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-05938

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average length of time is between screening appointments for women aged between 50 and 70 eligible for the Breast Cancer Screening Programme, broken down by NHS board.

The data is not available in the format requested as the Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is delivered from six screening centres, each covering a designated population. It should be noted that the data provided below is management information that has not been subject to the quality checks that are normally applied on a statistical publication.

For women aged 53-70 years who were screened between 1st April 2020 and 31st January 2021, the average interval between screening episodes was 41 months across Scotland. The average interval between screening episodes across each screening centre was as follows:

East – 46 months

North – 40 months

North East – 42 months

South East – 41 months

West – 38 months

South West – 39 months

Question reference: S6W-06897

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-06459

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05508 by Michael Matheson on 4 February 2022, in light of it not being able to detail what impact the closure of Hunterston B and Torness nuclear power stations will have on consumer energy bills, whether it can state what the price of electricity generated by each of them is.

Question reference: S6W-06401

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent support is being given to 14 fire stations identified as having the “potential for roof collapse” by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government is aware of the roof issues in the 14 fire stations, which are as a result of the materials used when the buildings were constructed by Local Authorities. SFRS has confirmed that remedial action has been taken in all 14 fire stations to ensure that the buildings are safe and that there are no immediate safety concerns.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with SFRS in relation to its resource and capital funding requirements but decisions on the use of those funds is a matter for SFRS.

Question reference: S6W-06416

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the proposed National Public Energy Agency will be operational; how many full-time dedicated staff it will employ; what its annual budget will be, and when it anticipates that the virtual agency will move to being a standalone organisation.

As set out in the Scottish Government's A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22, published on 7 September 2021, we made a commitment to create a National Public Energy Company. We will work to have a virtual agency established this year, and a dedicated physical agency by September 2025. The virtual agency will be in place throughout the transition period until the standalone Agency is in place.

This is an ongoing area of work, and as a first step we launched a consultation in December 2021 which closed on 8 February to help inform development of the design of the new body. Consultation responses are currently being analysed and further details will be released as the work evolves.

Question reference: S6W-06451

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when regulations will be laid to bring into force (a) section 1 (dealing with serious harm); (b) section 6 (dealing with publication on a matter of public interest), and (c) section 32 (dealing with the single publication provisions) of the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021.

Question reference: S6W-06304

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will ensure that local authorities are resourced and supported to tackle the climate emergency.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-05390 on 25 January 2022, the Scottish Government regularly engages with local authorities and the wider public sector, including through COSLA and the Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN), where current opportunities and challenges within local authority climate action are frequently discussed. Scottish Government officials also engage with the Improvement Service on the capacity needs of local authorities in delivering net zero.

For further detail on local authorities and the climate emergency, I refer the member to the answers to questions: S6W-05387 on 11 January 2022; S6W-05388, S6W-05389 and S6W-05390 on 25 January 2022; S6W-05391 on 11 January 2022; S6W-05627 on 21 January 2022; S6W-05753 on 3 February 2022; and S6W-05754 and S6W-05755 on 7 February 2022.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

Question reference: S6W-06331

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is possible for Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd or Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd to pay a dividend or make any other transfer of money to Scottish Water, and, if so, whether such a dividend or money transfer has ever been paid to Scottish Water.

It is possible for Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd to pay dividends to Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd and this has been done in the past. It is not possible for Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd to pay a dividend to Scottish Water as Scottish Water is not a direct shareholder and this has not happened in the past.

It is possible for Scottish Water Horizons Holdings Ltd to pay dividends to Scottish Water but this has not happened to date.

Question reference: S6W-06283

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to empower local authorities to introduce a Transient Visitor Levy; whether it will be for local authorities to decide (a) when and (b) how to use such a levy, and whether it will affect the distribution formula of the block grant to local authorities.

Work towards a draft bill to provide local authorities with a discretionary power to apply a visitor levy, including a series of roundtable stakeholder events and formal consultation, was at an advanced stage but was necessarily paused at the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in March 2020.

Our Budget confirmed that we would re-commence this work. Given the continuing impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector in Scotland, we consider it prudent to carefully review the work done to date and undertake further stakeholder engagement before making a firm decision on the next steps.

Question reference: S6W-06234

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it works with the Department for Work and Pensions to monitor the satisfaction and employee retention levels of (a) Universal Credit staff and (b) staff supporting Universal Credit service users in Scotland.