- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the impact of the redevelopment of Ardrossan harbour on the ferry routes servicing Arran, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this assessment.
Answer
Potential impacts of the re-development of Ardrossan harbour on ferry services to Arran are being considered as part of service continuity planning in collaboration with project partners, including the Isle of Arran Ferry Committee.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many rural bus services have been discontinued in each year since May 2018, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on discontinued bus services. The registration and deregistration of services falls under the remit of the Office of the Traffic Commissioner.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils were suspended from schools in each of the last four years, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Information on the number of pupils and cases of exclusions is collected and published every two years. Statistics on the number of pupils excluded by local authority from 2007-08 to 2020-21 are available in Table 2.3 here:
https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2018/06/school-exclusions-statistics/documents/school-exclusions-2020-21/school-exclusions-2020-21/govscot%3Adocument/Exclusion%2Bstatistics%2B202021.xlsx
Cases of exclusion have fallen from a high of 44,794 in 2006-07 to 8,323 in 2020-21. There was a particularly notable decrease in exclusion between 2018-19 and 2020-21, with cases of exclusion falling 44%. This decrease is partly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 99% of all exclusions were for a fixed period of time (referred to as temporary exclusions), with pupils expected to return to their original school when the exclusion period is completed.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much was paid out in grants from the Forestry Grant Scheme, and how many grants were made, in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table shows the number of unique forestry grant scheme cases with a capital or Single Application Form claim within the past 5 financial years and the total associated authorised financial claims.
Number and Value of cases claimed: Capital & Single Application Form (SAF) for the Financial Year’s 2018-19 – 2022-23
Claim Year | Unique Projects Funded | Total Claim Value Authorised |
2018-19 | 742 | £41,132,555 |
2019-20 | 629 | £39,698,484 |
2020-21 | 961 | £46,371,455 |
2021-22 | 699 | £43,558,765 |
2022-23 | 584 | £35,436,910 |
Sum: | 3615 | £206,198,169 |
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 12 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what structures or schemes it currently has in place to provide support to EU students seeking financial support to study in Scotland.
Answer
EU nationals who were living in the UK prior to the end of the Brexit Transition Period (31 December 2020) are eligible for the home tuition fee rate and tuition fee support to study at a Scottish institution. EU nationals who satisfy this criteria and were also living in the UK and Islands for 3 years can access living cost support, provided they are ordinarily resident in Scotland.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 12 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the financial limit is beyond which it considers that the cost for answering a written parliamentary question would be disproportionate.
Answer
The disproportionate cost threshold is £600.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 5 July 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which current cabinet secretaries and ministers have not undertaken unconscious bias training since taking up their posts.
Answer
The Scottish Parliament is responsible for the salaries and support for MSPs, including training. On appointment, the Scottish Government provide Ministers with information on matters such as the Scottish Ministerial Code and security .
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to increase the resilience of Scotland's 999 emergency telephone service, in light of UK-wide technical issues over the weekend that rendered the service unusable for many users.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2023
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether any of NatureScot’s offices do not currently have an EPC rating of at least band C, and, if so, whether it will provide a list of those offices.
Answer
This is an operational matter for NatureScot. I have asked their Chief Executive to write with the relevant information.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 21 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition will next meet with the new chief executive of Scottish Water.
Answer
I had an introductory meeting with Alex Plant, Chief Executive of Scottish Water, on 6 June 2023 and have been in close contact with Scottish Water particularly on issues around water scarcity recently and will continue to do so.