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-10786

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to deliver a (a) gradual and (b) flexible reintroduction of non-domestic rates to enable businesses to concentrate their resources on business re-growth.

Decisions on non-domestic rates, including the poundage and any reliefs, are generally considered in the context of the Scottish Budget in line with other government priorities.

The Scottish Budget 2022-23 maintains a competitive non-domestic rates regime, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row as well as a generous package of reliefs which are forecast to be worth £801 million.

Question reference: S6W-10784

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Ukrainian refugees are being hosted by hotels in the City of Edinburgh Council area.

We are working closely with local authorities and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and doing all we can to speed up the matching process and increase the numbers of displaced people moving into host accommodation.

On 22 September, the Scottish Government published its first summary of the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine coming to Scotland through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme visa schemes, including data on the number of displaced people in welcome accommodation: Key points - Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics - gov.scot.

Question reference: S6W-10747

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many computers it has purchased for each of its directorates in each of the last five years.

The breakdown of this information by Directorate is not held centrally and to collate this information would be at disproportionate costs. Computers have been defined as any device which has been configured for use on the SCOTS Network. The overall number for Scottish Government over the past 5 years are

Year	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023
Number of Computers	1523	6030	4070	3569	NIL to date

Question reference: S6W-10746

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many laptops it has purchased since 1 March 2020, broken down by the brand of laptop, and what the total cost was of these purchases.

Question reference: S6W-10850

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much money has been allocated to Scottish Canals in each of the last five years.

Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in grant in aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding since 2020. The Organisation has also received substantial additional funding support. A breakdown of the funding is attached in the following table.

Year

Grant allocation

Capital funding

Revenue funding

Additional funding

Total funding

22-23

£22.7m

£12.2m

£10.5m

21-22

£21.9m

£12.2m

£9.7m

£662k (rev)

Covid consequential funding.

£2.4m in additional funding. (cap)

£14.6m (cap)

£10.4m (rev)

£22.6m(total)

20-21

£20.7m

£12.2m

£8.5m

£1m (cap) Dredging Caledonian and Crinan.

£545k(cap) Weedcutter.

£6.5m (cap) Union Canal Breach.

£1.1m (rev) Covid funding

£2.8m in additional funding. (cap)

£20.2m (cap)

£12.4m (rev)

£32.6m (total)

19-20

£15m

£6.5m

£8.5m

£262k (rev)

Bowling works.

£6.5m (cap)

£8.8m (rev)

£15.3m (total)

18-19

£11.6m

£3.5m

£8.1m

£1.625m (cap) Twechar, Bonnybridge and Ardrishaig.

£5.350m (cap) Cullochy Lock Gates and Fort Augustus.

£10.475m (cap)

£8.100m (rev)

£18.575m (total)

Question reference: S6W-10960

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the expected cost of its current case in the Supreme Court regarding the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill.

We published the costs incurred by the Lord Advocate’s reference to the Supreme Court on 22 September, which can be found here: www.gov.scot/publications/independence-referendum-supreme-court-referral-legal-costs . We will continue to publish costs on a quarterly basis until litigation ends. As the litigation is ongoing, and the costs may be affected by a number of factors, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the total costs we will incur.

As the First Minister explained to Parliament on 28 June, there is a substantial majority in Scottish Parliament in favour of an independence referendum and therefore a clear democratic mandate for this work. The UK government, regrettably, is refusing to respect Scottish democracy.

Question reference: S6W-10739

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who have been issued a visa under its Super Sponsor scheme are currently receiving free tuition to study in Scotland.

There have been nearly 300 applications to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) from Ukrainian nationals, undertaking a first year of study in Higher Education (HE), for financial support (including tuition fees) in the 2022-23 Academic Year (AY). There have been a further 35 applications from Ukrainian nationals for financial support for postgraduate studies – this package attracts a tuition fee loan.

These figures may continue to rise with applications still being accepted.

It is not possible to confirm how many of these students have applied to the Super Sponsor scheme.

Data in respect of applications for support for courses of Further Education (FE) is not available. At the end of the 2022-23 AY, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will be able to confirm the number of Ukrainian nationals who enrolled on college courses.

Question reference: S6W-10744

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what performance indicators it has set HaskoningDHV UK Limited to determine whether it has successfully "identified ways to improve the competitiveness" of the Ferguson Marine yard.

The Scottish Government’s contract with First Marine International (FMI), a subsidiary of HaskoningDHV, sets out deliverables around timing and the quality of the work done on the report that the Scottish Government has commissioned. These are being used to determine performance and are linked to milestone payments to the supplier. The use of milestone payments is a common mechanism in Scottish Government contracts.

Any decisions around potential investment at the yard will be subject to value for money considerations and to subsidy control rules.

Question reference: S6W-10753

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what trends it has identified regarding urban rat populations over the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-10742

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the gender breakdown by age grouping of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Scotland under its Super Sponsor scheme.

Number of laptops	Brand	Total Cost (inc VAT)
7584	HP	£4,845,550
55	Microsoft	£78,900