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-11899

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many organisations, including local authorities, have applied for funding from the Ayrshire Rural and Islands Ambition (ARIA) Fund 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-11901

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Ayrshire LEADER programme (2014-2020), whether any analysis, by local authority area, has been carried out of the distribution of funding; what organisations were successful in securing funding, and what impact analysis has been carried out of the outcomes secured by each successful project, such as in reducing inequalities and supporting community wealth-building.

Within the Ayrshire LEADER 2014-2020 Programme there were 90 projects (61 organisations) supported over the funding period. Project awards were as follows:

34 projects funded in East Ayrshire with £1,836,762;
14 projects funded in North Ayrshire with £808,123;
40 projects funded in South Ayrshire with £1,205,832; and
2 pan-Ayrshire projects funded in North Ayrshire with £227,919.

Just over half were Community projects (56%), with the remainder split between Farm Diversification (20%) and Small and Medium sized enterprises.

The Scottish Government commissioned an independent evaluation by the James Hutton Institute. Additionally, outcome evaluations by each of the 21 Local Development Strategies were required as part of closure of the 2014-2020 LEADER Programme.

Question reference: S6W-11900

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Ayrshire Rural and Islands Ambition (ARIA) Fund 2022-23, what the process was for selecting members of the Ayrshire Local Action Group (LAG); whether any Ayrshire LAG members and the organisations that they represent are eligible to apply to the Fund, and what potential conflict of interest procedures are in place, and what percentage of the overall Fund was available at the outset for distribution to Ayrshire LAG members.

Local Action Group (LAG) Membership has continued with the LEADER membership that was based on a skills matrix. Plans to recruit new LAG members through a procurement process are planned. Representation will be drawn from the public sector, businesses/third sector and community interests.

LAG members may be representatives of wider rural bodies or applying on behalf of organisations they represent. LAG members are not permitted to participate in any decision making process where they have a conflict of interest. This is a standing item on the agenda for the LAG.

There is no allocation of funding to individual LAG members since decisions are taken as a collective LAG.

Question reference: S6W-12031

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of reports that Ayrshire Local Action Group is carrying out unspecified "technical checks" in relation to applications to the Ayrshire Rural and Islands Ambition (ARIA) Fund 2022-23 that are separate to determining whether organisations are eligible to apply to the Fund, and, if this is the case, what information it holds on any such "technical checks", including what (a) they involved and (b) the outcomes were, including whether they resulted in an otherwise eligible organisation being excluded from applying to the Fund.

The Ayrshire LAG and South Ayrshire Council Internal Audit have approved and undertaken technical checks on all projects applying for funding. Guidance on these checks is in the public domain.

https://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/media/5979/ARIA-Fund-Applicant-Guidance/pdf/ARIA_Fund_22

Only those projects that meet the technical checks progress for consideration by the Local Action Group. Of the twenty seven organisation that applied, seventeen of those progressed to the technical check stage, sixteen of which proceeded to assessment stage.

Question reference: S6W-11898

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities should be considered as potentially suitable recipients of the Ayrshire Rural and Islands Ambition (ARIA) Fund 2022-23, whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding that has been allocated to each local authority area, and what is the definition of local authority core funding that is used to assess eligibility for the Fund.

A Local Authority cannot apply alone for funding. This funding is not intended to replace core/statutory duties of Local Authorities. Local Authorities may however allocate funding to facilitate the commissioning of recruitment, upskilling and the rebuilding of the Local Action Group (LAG) but are not direct recipients of the funding.

Funding is allocated to Local Action Groups rather than single Local Authorities areas. Local Authority area spend is ongoing and unavailable at present. The LAG allocation breakdown is provided in the following table;

LAG Area	Allocation £
Aberdeenshire North & South	£924,990,00
Angus	£288,469.00
Argyll & Islands	£618,889.00
Ayrshire	£533,604.00
Cairngorms	£281,606.00
Dumfries and Galloway	£665,492.00
Fife	£279,306.00
Forth Valley and Lomond	£213,746.00
Greater Renfrewshire	£115,520.00
Highland	£1,069,878.00
Kelvin Valley and Falkirk	£140,600.00
Lanarkshire	£282,826.00
Moray	£292,405.00
Orkney	£188,330.00
Outer Hebrides	£255,806.00
Rural Perth and Kinross	£447,098.00
Scottish Borders	£487,275.00
Shetland	£188,538.00
Tyne Esk	£204,382.00
West Lothian	£151,240.00
TOTALS	£7,630,000.00

Question reference: S6O-01600

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met COSLA and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S6W-11793

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 14 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide updated figures on how many young people to date have received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority, based on the latest information available.

The following table shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 31 October 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

Aberdeen City	23,643
Aberdeenshire	26,246
Angus Council	7,753
Argyll & Bute	6,030
City of Edinburgh	66,618
Clackmanmanshire	3,038
Comhairie nan Eilean Siar	1,537
Dumfries and Galloway	9,322
Dundee City	18,782
East Ayrshire	14,987
East Dunbartonshire	9,315
East Lothian	12,066
East Renfrewshire	9,582
Falkirk	10,085
Fife	46,845
Glasgow City	57,582
Highland	15,636
Inverclyde	11,016
Midlothian	9,370
Moray	7,590
North Ayrshire	16,893
North Lanarkshire	31,800
Orkney Islands	1,437
Perth & Kinross	12,967
Renfrewshire	18,577
Scottish Borders	9,664
Shetland Islands	2,597
South Ayrshire	7,262
South Lanarkshire	32,094
Stirling	7,435
West Dunbartonshire	10,057
West Lothian	17,405
Total	535,231

Question reference: S6W-11795

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) holds information and (b) can provide figures on how many people currently make use of a (i) Veterans, (ii) Two Together, (c) Senior, (d) Friends and Family, (e) Disabled Persons (f) 26-30 and (g) 16-25 Railcard.

Question reference: S6W-11794

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the uptake of usage for the Young Scot National Entitlement Card is, based on the latest information available.

As of the end of the day on 7 November 2022, there had been a total of 31,118,359 journeys made under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. 40.6% of these journeys were made by cardholders aged 5-15. 59.4% of these journeys were made by cardholders aged 16-21.

This data is for total journeys made through the scheme and is not split into Young Scot branded and non-Young Scot branded National Entitlement Cards.

Question reference: S6W-11801

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it (a) spent in 2021-22 and (b) has allocated to spend in 2022-23 on public service obligation flights, broken down by each route.

The following table provides the information requested.

Route	Spend in 2021-22 (£)	Projected outturn in 2022-23 (£)
Glasgow to Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra	5,243,762.91	5,508,045.82
Dundee to London City	703,732	741,000
Wick to Aberdeen	0	1,000,000

While the Glasgow to Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra services are separate routes, they are tendered as a package for operational efficiency and therefore spend is combined for the three routes.

The Scottish Government contributes to the Dundee to London City service along with the Department for Transport and Dundee City Council. Dundee City Council is the contracting authority.

The Wick to Aberdeen service started in April 2022. The Scottish Government contributes to the service along with Highland Council. Highland Council is the contracting authority.