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: S6W-32346

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total repair and maintenance cost for the Parliament building was in (a) 2024 and (b) each of the last five years.

Building maintenance of the site is carried out through two separate contracts. Noted below is both the planned and reactive/repair maintenance costs for the last 5 years for each contract. Overall total for both contracts being £8,117,010.95 excluding VAT.

Building Maintenance

Planned Reactive/Repair

2019/20	£654,720	2019/20	£117,319.60
2020/21	£793,088	2020/21	£31,644.30
2021/22	£803,292	2021/22	£39,611.92
2022/23	£851,724	2022/23	£34,639.00
2023/24	£948,231	2023/24	£56,423.41

High Level Maintenance

Planned Reactive/Repair

2019/20	£692,913	2019/20	£20,906.15
2020/21	£710,180	2020/21	£15,120.41
2021/22	£720,441	2021/22	£17,300.00
2022/23	£764,075	2022/23	£15,799.16
2023/24	£829,583	2023/24	£17,254.74

Question reference: S6W-32345

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost was of the recent replacement of the heating and window control systems in MSP offices in the Parliament building.

The works referred to in your question is part of an existing project to upgrade the Parliament’s Building and Energy Management System (BEMS). The BEMS is a business-critical tool which provides visibility and control of building services, principally the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and domestic hot water systems in all areas of the Holyrood site. The new BEMS replaces an existing system which was installed 20 years ago and at end of life.

The estimated total value for the BEMS project is £3,900,000. This information is published on the Scottish Parliaments Contracts Register under the contract reference NIC-SER-486 at the following link - Contract register | Scottish Parliament Website.

Question reference: S6W-33113

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support and training is provided to justices of the peace to ensure consistency in their decision-making.

Question reference: S6W-33093

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many personalised or special vehicle number plates it owns, and what the cost of any such plates has been over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33111

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average caseload is for a justice of the peace.

Question reference: S6W-32614

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to prevent duplication of efforts between its international offices and UK embassies.

Other than Brussels, Scottish Government international network offices outside the UK are based in the corresponding British Embassy or High Commission. Scottish Government staff in these locations regularly engage with their UK Government counterparts, sharing information to ensure opportunities for collaboration are maximised and to avoid any risk of duplication. All our offices prepare business plans setting out priorities and activity for the year. Where possible we seek to collaborate around key Scottish events in the diplomatic calendar including Burns Night and St Andrew’s Day. Similarly, our teams based in Scotland regularly engage with the FCDO’s devolution unit and with various operational teams and governance structures to ensure a good flow of information.

The Scottish Government would welcome assistance from the UK Government to do more to promote Scotland, especially in those places where we don’t yet have an international presence.

Question reference: S6W-32766

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the proposals to reduce ScotRail ticket office opening hours at a number of stations, what its position is on how these proposals represent an improvement for passengers, compared with current arrangements, in relation to (a) access to rail fares and products, (b) passenger assistance, (c) provision of information, including during disruptions, (d) safety, (e) penalty fare arrangements and (f) access to station facilities.

Proposed adjustments will enable a redeployment of some ScotRail staff to provide more and better assistance for passengers. Passenger assistance services will remain available across ScotRail as they are now and all ScotRail services are specified to convey a member of staff on-board to assist passengers.

ScotRail stations will continue to offer access to assets as they do at present. Facilities and toilets used by the public in most cases will remain open even when ticket office desks are shut. Additionally, help with ticket selection is now available at help points at stations. This help is available whenever the station is open, which is longer than current ticket offices opening times.

ScotRail does not impose penalty fares.

Question reference: S6W-32640

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role peatland restoration plays in meeting the flood mitigation objectives.

In addition to contributing to our climate change targets and net zero ambitions by capturing and storing carbon, Scottish Government recognises that restoring Scotland’s peatlands will provide many additional benefits: including reducing risks of flooding and wildfires as well as supporting nature, biodiversity and improving water quality.

Scotland has a significant area of peatlands, and they are an important method of mitigating and adapting to the linked climate and nature emergencies. The Scottish Government has committed funding to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-32613

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered reducing the number of international offices to reallocate funding towards domestic services.

Question reference: S6W-32627

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding allocations have been made for the flood advisory service referred to in the Flood Resilience Strategy.

Developing a National Flood Advisory Service to improve Scotland’s flood resilience and embed best practice on a nationwide scale is one of the actions in Scotland’s first National Flood Resilience Strategy. The Service will provide support and advice on building flood resilience to delivery partners and communities and provide the governance framework for progressing high value flood actions such as flood protection schemes.

The implementation plan for the Strategy will focus on the six priority action areas, starting with the establishment of the Flood Advisory Service. That plan will be developed with partners over the coming months.

In addition to existing Scottish Government funding commitments to support Local Authorities with flood resilience, £15 million has been provided in the draft 2025-2026 Scottish Budget to support the delivery of the Strategy’s actions, wider flooding resilience and coastal adaptation work.