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: S5W-26888

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings Transport Scotland has organised with electric vehicle owners in the last 12 months regarding the ChargePlace Scotland contract, and what communications there have been.

Question reference: S5T-01956

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Highlands and Islands Airports Limited regarding the announcement of plans to centralise air traffic control services.

Question reference: S5W-26931

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 20 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24536 by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 August 2019, whether it will provide an update regarding when the final neurological conditions national action plan will be published.

Question reference: S5W-26890

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what workshops Transport Scotland has organised with local authorities in the last 12 months regarding the expansion and improvement of the ChargePlace Scotland network.

Question reference: S5W-26883

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the holding reply to question S5W-26005 by Humza Yousaf on 11 November 2019, whether it is in a position to provide a substantive answer and when.

Question reference: S5W-26005

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 8 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will have in the summit to be held in Glasgow on methods to tackle drug-related deaths, which was announced by the UK Minister of State for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service.

We welcome the UK Government's commitment to engage with us around what is a public health emergency but remain unclear of their willingness to take part in a summit in Glasgow, alongside our Drug Death Taskforce, people with lived experience, and others, in order to help reduce the harms and deaths caused by drugs.

My officials have however already had initial discussions with counterparts in the Home Office and other UK administrations and we will continue to work closely with them as we develop plans for a UK wide drug summit. Given the significance of this issue, we want the summit to take place as soon as is practicable and are working with Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Partnership on the planning for this.

Question reference: S5W-26520

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of BT being confirmed as the preferred bidder for each contract in the R100 programme, what the timescale is for the company signing the contracts for the regional lots, and what the expected (a) coverage, (b) technology mix and (c) completion timescale will be for each of these.

Question reference: S5W-26440

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of Brexit on the future of the Air Discount Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-26438

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been contacted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and invited to make a victim impact statement under the terms of section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, and how many of those contacted chose to make such a victim statement in each of the last five years, broken down by the number of (a) adult victims, (b) victims aged between 12 and 18, (c) victims under the age of 12 and (d) victims whose cases involved an allegation of domestic abuse.

2014-15 to 2017-18

2014 - 2015

2015 - 2016

2016 - 2017

2017 - 2018

Victim Statements
Issued

6647

6799

6624

6217

Victim Statements
Returned

1161

1127

1077

1037

Explanatory Notes:

1. For the years 2014-2015 to 2017-2018, automated retrieval of the requested breakdown of Victim Statements issued is not possible.

2. COPFS records the number of Victim Statements issued and returned rather than the number of people who were issued with and returned a Victim Statement. In some circumstances a person may be issued with and return more than one Victim Statement, for example, if they wish to describe additional information that they had omitted from their original Victim Statement. Accordingly, the number of Victim Statements issued and returned is likely to be greater than the number of people to whom Victim Statements were issued and who returned them.

2018-19

Adult (18 years and older)

12-17 years

Under 12 years

Age not recorded

Victim Statements Issued

5449

732

102

363

Victim Statements Returned

867

136

Domestic

Victim Statements Issued

1470

Victim Statements Returned

238

Explanatory Notes:

1. For the year 2018–2019, a change to the method of recording the number of Victim Statements issued and returned enables COPFS to provide the requested breakdown.

2. All cases that contain offences that are domestically aggravated are identified on COPFS systems by the inclusion of a domestic identifier code. In identifying cases that involve an allegation of domestic abuse for this question COPFS have identified cases that have this domestic identifier code attached to them in which a Victim Statement has been issued.

3. COPFS records the number of Victim Statements issued and returned rather than the number of people who were issued with and returned a Victim Statement. In some circumstances a person may be issued with and return more than one Victim Statement, for example, if they wish to describe additional information that they omitted from their original Victim Statement. Accordingly, the number of Victim Statements issued and returned is likely to be greater than the number of people to whom Victim Statements were issued and who returned them.

Question reference: S5W-26442

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact that removing business-related travel from the Air Discount Scheme has had on businesses in the Highlands and Islands, and what consideration it has given to reinstating business-related travel within the scheme.