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-08503

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) grants and (b) loans it has provided to Petroineos during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what the value of any such grants and loans was.

Question reference: S6W-08505

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) grants and (b) loans it has provided to Ineos during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what the value of any such grants and loans was.

Question reference: S6W-08347

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 06 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05329 by Ivan McKee on 27 January 2022, whether the parent company guarantee that was signed with Liberty House in 2016 could be affected by the reported visits to Liberty Steel offices by the Serious Fraud Office as part of its investigation of GFG Alliance.

Question reference: S6W-07556

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 27 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it (a) can take and (b) is taking to ensure that the Consul General of China does not have any undue influence over local or national politics in Scotland.

Safeguarding our democracy is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government. This includes being an open, accessible and transparent government. Public officials, including Ministers, MSPs and councillors, are subject to Code of Conducts which provide a clear set of principles and standards for their behaviour, including how to avoid undue interference from external actors. We believe the public should have trust in those they elect.

Question reference: S6W-07563

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many Confucius Institute branches are active in universities in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07564

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to determine how many universities in Scotland provide financial support to Confucius Institute branches.

Question reference: S6W-07569

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the current overall level of financial investment from China in Scotland.

Information on the value of Chinese inward investments into Scotland can be found in the publicly available report Businesses in Scotland, which shows that there are currently 20 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland, with an estimated employment of 3,910 and a turnover of £1.33 billion. The Scottish Government does not disaggregate data based on the type of investment.

Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence and proper consideration of human rights is undertaken on inward investments from China as well as from any other country. Additional safeguards are provided by the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which protects against acquisitions within sensitive areas of the economy that could cause harm to the UK’s national security.

Question reference: S6W-07570

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of Scotland’s foreign direct investment in China since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Question reference: S6W-07567

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the level and nature of financial investment from China in universities in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-07608

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, how many properties (a) are eligible and (b) have applied for the (i) £400 and (ii) £5,000 voucher, all broken down by (A) local authority area and (B) Scottish Parliament constituency.

The interim voucher portion of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is now closed. We do not hold data for Scottish Parliamentary constituencies. However, data on voucher eligibility for all 32 Scottish Local Authorities is provided in the following table:

Local Authority	Properties eligible for the voucher worth up to £5,000
Aberdeen City	2,231
Aberdeenshire	6,437
Angus	1,916
Argyll and Bute	3,897
City of Edinburgh	4,601
Clackmannanshire	317
Dumfries and Galloway	3,616
Dundee City	630
East Ayrshire	1,440
East Dunbartonshire	1,392
East Lothian	1,071
East Renfrewshire	1,197
Falkirk	1,579
Fife	3,801
Glasgow City	11,317
Highland	10,316
Inverclyde	398
Midlothian	1,297
Moray	2,552
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	1,912
North Ayrshire	1,222
North Lanarkshire	1,314
Orkney Islands	2,404
Perth and Kinross	3,890
Renfrewshire	2,017
Scottish Borders	2,304
Shetland Islands	1,850
South Ayrshire	977
South Lanarkshire	2,480
Stirling	1,642
West Dunbartonshire	391
West Lothian	1,447
Total	83,855

Data on the number of applications received through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (as of 1 March 2022) is provided in the following table:

	Voucher worth up to £400			Voucher worth up to £5,000
Local Authority	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Vouchers Installed	Vouchers Requested	Vouchers Issued	Vouchers Installed
Aberdeen City			1		8	13
Aberdeenshire	3	41	75	12	175	271
Angus	4	1	8		103	39
Argyll & Bute		8	13		24	37
City of Edinburgh					14	12
Clackmannanshire	1	1	7		1	5
Dumfries & Galloway		7	110		28	23
Dundee City					17	1
East Ayrshire		1	16		6	7
East Dunbartonshire					2	1
East Lothian			3		15	7
East Renfrewshire	1		5		4	4
Falkirk		1	4	2	10	2
Fife		1	10	1	16	21
Glasgow City					9	9
Highland	1	7	45	1	161	196
Inverclyde			1			1
Midlothian			11		15	6
Moray	1	5	27	1	75	75
Na h-Eileanan an Iar
North Ayrshire			10		1	16
North Lanarkshire		1	7		18	11
Orkney Islands				5	60	9
Perth & Kinross	1	17	78	1	37	45
Renfrewshire			7		11	4
Scottish Borders	2	14	154		31	57
Shetland Islands
South Ayrshire			2		1	11
South Lanarkshire	1	3	39		6	21
Stirling		5	104	7	17	24
West Dunbartonshire			2
West Lothian			1			2
Total	15	113	740	30	865	930