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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-40474

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the original commitment of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project to spend £200 million by 2026 to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, whether it will confirm (a) how much has been spent by the project so far, and on what specific areas of work, (b) what the projected final cost of the project is and (c) by what date (i) work on the project will be completed and (ii) the reduced journey times will be fully operational.

To 19/7/2025, £24.5m has been spent on schemes to reduce journey times between Aberdeen on the central Belt.

This includes £6.8m on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. This was a nine-month programme of alignment work to replace a curved section of track by installing a new single line and also remodelling the junction at Barnhill by replacing switches and crossings.

The remainder of the spend has been on design development of a package of enhancements to improve capacity and journey time including: Signalling works, enhancements at Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and Dundee stations, and freight loops.

The estimated cost of constructing all of the interventions necessary to deliver the project outputs sought by the project reference group is estimated at £242 million.

Delivery timescales for the project remain under review. It is planned that project delivery and thus benefit delivery will be staged to align with planned Network Rail renewals and other enhancement schemes such as Fife Electrification and replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.

Question reference: S6W-40376

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services have been (a) cancelled, (b) part-cancelled and (c) delayed by at least (i) one minute, (ii) 15 minutes, (iii) 30 minutes and (iv) 60 minutes in (A) each of the last three financial years and (B) 2025-26 to date, and how many of these were attributed to (1) air conditioning/cooling failures, (2) other rolling-stock defects, (3) train crew availability, (4) infrastructure or signalling faults, (5) the weather and (6) other causes, also broken down by ScotRail service group.

Question reference: S6T-02667

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Nuclear Industry Association's reported view that Scotland will miss out on thousands of new jobs due to its stance on nuclear energy.

Question reference: S6W-39595

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers last met with (a) Shell UK Limited, (b) ExxonMobil, (c) the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and (d) the Health and Safety Executive to discuss the Mossmorran complex, and what issues were discussed on each occasion.

The former Minister for Climate Action last met with representatives of the Shell Natural Gas Liquids plant, and Exxonmobil Fife Ethylene Plant on 28 October 2024. The Minister discussed with the businesses, their views on Just Transition planning, their long-term plans, as well as wider matters regarding participation in the Acorn project and engagement with the UK Government regarding the Track process.

Scottish Government Ministers have not met with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or the Health and Safety Executive in that last 4 years to specifically discuss the Mossmorran industrial complex.

Question reference: S6W-39597

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 1 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received on which upstream fields supply feedstock directly to the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant, and how many tonnes each field supplied in financial years (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24, (c) 2024-25 and (d) 2025 to date.

Question reference: S6W-39605

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 29 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to the UK Government regarding (a) the regulation of prices and (b) supply chains for (i) heating oil and (ii) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) serving rural communities in Scotland since 1 January 2020, and what response it has received.

Heating oil and liquified petroleum gas supply chains and energy price regulation are reserved matters. The Scottish Government continues to engage constructively with the UK Government on a regular basis, including on the need to ensure that all energy consumers are suitably considered and protected in matters of regulation and use of reserved policy powers.

High energy prices remain the single greatest driver of fuel poverty. The Social Tariff Working Group recommended that all fuel types should be covered by a social tariff mechanism. This should include support for those using alternative fuels with off-grid consumers treated equitably to those on-grid. This support may be more appropriately delivered via a separate scheme.

We have consistently offered to work with the UK Government to ensure that adequate support is provided to those that need it the most.

Question reference: S6W-39598

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received on how many tonnes of (a) propane, (b) butane and (c) natural gasoline were exported from the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant in each of the last three financial years.

According to the most recently available data provided to Fife Council by Shell, the total tonnes of natural gas liquids processed at the plant were: FY 2021-22: 2 million, FY 2022-23: 1.9 million and FY 2023-2024 1.9 million. The total number of shipments of propane were 19 in 2021-22, 16 in 2022-23 and 17 in 2023-24; for butane the figures were 15 for 2021-22, 23 for 2022-23 and 20 for 2023-24; for mixed propane butane – 22 for 2021-22, 3 for 2022-23 and 5 for 2023-24 and for gasoline the number of vessels was 27 for 2021-22, 36 for 2022-23 and 36 for 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-39602

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on how the continued operation of the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant aligns with Scotland’s statutory greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

In 2023, Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant produced around 0.1MtCO2e, or around 1.5% of Scotland’s industrial emissions. Scotland’s pathway to net-zero will require all polluting businesses to decarbonise over the next two decades where feasible. For Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be a crucial enabling decarbonisation technology. This hugely depends on the development of the Acorn CCS project, which is still waiting on a final decision and the full funding package from the UK Government.

Question reference: S6W-39601

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic contribution of the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant to the Fife economy, including (a) direct employment, (b) supply-chain expenditure and (c) gross value added, in each of the last three calendar years.

Question reference: S6W-39604

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on levels of fuel poverty in rural communities of the recent price trends of (a) heating oil and (b) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and what measures it has identified to mitigate any such impact.

The Scottish Government's most recent fuel poverty scenario modelling is for the July to September 2025 period under an Ofgem price cap of £1,720 for the typical dual fuel household. This analysis estimated a national fuel poverty rate of 32% (820,000 households) and an extreme fuel poverty rate of 17% (420,000 households).

When broken down by 6 fold rural urban classification 33% of rural households (140,000) were estimated to be in fuel poverty. Table 1 below breaks down the fuel poverty rate by 6 fold rural urban classification for all scenario modelling periods from January 2024 to present, as well as the 2022 and 2023 SHCS key findings figures. However, this modelling does not fully account for recent changes in the prices of alternative fuels such as LPG.

The Scottish Government has no powers over energy pricing which is reserved to the UK Government.

We are concerned that many rural consumers, who rely on unregulated alternative fuels to heat their homes and power their businesses, are not protected from price shocks and market volatility. That is why we continue to call on the UK Government to deliver a social tariff in the form of an automatic and targeted discount - including for those using alternative fuels - to address unaffordable bills at source. We have written to the UK Government sharing our Social Tariff Working Group’s recommendations and seeking urgent delivery of this crucial policy. The powers to implement this remain with the UK Government and we are committed to working closely with them, Ofgem, suppliers and consumer organisations, to advocate for the delivery of a social tariff across Great Britain.

Table 1: Fuel poverty rates by rural urban classification

Urban/Rural Classification	2022 SHCS	2023 SHCS	Jan to Mar 24	Apr to Jun 24	Jul to Sep 24	Oct to Dec 24	Jan to Mar 25	Apr to Jun 25	Jul to Sep 25
Large urban areas	31	33	33	32	30	32	33	34	32
Other urban areas	28	35	34	32	30	33	33	34	33
Accessible small towns	34	32	30	25	23	28	28	31	28
Remote small towns	34	41	43	40	38	41	41	42	41
Urban Subtotal	30	34	34	31	29	32	33	34	32
Accessible rural	30	31	29	27	26	28	28	28	28
Remote rural	47	44	44	43	42	43	43	44	43
Rural Subtotal	47	35	36	33	31	33	33	33	33
All	31	34	34	32	30	32	33	34	32

Notes

1.The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size.