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-06998

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd identified any issues with the cabling for MV Glen Sannox prior to the week ending 24 December 2021.

Question reference: S6W-07060

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many full single building assessments (a) have been completed and (b) will be completed by the end of the financial year 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-06966

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is a signatory to an Openreach Fibre Community Partnership programme, in light of its announcement of 14 December 2020 regarding the contract with Openreach worth £384 million for the R100 North of Scotland Lot.

The Scottish Government is not a signatory to Openreach’s Fibre Community Partnership programme. The Fibre Community Partnership is a commercial offering, and has no direct link to the £384 million R100 North contract. As a registered supplier for the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, Openreach could choose to use the programme to deliver a solution for a community through aggregation of vouchers. However, I understand that they have currently paused registrations for the programme as a result of high demand.

Question reference: S6W-07032

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-05516 and S6W-05517 by Lorna Slater on 24 January 2022, what emissions have been modelled for incineration with energy recovery as part of its Greenhouse Gas Inventory reports to date.

Question reference: S6W-07006

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to planning guidelines to prevent power disruption, in light of the disruption caused by recent storms across Scotland.

Resilience of the Energy Sector is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government. Following the severe disruption caused by recent storms across Scotland the Scottish Government has fed in to independent reviews undertaken by BEIS and Ofgem.

Draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) is clear that new, and alterations to existing buildings, infrastructure and spaces should be designed to be adaptable to future impacts of climate change. The draft acknowledges risks from climate change including those from extreme weather. Furthermore it supports in principle development proposals for enabling works for transmission and distribution infrastructure and energy storage including battery storage.

The draft NPF4 is currently subject to Scottish Parliamentary scrutiny, alongside a public consultation, prior to a finalised version being presented for Scottish Parliament approval. We are working towards laying a final version of NPF4 in the Parliament for approval this summer, following which it will be adopted by the Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S6W-07005

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential disruption caused by storms, what consideration it is giving to undergrounding electrical cables in areas that are at low risk of storm surge or flooding but are vulnerable to damage from high winds.

Resilience of the Electricity Sector is reserved and therefore the responsibility of the UK Government.

Both BEIS and Ofgem have published their post-incident reviews/interim reports on Storm Arwen. The UK Government interim report on Storm Arwen review considers the issue of underground cables on p.10 and Ofgems Review into the networks’ response to Storm Arwen – Interim Report on page 16.

The Scottish Government contributed to both these reviews and will carefully consider the findings to understand where improvements could be made. We will continue to track progress against these recommendations.

We will also continue to press the UK Government, industry and the regulator for assurance that increased resilience of the electricity networks in Scotland is a priority.

Question reference: S6W-06828

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many children were on foster home waiting lists in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-06652

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-30436 by Michael Matheson on 27 July 2020, whether it remains committed to the memorandum of understanding that it signed with Heathrow Airport, and what further consideration it has given to withdrawing from it, in light of the reported comments in October 2021 of Lord Deben, the chair of the Climate Change Committee, that “there is not any space for airport expansion”.

Question reference: S6W-06653

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee in its sixth carbon budget advice for the aviation sector that “there should be no net expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory and can accommodate the additional demand”, what its assessment is of whether this test (a) is currently being met and (b) will be met in the future, and if so, by what date; and what the implications are of this for its memorandum of understanding with Heathrow Airport to support the building of a third runway.

COVID-19 has reduced the number of flights to/from Scotland and resulted in a sharp decrease in aviation emissions. As we work with the aviation sector to restore and grow the connectivity which is essential to Scotland’s economy, we are committed to doing so without restoring previous levels of emissions.

In the short term, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation. Longer term hydrogen/electric aircraft could play an important role, and we remain committed to working to decarbonise all scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040.

Regarding the implications for Heathrow expansion, it is for the UK Government to respond to the Climate Change Committee recommendations for airports in England. The Scottish Government has been clear that the expansion of the UK’s only global hub airport should deliver economic benefits for all the nations of the UK, which is why the memorandum of understanding remains in place.

Question reference: S6W-06701

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on which date it expects to have concluded the (a) Community Needs and (b) Market Assessment on all routes in the contract for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service, and whether Transport Scotland has tendered any contracts for this work.

These assessments will be undertaken as part of work on the Scottish Government's Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP). Community needs assessments establish the level of transport connectivity required by each island and remote mainland community within scope of ICP and will update assessments undertaken for the Ferries Plan 2013-2022. Market assessments consider whether the required level of transport connectivity can be provided without government intervention.

The exact timescales for these assessments is still to be determined. We aim to make significant progress with these assessments during 2022 and conclude any outstanding work during 2023. Priority is currently being given to assessments required to support the business cases for live vessel and port investment projects.

Transport Scotland has not yet invited tenders for work on any of these assessments. It is expected that the work will be undertaken utilising both internal staff resource and external consultancy.