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-16206

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many sea bass licences have been granted in each of the last five years, broken down by location.

Question reference: S6W-16224

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Police Scotland has recorded substandard road conditions as a contributory factor in road traffic accidents in the Highlands and Islands in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by command area.

The following table shows the number of contributory factors in injury road accidents where road surface was poor or defective in Highlands and Islands police division, broken down by council area. In addition to the Highlands and Islands, the North command area also covers Grampian and Tayside. These areas have therefore not been included.

Contributory factors in injury road accidents where road surface was poor or defective in Highlands and Islands police division by council area

	Eilean Siar	Highland	Orkney Islands	Shetland Islands	Total
2012	1	14	0	2	17
2013	2	13	1	1	17
2014	0	11	0	0	11
2015	1	13	1	0	15
2016	0	3	0	0	3
2017	0	7	0	1	8
2018	0	5	0	0	5
2019	0	2	0	0	2
2020	0	2	0	0	2
2021	0	4	0	1	5

Question reference: S6W-16060

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been carried out of the potential benefits of including air-to-air, as well as air-to-water, heating systems in schemes available for grant and loan support through Home Energy Scotland.

The renewable heating element of the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme provides funding for well-established technologies to support households to decarbonise heating their homes.

The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research to understand how heat pumps currently, or are likely to, perform in practice in Scottish buildings. A copy of this research is available here: Heat pump use in Scotland: an evidence review (climatexchange.org.uk)

There are a range of grant funded heating measures available through the scheme, including air to water heat pumps and other electric heating measures which can be complemented by installation of solar panels and battery storage.

The measures delivered through the scheme are kept under review and the Scottish Government will consider future changes in line with developments in new and improved technologies.

Question reference: S6W-16614

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties inspected by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) were found not to have met the repairing standard, broken down by local authority area, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-16192

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to secure the repayment of loans made to Liberty Steel Dalzell.

Question reference: S6W-16263

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government by (a) what area covered and (b) how many cameras the CCTV coverage at the State Hospital, Carstairs, has increased since 2018.

Question reference: S6W-15995

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still has an inter-ministerial group on policy coherence for sustainable development, and, if so, how many times it has met since May 2021, and who its members are.

In line with the 2021 Programme for Government commitment, the Ministerial Working Group on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) reconvened and met on 29 June 2022. Going forward, the Ministerial Working Group will support and input to the Wellbeing and Sustainability Bill scheduled to be introduced in 2024 under the stewardship of the Deputy First Minister.

The following Minister’s attended the 29 June 2022 meeting:

Then Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, (Chair) Neil Gray

Then Minister for Equalities and Older People, Christina McKelvie

Then Minister for Public Health, Women's Health and Sport, Maree Todd

Then Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater

Then Minister for Children and Young People, Clare Haughey

Then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, Ivan McKee

It should be noted the Working Group, apart from being Chaired by the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, has no fixed membership as Ministers are invited to attend as, and when, areas within their ministerial portfolios are discussed. Our approach is for responsibility for PCSD and its delivery to reside across all Ministerial portfolios, with the Group providing Ministers with the opportunity to reflect on how their portfolios shape and influence these issues, and what is required to improve policy coherence, not just within but across portfolios.

Question reference: S6W-16245

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any lessons have been learned from the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing process, which was announced on 24 March 2023 and has since concluded, and whether these will be published.

Crown Estate Scotland are responsible for the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing process. The INTOG leasing process is still ongoing.The first agreement stage in the leasing process, the offer of exclusivity agreements for offshore wind development rights over an area of seabed, was announced on 24 March 2023.

Scottish Government and Crown Estate Scotland are progressing the next stage of the joint planning and leasing process for INTOG. Scottish Government is committed to the sustainable management of Scottish seas. The on-going planning process will consider the potential impact of INTOG on the marine environment and other marine sectors. Following conclusion of the planning process in 2024, INTOG projects will be offered Option Agreements, the next stage in the leasing process.

As a matter of general good practice, any initiative such as INTOG would be evaluated following its completion to identify any lessons learned.

Question reference: S6W-16211

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the UK Government regarding the implementation of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme.

Question reference: S6W-16088

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of ScotRail staff have received (a) first aid, (b) CPR and (c) defibrillator training.

a) At ScotRail, First Aid requirements are assessed on a First Aid Needs Assessment that aligns with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance. This has highlighted the importance of engineering locations due to the level of risk of employee injury and likely severity of possible injury at these locations should an accident happen.

ScotRail has provided the following data which shows the figures at each depot:-

Location	Fully Trained First Aiders	As a %age of Staff on Site Training Matrix	Defibrillators on site
Ayr Townhead Depot (Train Presentation only)	2	14.3%	1
Cadder Depot	1	12.5%	2
Corkerhill Depot	8	10.5%	1
Eastfield Depot	3	15.8%	1
Haymarket Depot	19	13.2%	2
Inverness Depot	19	20.2%	2 (one at Inverness station)
Millerhill Depot	4	30.1%	2
Shields Depot	15	10.1%	2

For all areas identified as lower risk-level, ScotRail has identified that all staff receive basic life preservation training as a minimum. ScotRail’s induction pack for new staff members contains basic life preservation training and this is carried out regularly within the briefing cycle for front line colleagues.

All of ScotRail’s frontline staff receive refresher briefings three times per year and CPR and preservation of life training are included as a core topic on a two year cycle. This covers approximately 2000 staff and is due to be included in the Sept to Dec Session this year.

Therefore, 2000 of 5000 staff = 40% of the workforce.

b) CPR is also part of the First Aid training received by either Face to face training or online training. Total ScotRail staff for 2023 that completed CPR training would be 43%.

c) Straight forward step-by-step instructions are included on every defibrillator machine. As a result of this ScotRail advise that defibrillators are designed to be easy to use and therefore no specific training is required for them.