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: S5O-03851

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Oil & Gas UK’s Environment Report 2018, which highlights a commitment to "playing its part in building a sustainable industry that is progressively lowering its emission intensity".

Question reference: S5W-26301

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how much it cost to organise and run in Scotland the (a) (i) 2011 and (ii) 2016 Scottish Parliament election, (b) (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2017 general election, (c) (i) 2012 and (ii) 2017 local government election, (d) (i) 2014 and (ii) 2019 European Parliament election and (e) (i) 2011 alternative vote, (ii) 2014 Scottish independence and (iii) 2016 EU membership referendum.

(a) Scottish Parliament Elections

(i) We do not hold information on the costs associated with the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. Scottish parliamentary election expenses claims for this poll were dealt with by the Scotland Office.

(ii) Following the transfer of powers, the Scottish Government met the costs of the Scottish Parliament election held on 5 May 2016 across the 32 council areas, totalling £17,544,245.

(b) UK Parliament General Elections

(i) We do not hold information on the costs associated with the 2010 General Election. UK parliamentary election expenses claims for this poll were dealt with by the Scotland Office and the then Elections Claims Unit at the Department for Communities and Local Government (now Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

(ii) The relevant cost for the 2015 General Election can be found in the following report published by the UK Government:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/
system/uploads/attachment_data/file/715422/The_Costs_of_
the_2015_UK_Parliamentary_General_Election.pdf

(iii) The cost of the 2017 General Election for Scotland is due for future publication and the information requested will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.

The costs of administering council elections, with the exception of the electronic counting project, are covered by each local authority from their own budgets. This information is not collated centrally.

(i) The Scottish Government’s total expenditure on the electronic vote counting project at the 2012 local government election was £5,600,000, of which £3,693,759 was paid to local authorities as reimbursement for core e-counting costs.

(ii) The Scottish Government’s total expenditure on the electronic vote counting project at the 2017 local government election was £5,887,008, of which £3,247,714 was paid to local authorities as reimbursement for core e-counting costs.

(d) European Parliament Elections

(i) The relevant cost for the 2014 European Parliament can be found in the following report published by the UK Government:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system
/uploads/attachment_data/file/573723/costs_of_the_2014_european
_parliamentary_elections.pdf

(ii) The cost of the 2019 European Parliament is due for future publication and the information requested will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.

(e) (i) 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum

The Electoral Commission was responsible for overseeing the payment of fees to Counting Officers for running the referendum, and the reimbursement of the costs they incurred in doing so. The relevant cost of administering the AV referendum can be found in the following report published by the Electoral Commission:

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20180801140903
/https:/www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file
/0009/153000/Costs-of-UK-May-2011-UKPVS-referendum.pdf

(ii) 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-27304 on 04 September 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

(iii) 2016 Brexit Referendum

The Electoral Commission was responsible for overseeing the payment of fees to Counting Officers for running the referendum, and the reimbursement of the costs they incurred in doing so. The relevant cost of administering the Brexit referendum can be found in the following report published by the Electoral Commission:

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and
-what-we-do/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and
-referendums/eu-referendum/report-costs-delivering-june-2016
-referendum-uks-membership-european-union .

Question reference: S5O-03833

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will retract its statements on youth employment, in light of the UK Statistics Authority's recent comments on its use of the Labour Force Survey.

Question reference: S5W-26124

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many police-recorded common assaults on emergency workers there have been in each of the last five years.

The following table below contains the number of Common Assault of an Emergency Worker offences recorded by the police in each of the last five years. It should be noted these figures will not include all police recorded attacks on emergency workers (for example should an emergency worker be the victim of a serious assault, this would be recorded as a serious assault).

Police Recorded Common Assault of an Emergency Worker, 2014-15 to 2018-19

Financial Year	Offences
2014-15	6,480
2015-16	6,414
2016-17	6,509
2017-18	7,004
2018-19	7,098

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics. The latest bulletin is available at the weblink below (figures included above are based on a further analysis of the data)

https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2018-19/

Question reference: S5W-26125

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 15 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many charges have been brought under (a) sections 1(1) and 2(1) of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005, (b) section 41(1) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 and (c) other legislation for assaulting emergency workers in each of the last five years, and how many charges (i) were dropped, (ii) proceeded with and (iii) resulted in a conviction, also broken down by type of emergency worker.

Question reference: S5W-26118

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether fines imposed on private sector-operated prisons are retained in the Scottish Prison Service budget.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

When credit notes are received as a result of performance at HMP Addiewell and HMP Kilmarnock failing to meet the standards set in the PFI contracts, these costs are offset as a reduction to the cost of the contracts for that period. These costs are processed and recorded in SPS’ annual accounts.

Question reference: S5W-26300

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils in each local authority area have been excluded for (a) physical assault and (b) assault with a weapon in each of the last three years.

Statistics on pupil exclusion from school are collected biennially by the Scottish Government. Headline statistics for 2018-19 will be published on 10 December with further breakdowns published in March 2020. Information for 2016-17 is shown in the following table.

Pupils excluded for physical assault by local authority 2016/17
	Physical assault using improvised weapon	Physical assault using weapon	Physical assault with no weapon
Aberdeen City	14	16	198
Aberdeenshire	14	11	203
Angus	*	*	70
Argyll and Bute	*	*	31
Clackmannanshire	*	*	55
Dumfries and Galloway	13	8	90
Dundee City	12	15	120
East Ayrshire	12	9	132
East Dunbartonshire	*	*	21
East Lothian	12	5	97
East Renfrewshire	*	*	12
City of Edinburgh	22	18	235
Na h-Eileanan Siar	*	*	6
Falkirk	17	10	98
Fife	26	18	237
Glasgow City	44	58	373
Highland	19	*	154
Inverclyde	*	*	30
Midlothian	9	*	95
Moray	10	8	72
North Ayrshire	10	7	41
North Lanarkshire	34	14	261
Orkney Islands	*	*	*
Perth and Kinross	18	*	108
Renfrewshire	12	7	82
Scottish Borders	7	5	60
Shetland Islands	*	*	*
South Ayrshire	7	*	60
South Lanarkshire	24	19	195
Stirling	5	5	42
West Dunbartonshire	13	11	87
West Lothian	13	25	218
All local authorities	378	294	3,492

Note: Where pupils are excluded multiple times they are only counted once for each exclusion reason. ‎ * denotes counts of fewer than 5 pupils, or values that may allow a count of under five to be calculated.

Question reference: S5O-03738

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on north east road infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S5W-25888

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what specific financial support is offered to older people to offset any rise in the cost of (a) heating expenses during winter and (b) council tax.

Warmer Homes Scotland is the Scottish Government’s national scheme to help households living in, or most at risk of, fuel poverty. It provides insulation and renewable heating systems to qualifying households. People who are of pension age, have no working heating system and who are in receipt of a qualifying benefit can receive assistance. Those over the age of 75 need only be in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

More than 175,000 people aged over 65 (37% of all recipients) currently receive support through the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme. CTR provides up to 100% reduction of a household’s council tax liability depending on their circumstances, income and savings.

Question reference: S5O-03728

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to replace HMP Barlinnie.