young Scot with their own recent smartcard marketing activity.

Question reference: S5W-22901

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what recent meetings it has had with (a) SPT and (b) the ScotRail Alliance regarding the use of smart ticketing.

The Scottish Government's National Transport Agency, Transport Scotland, has regular meetings with SPT and Abellio ScotRail regarding the use of smart ticketing.

Transport Scotland officials are working with SPT and Abellio ScotRail to deliver smartcard interoperability between bus, rail and subway, with weekly technical meetings in place to oversee this. In addition more strategic meetings have been held with SPT (February 2019) to ascertain areas of potential collaboration to improve smart ticketing services, and the last meeting with Abellio ScotRail was held this month to discuss ScotRail's smart ticketing Programme.

Question reference: S5W-22755

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service regarding reports that the 140-day target date from full committal for criminal trials to begin is being breached.

Question reference: S5W-22641

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the West Coast Main Line and reducing travel time from Scotland to London.

Scottish and UK governments have discussed and identified a number of infrastructure enhancement options, including high-speed rail and signalling optimisation, to improve resilience, capacity and line-speed on the West Coast Main Line to reduce journey times between Scotland and London. Transport Scotland officials meet regularly with DfT officials to discuss issues of interest, and to convey the Scottish Government’s aspirations for cross-border rail services.

Question reference: S5W-22639

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the UK Government to discuss HS2 and its impact on Scotland; what the outcome was, and how many meetings there have been since 2007.

Officials of the Scottish Government last met their UK Government counterparts on 10 April 2019 as part of a regular set of meetings at which they discussed infrastructure options for high speed rail to improve speed, capacity, connectivity and resilience on rail routes between England and Scotland. Since 2007 there have been 102 meetings between the two governments either at ministerial or official level.