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-24443

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the premises contracted for delivery of superfast broadband under the R100 scheme have still to be connected.

All homes and businesses across Scotland can currently access a superfast broadband service. The R100 contracts are going beyond that by extending access to gigabit-capable broadband – over 30 times faster than our original commitment.

The contracts remain on track to complete build in 2028. So far, over 36,100 of the 114,869 premises currently expected to receive R100 contract build have been connected. This means that approximately 68% of the total premises remain scheduled for build between now and 2028.

Question reference: S6W-24107

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £200 million that it committed to improve rail journey times between Aberdeen and the Central Belt by 2026 has been included in the Scottish Budget for 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-23981

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers were first made aware of reported concerns raised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency regarding aspects of the design of MV Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa in relation to escape routes.

Question reference: S6W-24441

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been allocated in its Budget for 2024-25 for Changing Places toilets.

The Scottish Government knows that Changing Places Toilets make a real difference to disabled people and their families. We are committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets during this parliamentary term, in order to increase the provision of these fundamental facilities across Scotland.

We will look to make a new £10 million fund available across the financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26. We will undertake the necessary development work, alongside key stakeholders, to open the fund by the beginning of 2025.

The draft budget for 2024-25 was announced in Scottish Parliament on 19 December 2023 and stated that the direct programme budget for Mental Health will be £290.2 million. Allocations from this budget, including for the Changing Places Toilets fund, are under consideration and will be confirmed once the budget has been approved by Parliament.

Question reference: S6F-02720

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2024

To ask the First Minister what percentage of the premises contracted for delivery of superfast broadband under the R100 scheme have still to be connected.

Question reference: S6W-23706

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many heat engineer apprenticeships were available in the current financial year.

Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) are funded through Skills Development Scotland (SDS) via a competitive procurement process, with contracts issued to successful bidders on an annual basis. SDS contract with a wide range of providers for the delivery of MAs including employers, independent training providers, colleges, universities, third sector, local authorities and managing agents.

SDS do not contract places at a framework level and instead contract at an Occupational Grouping level to allow for flex within the system. It is up to providers to best utilise these places based on demand.

The most relevant frameworks relating to heat engineer occupations are “Plumbing and Heating” and “Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration”. Statistics published by SDS show there were the following number of starts on each framework:

Modern Apprenticeship Framework	No. of Starts by the end of Quarter 2 2023-24	No. of Starts in 2022-23
Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration	69	104
Plumbing and Heating	156	461

It is worth noting that Modern Apprentices are employed and subject to employer recruitment patterns and processes, in the same way as other employees. Quarter 2 statistics are therefore not indicative of year-end overall number of starts.

Question reference: S6W-23707

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of all grants that are currently available for the installation of heat humps in private homes.

All domestic owner occupied householders in Scotland are eligible for the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme, which offers householders up to £7,500 of grant funding for the installation of a heat pump or £9,000 for households which qualify for the rural uplift. Up to £7,500 is available on top of this as an optional interest free loan.

The Scottish Government also funds installation of heat pumps targeted at fuel poor households through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes.

Householders can find additional information about heat pumps and the funding available on the Home Energy Scotland website. www.homeenergyscotland.org

Some householders may also be able to benefit from the installation of a heat pump through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which is a UK Government scheme delivered via energy suppliers. These improvements are provided as benefits-in-kind.

Question reference: S6W-23331

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any meetings with the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) to discuss any alleged cases of conflict of interest in relation to SNIB employees while involved in SNIB investments in external companies.

Question reference: S6O-02932

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the total cost to date of its Building a New Scotland series of papers.

Question reference: S6W-23597

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) fatal and (b) serious accidents there have been on each road in the trunk road and motorway network in each year since 2019.

The following table presents the total number of fatal and serious accidents for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. However, the information on the total number of fatal and serious accidents for 2023 are only available up to the date stated in the following table.

	Fatal and Serious Collisions 2019 to 2023
Route	2019		2020		2021		2022		2023		TOTAL
Route	Serious	Fatal	Serious	Fatal	Serious	Fatal	Serious	Fatal	Serious ‎ up to 1 Nov	Fatal ‎ up to 5 Dec
A1	3	0	9	1	7	0	9	3	4	3	39
A6091	2	0	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	8
A68	5	0	2	2	9	0	3	1	10	0	32
A7	4	0	2	0	5	0	2	1	4	1	19
A701	3	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	7
A702	4	0	4	0	5	0	1	2	5	2	23
A720	10	1	4	0	5	0	3	1	4	0	28
A725	5	0	5	0	3	1	7	2	11	0	34
A726	1	0	0	0	3	0	2	1	2	1	10
A727	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
A737	7	0	4	0	5	0	2	0	2	0	20
A738	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
A75	7	2	7	1	11	2	11	1	13	1	56
A76	5	0	4	2	9	1	7	1	10	1	40
A77	17	2	10	0	9	1	10	2	5	1	57
A78	7	0	10	2	12	0	8	3	9	0	51
A8	4	1	3	1	4	0	3	0	6	0	22
A82	28	7	22	5	30	5	20	5	31	3	156
A828	1	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	6
A83	17	0	6	1	7	1	7	1	5	1	46
A830	3	2	1	0	2	0	2	0	2	0	12
A835	5	1	2	0	2	0	3	1	4	1	19
A84	7	0	3	1	0	1	3	0	2	0	17
A85	13	4	11	0	5	3	12	0	7	4	59
A86	1	0	1	0	4	0	2	0	5	0	13
A87	5	1	7	0	8	1	4	0	7	2	35
A876	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	4
A887	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
A889	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
A898	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	5
A9	36	6	19	2	24	3	25	12	28	4	159
A90	26	3	19	5	21	3	14	3	11	4	109
A92	10	1	16	2	8	0	11	2	7	3	60
A95	4	0	2	0	2	0	3	1	5	0	17
A956	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
A96	16	5	9	3	13	2	12	1	18	0	79
A972	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	6
A977	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
A985	4	2	3	2	4	0	3	1	3	0	22
A99	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	6
M73	2	0	1	0	4	0	1	0	4	1	13
M74	21	5	17	1	17	4	19	1	14	2	101
M77	1	0	3	0	2	0	4	0	2	0	12
M8	21	1	16	6	32	5	23	3	16	2	125
M80	8	1	3	0	3	2	4	0	2	0	23
M823	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
M876	1	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	5
M898	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
M9	6	1	5	1	6	0	5	1	5	1	31
M90	9	1	4	1	5	1	7	0	4	0	32
TOTAL	333	49	246	39	294	39	262	54	273	40	1629

Date Extracted – 06-12-2023

Source: Transport Scotland Accident Manager Database

Notes: Statistics for Police Scotland

Date Period: 01-04-2021 – 01-11-2023 (latest date available for serious)

Please note that the information provided is based on the current figures available at the time of retrieving the data from Transport Scotland’s accident manager system. The following are potential reasons for an accident not appearing on our system:

Transport Scotland only holds accident information which is provided to us by Police Scotland.
Transport Scotland does not hold information relating to damage only accidents (i.e. not involving an injury).
The accident information Transport Scotland holds is subject to change. E.g. we receive late returns from Police Scotland, who are responsible for recording details of injury accidents.
Annual Scottish accident figures are published by Transport Scotland on a yearly basis and can be found by entering Reported Road Casualties Scotland into your search engine.
From summer 2019, Police Scotland introduced a new system for recording traffic collisions. Due to improved recording and categorisation processes, it is expected that there will be an increase in the number of casualties and accidents on Scottish roads that are classified as serious. This increase would not reflect an actual change in the severity of accidents occurring on Scottish roads, but would instead reflect more accurate recording.
Statisticians within the Department for Transport have devised a method for adjusting the road casualty figures to ensure that they can be compared over time on a consistent basis. Transport Scotland’s Key Reported Road Casualties and Reported Road Casualties statistics publications will present both adjusted and unadjusted figures.