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: S5W-06931

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, whether the saltirecard is still the basis for its plans for single smart cards for travel on all public transport.

Question reference: S5W-06933

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, on what date it will introduce single smart cards for travel on all public transport in each city.

As noted in the response to question S5W-03905, city schemes have been launched in Aberdeen and Dundee, and operators have committed to introduce compatible schemes in Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2017. The Scottish Government continues to work with operators across all modes of transport in Scotland to deliver the vision of compatible smart ticketing. It is already possible to use saltirecards across the complete ScotRail network.

Question reference: S5W-06930

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, for what reasons Scotland continues not to have single smart cards for travel on all public transport, similar to the Oyster card in London.

Question reference: S5W-06929

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, what discussions it has had with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) regarding building on its model of a smart card for underground travel.

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with Scottish transport operators to deliver the vision that all journeys on Scotland's bus, rail, ferry and tram network can be made using some form of smart ticketing or payment.

Transport Scotland attends the same Smart and Integrated Ticketing Steering Group that SPT does, and has held a number of working discussions with SPT staff about smart ticketing developments.

Question reference: S5W-06927

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, what the obstacles are to introducing single smart cards for travel on all public transport.

Question reference: S5W-06932

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, what delays there have been to its plans to introduce single smart cards for travel on all public transport.

Through partnership working, the Scottish Government continues to work with transport operators across all modes in Scotland to deliver the vision of compatible smart ticketing. This programme is proceeding as planned.

The ScotRail network is already equipped for saltirecard season tickets, Super
off-peak tickets and anytime off-peak tickets across the complete network. Plans are in place to introduce a pilot for PlusBus tickets.

Question reference: S5W-06928

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03905 by Humza Yousaf on 28 October 2016, what information it has on any discussions that Abellio has had with (a) Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) and (b) bus companies regarding a single smart travel card.

Question reference: S5W-06877

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 20 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide its first annual statement on the progress towards its target of delivering at least 50,000 affordable homes by the end of the Parliamentary session.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of units. They can be accessed using the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild/AHSPtables

The next set of quarterly statistics (Q3 2016-17) are due to be published on the 14^th of March 2017. Statistics for the full financial year (2016-17) are due to be published in mid June 2017.

In addition to these quarterly statistics, a more comprehensive annual breakdown of approvals, site starts and completions by local authority and programme type, including figures on expenditure, is made available each year in the published Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports. The Out-turn Report for the year 2016/17 is planned to be published in early 2018. Previous Out-turn reports can be accessed using the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/investment/ahip

Question reference: S5T-00376

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reduce the amount of time families are spending in emergency accommodation.

Question reference: S5W-06198

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any new models planned for building new homes and, if so, what they are.

Working with strategic partners, including local authorities, housing associations, developers and private sector investors, the Scottish Government has supported the delivery of approaching 5,000 new affordable homes through innovative financing models – generating up to £650 million of housing investment in addition to our conventional funding routes.

We are pursuing further new models, particularly to deliver affordable, mid-market rent (MMR) homes through the MMR Invitation. Novel proposals that have the potential to deliver affordable MMR homes backed by Scottish Government funding and levering in private finance at scale are currently being assessed.

We are also finalising a Rental Income Guarantee Scheme (RIGS) to help kick-start delivery of institutionally backed high-quality new-build private rented homes at scale (known as Build to Rent). RIGS is being developed with the Private Rented Sector Champion and wider industry stakeholders and is designed to share rental income risk with investors/developers to support the emerging Build to Rent market in Scotland.