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-00242

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure the full recovery of mental health services following the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 8 October, we published Scotland’s Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan . The plan commits to developing a renewal programme for mental health services, to support Covid-19 recovery. This includes a tailored programme of enhanced improvement support for those NHS Boards with the longest waits to address backlogs and recover Mental Health performance over 2021-22.

The plan is backed by a £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, which takes our total spend on mental health in 2021-22 in excess of £1.2 billion. It will prioritise our ongoing work to improve specialist CAMHS services, address long waiting times, and clear waiting list backlogs.

Question reference: S6W-00075

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its planned spending on walking, cycling and wheeling over the next parliamentary year, until May 2022.

Spend on walking, wheeling and cycling increased to £115.5 million in 2021-22 and is budgeted over the financial year, rather than the parliamentary year. The budget for active travel is presented in the following table on the basis of the published Level 4 budgets:

Active Travel Budget	2021-22 (£m)
From Sustainable and Active Travel Capital	74.4
From Sustainable and Active Travel Resource	6.3
From Future Transport Fund - Cycling Infrastructure	10.9
Local Government Capital Grant - Cycling Walking Safer Routes	23.9
Total	115.5

Question reference: S6W-00091

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many children in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency it estimates will be included in the roll-out of the Scottish Child Payment to 16-year-olds.

Using the latest available forecasts published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in January 2021, Scottish Government analysis estimates there could be up to 3,500 children potentially eligible for the payment in Airdrie and Shotts in 2023-24 (the first full financial year of the payment for under 16s). The number of children receiving the payment in Airdrie and Shotts is likely to be around 2,600 in that year - this is a separate forecast based on the take-up assumptions for the payment.

Question reference: S6W-00173

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what due diligence it undertook prior to agreeing (a) the initial Lochaber Contingent Liability with the GFG Alliance and (b) the revised business plan.

Question reference: S6W-00175

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter of 11 February 2021 from the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy to the Finance and Constitution Committee, whether it will provide a breakdown of the commercial fees (a) received and (b) it expects to receive in future, and the dates and value of these fees.

Question reference: S6W-00198

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to Glasgow City, on what date it was informed that the B.1.617 strain of COVID-19 was (a) a variant of interest or (b) under investigation, and on what date it was informed that it was a variant of concern.

The B.1.617.2 variant (subtype of the B.1.617 variant) of SARS-CoV-2, cases of which have been identified in Glasgow, was classified as a variant under investigation (VUI-21APR-02) on 28 April 2021. It was escalated to a variant of concern on 6 May 2021 (VOC-21APR-02).

Upon escalation, the Scottish Government worked with public health officials and have monitored the progress of this variant and have deployed appropriate measures where cases have been identified.

Coronavirus variants are classified a variant under investigation or variant of concern for the whole UK by Public Health England working with the other Public Health Agencies.

Question reference: S6W-00172

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the milestone payment scheduled for March 2021 was delivered by the GRG Alliance to the Scottish Government-controlled project account, as reported to the Finance and Constitution Committee by the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy in a letter of 11 February 2021; how much the payment was scheduled to be worth, and whether this was met in full.

Milestone payments are inter-company payments related to planned investment at the Lochaber smelter and are not payments due to the Scottish Government. No payments due from GFG Alliance companies to the Scottish Government are outstanding. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, we do not publish details of compliance with commercial contractual terms although such information may be shared in confidence with the Finance and Constitution Committee where appropriate.

Question reference: S6W-00084

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35339 by Roseanna Cunningham on 25 February 2021, whether it will provide an update on the steps it is taking to improve the response times for enquiries to SEPA, given that responses to some routine enquiries are reported to be taking in excess of six months.

Following the criminal cyber-attack on SEPA in December 2020, the Scottish Government is working with SEPA, Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, to a clear recovery strategy in response to a complex and sophisticated cyber-attack.

As part of this recovery strategy, frontline regulatory and flood warning services continue to be prioritised. SEPA’s Floodline and Pollution Hotline contact points continue to operate. The agency has increased resource to respond to customer enquiries, with customer enquiry backlogs, in areas such as environmental incident and permitting, being cleared.

SEPA has advised that regulatory teams have been deployed on over 170 occasions since January. Furthermore, 154 flood guidance statements have been issued and over 1045 regional flood alerts and local flood warnings have been issued.

SEPA has reported that since January, over 1,650 industrial pollution prevention and control, water environment, waste and other authorisations have been issued, with new high volume online services introduced for registrations of septic tanks. The Agency has completed or is progressing 304 planning cases to support Scotland’s recovery, engaging with 33 of 39 local councils to date.

Question reference: S6W-00113

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to support homeowners who are facing difficulties in selling their properties due to building cladding.

Homeowners whose flats have external cladding are being offered a safety assessment, costs of the ‘Single Building Assessment’ announced on 19 March will be met by the Scottish Government. The whole building approach, will release affected buyers and sellers from difficulties in accessing mortgages without them having to pay for the current External Wall System (EWS1) Report on their individual property.
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The phased approach to the introduction of SBA, started on 31 March with an invitation to affected homeowners to submit data about their buildings and ‘expression of interest’ in participating in a pilot exercise in June.

Where problems are identified with the cladding system in place this will help to identify the scale of funding needed to take necessary remedial work. Where problems are not identified, this will assist with the property sale process.

Question reference: S6W-00174

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 2 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will immediately conduct a review of its agreements, documentation and contacts with the GFG Alliance in light of reports that the Serious Fraud Office has initiated an investigation into the GFG Alliance.