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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 511 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-18448

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2023
Current Status: Holding Answer by Mairi McAllan on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what actions it has taken in relation to the development of hydrogen-powered trains.

Question reference: S6W-18449

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions have taken place between Transport Scotland, ScotRail and any rolling stock companies in relation to hydrogen-powered trains.

Question reference: S6W-18447

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken in relation to hydrogen-powered trains.

Question reference: S6W-18445

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether ScotRail's High Speed Train (HST) fleet meets modern safety standards.

Question reference: S6W-18444

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether ScotRail's High Speed Train (HST) fleet is (a) reliable, (b) clean and (c) economically viable.

ScotRail fleet reliability and cleanliness are operational matters for which ScotRail Trains Ltd is responsible. Details of how ScotRail is monitored for its Public Performance Measure (punctuality and reliability) and also how its stations and trains are monitored via Transport Scotland’s Service Quality Incentive Regime (SQUIRE) can be found by accessing the following link:-

Performance & Reliability | Public Performance Monitoring | ScotRail

Question reference: S6W-18443

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its assessment is of the creditworthiness of the High Speed Trains (HSTs) that are currently part of the ScotRail fleet.

Question reference: S6W-18446

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans it has in place to replace ScotRail's High Speed Trains (HSTs) in the event that drivers choose not to drive them out of concern that they do not meet the expected safety standards.

Question reference: S6W-18442

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when ScotRail's High Speed Train (HST) fleet will be replaced.

Question reference: S6W-17100

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the real terms spending, based on current prices, was on Scottish schools, in each year since 2007.

Table 1 provides real terms expenditure based on 2021-22 prices for Scottish schools in each year since 2007. Real terms expenditure is broken down by primary, secondary, and special education.

Table 1: Real terms expenditure, 2007-08 to 2021-22 (£000)

Financial ‎ Year	Primary ‎ Education	Secondary ‎ Education	Special ‎ Education	School Education
2007-08	2,291,312	2,570,000	641,962	5,503,273
2008-09	2,266,389	2,550,632	645,280	5,462,301
2009-10	2,238,327	2,469,714	656,351	5,364,393
2010-11	2,247,021	2,441,262	648,359	5,336,642
2011-12	2,185,497	2,330,489	619,960	5,135,945
2012-13	2,157,200	2,309,964	605,403	5,072,566
2013-14	2,143,300	2,257,681	607,647	5,008,629
2014-15	2,137,097	2,225,583	614,385	4,977,065
2015-16	2,178,851	2,226,211	628,597	5,033,659
2016-17	2,210,760	2,213,670	618,241	5,042,671
2017-18	2,277,852	2,210,339	622,918	5,111,109
2018-19	2,356,577	2,304,687	645,383	5,306,647
2019-20	2,434,207	2,395,751	678,111	5,508,069
2020-21	2,395,511	2,358,155	667,672	5,421,337
2021-22	2,553,716	2,503,212	704,929	5,761,857

Figures are adjusted to exclude inter-authority transfers. Inflation adjustments are based on HM Treasury’s 31 March 2023 GDP Deflator outturn data.

Sources:

1. Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 01) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government: Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

2. GDP deflators at market prices: GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-17102

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much in real terms, based on current prices, its policy on (a) free prescriptions, (b) concessionary travel and (c) free personal and nursing care has cost in each year since its introduction, also broken down by the average annual real terms spending for a recipient of each scheme.

a) Prescription charges were removed in Scotland in financial year 2011-12, with £57m being baselined into territorial board budgets. The prescription charge for a single item in 2007-08 was £6.85. In England, where prescription charges were not abolished, the single item charge increased to £9.65 in April 2023.

b) In 2022-23 the nominal price payments for the Older & Disabled Persons’ scheme was £158.4m, and the Young Persons’ Scheme was £109.1m. These figures may be subject to future revision as operators have up to 12 months to make a claim for reimbursement in line with scheme legislation. Statistics on concessionary travel can be found in Chapter 2 via the following link: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-2022/

c) Information on expenditure related to Free Personal and Nursing Care is published annually, and is publicly available via the following link: Health and social care analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .