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-07777

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of paragraph 28 of the Audit Scotland report, New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides, stating that “it is not clear what discussions took place between Scottish ministers and Transport Scotland about the contract award...there is no documented evidence to confirm why Scottish ministers were willing to accept the risks of awarding the contract to FMEL, despite CMAL’s concerns...we consider that there should have been a proper record of this important decision”, whether there was ministerial direction in relation to a decision that was not supported by the evidence.

The audit trail here is a matter of public record. Advice was put to the then Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown on 20 August 2015, setting out CMAL’s identification of FMEL as the preferred bidder. Advice was also put to the then Minister for Transport and Islands on 7 October 2015, setting out risk associated with contract award in the absence of a guarantee, and mitigation that would be put in place.

The memos to Ministers mentioned have been in the public domain since 2019 and can be found at the following link: Ferguson Marine: key documents - 2015 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

There was no Ministerial direction in relation to the contract award and Ministers did not direct CMAL to enter into the contract. The contract was awarded by CMAL in its capacity as procuring authority following a robust procurement process.

While CMAL did express concerns about the absence of a refund guarantee, mitigations were agreed that were sufficient to assuage those concerns.

Question reference: S6O-01050

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the hospitality sector.

Question reference: S6O-01012

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the agriculture sector plays a leading role in delivering a net zero Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00963

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what measures it is taking in response to the reported growing threat of cyber crime.

Question reference: S6O-00955

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the SNP manifesto commitment for every child to leave school being able to cycle safely.

Question reference: S6W-06598

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many undergraduate and postgraduate students have presented as homeless since May 2016, broken down by higher education institution.

Statistics on homelessness, based on administrative data, are collected by local authorities in the course of processing homelessness applications and for households in temporary accommodation. A limitation of this approach is that data is not collected for any households, including students, that are homeless but do not engage with their local authority. Data is available for a number of characteristics including age, gender and ethnicity but not in relation to those in full or part time in further and higher education. The Scottish government does not collect economic activity in the collection, some LAs may however collect the information for their own purposes but the extent of this is unknown. The latest statistics publication is available here: Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has already started work on a Review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation which is running in parallel with the development of a Rented Sector Strategy both of which will inform a comprehensive Student Accommodation Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-06268

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether young people who have received an email confirmation that they will receive a travel card for free bus travel, but have not received it, are able to claim back their bus travel costs between 1 February 2022 and the date on which they received their card, and if this is the case, what the process is for them to do so.

Question reference: S6F-00792

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2022

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve CAMHS waiting times.

Question reference: S6W-06054

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-00704

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the nuclear energy sector, and what was discussed.