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-09737

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the minutes of all meetings of the Zero Emissions Truck Taskforce.

Question reference: S6W-09730

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last carried out an assessment of the adequacy of rest and welfare facilities in Scotland for HGV drivers.

Question reference: S6W-09626

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what operating company will run the maintenance and management of trunk roads across the north east of Scotland from the start of the new contract period, and for what reasons has the decision been taken to appoint that company.

Amey OW Ltd has been awarded the Network Maintenance Contract for the North East Unit. This contract will begin on 16 August and run for 8 years, with a potential to extend for a further 4 years. The procurement process was carried out in compliance with the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2015 (the Regulations) in a fair, equal and transparent manner, Amey OW Ltd being identified as the successful tender in accordance with the competition rules as advertised within the Contract Notice and all competition documentation.

Question reference: S6W-09750

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 29 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 7,780 jobs created or safeguarded through inward investment in financial year 2021-22, as highlighted by Scottish Development International statistics, were (a) jobs created and (b) jobs safeguarded.

For the financial year 2021-22, Scottish Development International (SDI) and its partners recorded 3721 new jobs and 4059 safeguarded jobs. These job numbers only cover the projects or companies that were directly supported or assisted by SDI. While the Scottish Government are not able to collect data on all jobs created in Scotland as a result of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the recently published EY Attractiveness Survey 2022 estimates projected jobs created in Scotland from FDI to be around 10,000 in 2021.

In spite of the challenging economic climate of the past two years, Scotland has continued its strong performance in attracting Foreign Direct Investment. The EY recent results shows Scotland’s FDI projects (in calendar year 2021) outpaced Europe and the rest of the UK – Scottish projects were up by 14% from 2020, compared to 5.4% increase in Europe and 1.8% increase in UK. This resulted in a record number of FDI projects in Scotland, 122 projects in 2021, up from 107 projects in 2020. Scotland maintained its position as the top performing FDI region or nation of the UK, outside of London, for the 7th year running. The benefits of our approach are being felt right across the country with five of Scotland’s cities/towns in the top 20 UK locations for investment, and Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in the top 10 UK cities.

These are fantastic results for Scotland and shows that our Inward Investment Plan is working. It also demonstrates the importance of FDI in supporting the ambitions set out in our National Strategy for Economic Transformation, by attracting high quality inward investment and technologies required in areas such as Energy Transition, Decarbonisation of Transport and Space.

Question reference: S6W-09478

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to translate the full 72-page publication, Independence in the Modern World. Wealthier, Happier, Fairer: Why Not Scotland?, into other languages.

Question reference: S6W-09557

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement that local authorities will have the power to run bus services, whether this will affect the entitlement to free bus travel for people who currently receive it.

Question reference: S6W-09767

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09142 by Mairi Gougeon on 6 July 2022, for what reasons it has taken over one year for the report on bird stomach contents to be finalised and published.

Question reference: S6W-09734

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates the industry advisory group for talent has met, and when it is next due to meet.

Question reference: S6W-09732

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government who sits on the industry advisory group for talent.

Membership of the Industry Advisory Group for rUK Talent Attraction comprises:

Shona Artale; Q 2 Solutions (Life Sciences); Justin Black; Hays (Recruitment); Craig Clark; Space Scotland (Space Sector); Mark Cowan; Scottish Leather Group (Advanced Manufacture: Mechanical); Shona Darroch; Diodes (Advanced Manufacture: Electronic); Steven Grier; Microsoft (UK) (Tech Sector); Colin Halpin; Scottish Financial Enterprise (Financial Services); Gordon McGuinness; Skills Development Scotland (Skills Agency); Julie Morrison; Scottish Enterprise (Enterprise Agency); Sarah Ronald; Nile HQ (FinTech); Greig Rooney; Valneva (Inward Investment); Ross Tuffee; Digital Technology Skills Group (Tech Sector); and Morag Watson; Scottish Renewables (Renewables).

Question reference: S6W-09735

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in connection with the industry advisory group for talent, what locations in the rest of the UK have been identified as places to seek to attract talent from, and which specific skills it is seeking to attract from each of those locations.