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: S6O-00476

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the local authority funding allocations are for the Scottish Attainment Challenge, following the review of the programme.

Question reference: S6O-00485

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with NHS Fife and Fife Council about delayed discharges and winter pressures.

Question reference: S6O-00483

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the UK Government to discuss infrastructure projects of importance to Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00482

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage a modal shift to increase train passenger numbers and journeys.

Question reference: S6O-00480

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to older people who may face financial hardship over the winter months due to the rising cost of living.

Question reference: S6O-00481

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards cutting emissions by 75% by 2030.

Question reference: S6O-00484

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support is in place for parents who experience stillbirth.

Question reference: S6W-04367

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that tenants’ unions will be represented on the proposed tenant participation panel.

Initial work is underway to support the establishment of a PRS tenant participation panel. The first phase of this work is focusing on hearing from PRS tenants in developing our draft Rented Sector Strategy consultation document. As part of this, we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and through the Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service exploring tenants’ priorities for change.

This initial work, alongside engagement with tenant organisations, including tenants’ unions, such as Living Rent who the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights met with in September, will help to inform the longer term establishment of the panel and recruit participants.

Question reference: S6W-04355

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many electric cars have been sold in each of the last five years, how the percentage of cars that are electric compared to those that use other fuels has changed over the last five years, what incentives will be put in place to encourage drivers to switch to electric cars and what (a) funding and (b) support is being provided to (i) local authorities and (ii) businesses seeking to install electric charging points.

The Department for Transport (DfT) publish annual figures on their website on the number of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) registered in the UK, a link can be found here Cars (VEH02) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . This data does not provide a breakdown of EV’s registered per region, data is only available per region on the total number of vehicles registered across all propulsion groups.

The following table which includes the total number of EV's registered in the UK over the last 5 years and the market share they represent.

Year	BEV/Unknown (Thousands)	Market Share	Non-BEV/Unknown (Thousands)	Market Share
2016	10.7	0.40%	2713.1	99.60%
2017	14.0	0.50%	2550.3	99.50%
2018	15.8	0.70%	2378.2	99.30%
2019	38.1	1.60%	2308.5	98.40%
2020	108.0	6.50%	1548.4	93.50%

BEV - Battery Electric Vehicles, Unknown - Ultra Low Emission Vehicles not Petrol/Diesel.

Since 2014 the Scottish Government has supported decarbonisation of fleets in local authorities. As part of our overall Fleets funding of almost £50 million we have provided over £30 million of funding to local authorities to enable the procurement of over 2,300 zero and ultra-low emission vehicles as well as charging and refuelling infrastructure.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government through the Energy Saving Trust (EST) have funded the Low Carbon Transport Loan (LCTL) which provides an interest free loan to support individuals and businesses across Scotland purchase new EV’s. To date this scheme have helped over 5100 individuals and businesses across Scotland make the switch to ultra-low emission vehicles by providing loan funding of over £140 million.

The Scottish Government has made grant funding available for installing Domestic (Home) Chargepoints. Since this scheme launched the Scottish Government has supported the installation of almost 12,000 domestic chargepoints to a value of almost £10 million.

The Scottish Government has made grant funding available through the Business Chargepoint Fund to support organisations install EV charging infrastructure on their premises for use by occupiers, staff and visitors. Since 2011 the Scottish Government through this fund has supported almost 1300 businesses with grants worth over £9 million to install EV chargepoints.

To further support the uptake of EV’s, the Scottish Government has invested over £50 million in the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network, which now has over 2000 publicly available chargepoints located around Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-04422

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for benefits have been rejected by Social Security Scotland, broken down by the type of benefit that was applied for.

Social Security Scotland routinely publish official statistics publications on each of the devolved benefits at:https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications

For benefits where clients can apply to Social Security Scotland, published statistics include information on the number of applications received and the outcomes of applications, including the number that have been rejected. The latest publication for each benefit can be found at:

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods statistics to 31 August 2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/best-start-grant-and-best-start-foods-high-level-statistics-to-31-august-2021

Funeral Support Payment statistics to 30 September 2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/funeral-support-payment-high-level-statistics-to-30-september-2021

Young Carer Grant statistics to 31 July 2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/young-carer-grant-high-level-statistics-to-31-july-2021

Job Start Payment statistics to 30 September 2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/job-start-payment-high-level-statistics-to-30-september-2021

Scottish Child Payment statistics to 30 June 2021

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/scottish-child-payment-high-level-statistics-to-30-june-2021