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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-27663

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the ScotRail rolling stock procurement plan is paused; whether procurement of new railway rolling stock is on track to deliver on the decarbonisation action plan, and whether diesel-powered passenger trains will be removed from the ScotRail network by 2035 as planned.

Question reference: S6W-27646

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it provides freight facilities grants for rail freight and coastal shipping terminals but not for wagons.

Question reference: S6W-27641

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it ceased the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme.

Question reference: S6W-27645

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the trial in 2020 of bringing timber out of Caithness by rail has not been meaningfully followed up, in light of it reportedly being successful.

Question reference: S6W-27644

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on (a) what the outcomes were of the Lifting the Spirit trial at Elgin in 2013 and (b) whether it was operationally successful, and what it did to build on that trial.

Question reference: S6W-27640

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it discontinued the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme, and what its position is on what any repercussions of that decision will be.

Question reference: S6W-27643

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on freight movements commencing or ending at (a) Craiginches Down and (b) Raith’s Farm, and what it is doing to increase the use of these facilities.

Question reference: S6W-27642

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what data it has on the (a) uptake and (b) outcomes of support from the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme in each year of its operation.

Question reference: S6W-26984

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many school technicians were employed in Scotland in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

Management information on the weekly hours of school support staff for 2020-2023 and of full-time equivalent school support staff for 2019, including technicians, can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-management-information/

Data on full time equivalent support staff for 2010 to 2016 (not comparable to the 2020-2023 management information), including technicians, can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Question reference: S6W-27078

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 9 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23633 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2023, whether it has now completed the work to develop a clear picture of the scale and uptake of breakfast provision across Scotland, which was scheduled to be completed in spring 2024, and whether it will consider publishing, or otherwise making available, this work.

The Scottish Government has committed to develop plans to deliver free breakfasts to all primary and special school children.

As noted in the response to question S6W-22746 on 17 November 2023, the Scottish Government is currently working with Assist FM and Improvement Service to develop a clear picture of the scale, uptake and delivery models of breakfast provision across Scotland both at Local Authority and schools' level. We expect the data from that exercise to be submitted to Scottish Government in June 2024. This will then inform the government’s approach.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .