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: S6O-02379

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will make available for community-led initiatives in the Coatbridge and Chryston constituency that promote environmental quality and protection.

Question reference: S6O-02370

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the planning system can help to create a strong, prosperous and vibrant retail sector, including through business support.

Question reference: S6O-02377

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any increase in water quality testing that is proposed for rivers in the north east.

Question reference: S6O-02360

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its vision for solar energy.

Question reference: S6O-02372

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent Accounts Commission report, Local government in Scotland: Overview 2023.

Question reference: S6O-02371

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding any impact that its fiscal policy platform will have on Scottish businesses, including tourism and hospitality businesses.

Question reference: S6O-02366

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any modelling on the potential behavioural impact of the Scottish Green Party's proposal to introduce a new increased tax rate for those earning between £75,000 and £125,000.

Question reference: S6W-18321

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that areas with vulnerable or disadvantaged groups have adequate, affordable full fibre coverage.

Full fibre is now available to over 1.2 million properties in Scotland, with coverage now standing at 45% – an increase of 14 percentage points from January 2022 and 26 percentage points from January 2021.

This represents an increase of over 400,000 premises in the past 12 months – the largest year-on-year increase in full fibre coverage we have seen in Scotland to date.

The Scottish Government's Reaching 100% (R100) programme is contributing to this by delivering a significant number of fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections through the R100 contracts.

In order to ensure that customers on lower incomes can access reliable broadband at a more affordable cost Ofcom, as telecoms regulator, is urging internet service providers to offer a social tariff.

Social tariffs are more affordable broadband and phone packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit and some other benefits.

Details of social tariffs that are currently available are provided on the Ofcom website: Social tariffs: Cheaper broadband and phone packages - Ofcom .

Question reference: S6W-18377

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with NHS Lothian regarding the proposed closure of the youth navigator service at (a) St John's Hospital in Livingston and (b) the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.

Scottish Government has contacted NHS Lothian, which has confirmed the Youth Hospital Navigator pilot at both hospitals was funded only for a fixed term of two years which ends this month. The pilot was included in an external evaluation of all youth work provision commissioned by NHS Lothian.

NHS Lothian is considering this evaluation and its next steps over the next 6 months which includes designing a youth work model, based on learning and key findings from the evaluation and developing a business case to support this. Health Inequalities and Children’s Rights Impact Assessments will be commissioned as part of this process.

Question reference: S6W-17956

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16779 by Patrick Harvie on 27 April 2023, how households will be successfully engaged with, as part of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) delivery plans, in order to take action to retrofit their homes with energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures.

Advice and support for households is currently accessed via Home Energy Scotland or via local authority-led Area Based Schemes. It is likely that this arrangement will continue in the short term, but we are committed to working with delivery partners, including Local Government to ensure the efficient delivery of advice and support to households.

This year we will publish a Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will raise public awareness and understanding of the changes we all need to make to our home heating to meet the net zero targets by 2045. We will need to communicate in a coordinated way across all levels, including nationally and through trusted grassroots and local messengers.

This will include taking a place-based approach through working with local government to communicate to the public what the transition will mean for them, informed by upcoming Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plans. This will help to ensure that people know whether they can expect to connect to a local heat network or will need to install renewable technologies such as a heat pump, the steps involved and how they can access any support available. We will use a range of tactics to achieve this, including multi-channel marketing and community engagement initiatives.