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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-08520

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what further plans it may bring forward to encourage young families to invest in home renewables and make more environmentally sustainable lifestyle choices.

We are committed to a Just Transition, reducing emissions from our homes and buildings in a way that leaves no one behind. Planned actions that will support a wide range of households, including young families, to invest in home renewables and make sustainable lifestyle choices include:

Introducing a standalone grant through the Home Energy Scotland support scheme, giving young families and other households more flexibility to tailor support for home renewables to their needs
Collaborating with a range of partners through the Green Heat Finance Taskforce on innovative mechanisms needed to ensure an affordable transition to zero emissions heating, for example, ‘heat as a service’ models
Developing a specific Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy that will increase awareness and understanding of the heat transition and the benefits it can deliver.

Heat in Buildings Strategy: https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-buildings-strategy-achieving-net-zero-emissions-scotlands-buildings/

Question reference: S6W-08519

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives, including financial support initiatives, it has in place to support young families to install renewable energy technologies in their homes.

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) provides interest-free loans and grant funding to improve the energy efficiency of homes in Scotland.

Funding is available in the form of interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback for eligible renewables measures, 40% cashback for eligible energy efficiency measures and in the form of grants through our Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty scheme.

Funding is available to all households who meet the eligible criteria.

To further support households to make their homes greener, HES also provide:

free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
the Green Homes Network which allows households to find out about the experience of others who have already installed measures; and
the Renewable Installer Finder Tool which helps households find installers and suppliers in their area.

Under the HES Loan and Cashback scheme, homeowners can borrow up to £17,500 for a total of two renewables measures (attracting up 75% cashback). For energy efficiency measures, loans of up to £15,000 is available (attracting up to 40% cashback).

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) is the Scottish Government’s national fuel poverty scheme, designed to make homes warmer for those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures into individual properties.

Home owners and private rented sector tenants struggling to heat their homes may benefit under the Warmer Homes Scheme. Heating measures are available to those in receipt of certain benefits and who are pregnant or with children under the age of 16 years.

Full details of both schemes can be found on the Home Energy Scotland website.

Question reference: S6W-08399

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, what plans it has to (a) encourage all communities in Scotland to embrace the planned shift towards electric vehicles and (b) prepare areas, such as East Ayrshire, that were highlighted in a recent study by Moneyshake as being the least prepared for the planned shift, through direct intervention.

I also refer the member to the answer to S6W-08398 on 23 May 2022. In addition to the £60m that will be invested through the EV Infrastructure Fund, the Scottish Government has provided a wide range of incentives to support the early uptake of electric vehicles including more than £145m loan funding to support vehicle purchase (of which £3.5m has gone to households and business in East Ayrshire) and over £50m investment in the ChargePlace Scotland Network of public chargepoints. Electric vehicles now make up a significant proportion of monthly car sales highlighting a rapidly developing and competitive market. This will create further opportunities and incentives for people and businesses across all of Scotland to shift to an electric vehicle.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-08398

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in order to prepare for the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, what plans it has to create more electric vehicle charging points in (a) general, (b) communities where drivers are least prepared for the change, (c) Ayrshire and (d) Dumfries and Galloway.

The Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network published in January provides the guiding vision on how Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network will continue to grow across Scotland in a fair and inclusive way.

The Scottish Government’s £60m Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, that aims to leverage at least half of this funding from private sector sources over the next 4 years, will target investment in growing the public charging network across all of Scotland in areas where commercial investment on its own is unviable. This year, Scottish Government funding has already been provided or is being made available to all of Scotland’s local authorities to develop public electric vehicle charge point strategies and expansion plans including the Ayrshire Councils as well as Dumfries and Galloway.

Question reference: S6W-08251

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Young Persons Allowance component of the Employability Fund will be continuing, and, if so, what criteria applicants must meet for this, and whether there are plans to change the criteria in the near future.

Through No One Left behind, we are delivering an all age approach to employability that is flexible and person centred. It promotes a strengthened partnership approach where the spheres of government work together with partners across the public, private and third sector to make informed, evidence based decisions on required support, flexing these to meet emerging labour market demands.

Phase 2 of No One Left Behind commenced in April 2022 with funding previously allocated to the Employability Fund and Community Jobs Scotland transferring from national to local governance.

Those participants aged 16-17 years old, and those aged 18 who are not in receipt of benefits, who are participating for between 10-30 hours per week will continue to be eligible to be paid a training allowance while undertaking training through No One Left Behind. There are no plans to change the criteria in the near future.

Question reference: S6W-08138

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the standards set out in NHS service specifications for rare and complex diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are adhered to, and to what extent these service specifications represent a statutory expectation of the minimum level of care that patients should expect to receive.

The National Services Division (NSD) of NHS National Services Scotland commission a number of highly specialised services in Scotland for patients who require investigation, treatment and ongoing follow up care for rare and complex conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis. Each designated service is subject to strict governance and performance reviews to ensure they maintain the highest possible standards of person-centred care across Scotland.

More information about specialist services is available on the NSD website: About specialist services | National Services Scotland (nhs.scot)

Where a formal review has been undertaken, a report of the review findings and recommendations is presented to both the National Patient, Professional and Public Reference Group (NPPPRG) and National Specialist Services Committee (NSSC) for scrutiny.

We have set out the wider policy within which NHS Scotland is expected to deliver services, and expect all NHS Boards to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred. Where there are specific issues that prevent them from doing so, robust processes are in place for NSD to provide support as required.

Question reference: S6W-07647

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any jobs related to the National Care Service are being recruited by Scotland Excel, and, if so, what these roles are.

Question reference: S6O-00992

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how Long COVID has been factored into its COVID-19 strategic review.

Question reference: S6O-00977

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to offer home fee status to Ukrainian refugees in Scotland, or those displaced following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Question reference: S6W-07646

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many government contracts KPMG has withdrawn from bidding for since renewed scrutiny of its practices in January 2022, and what these contracts were.

KPMG have advised that there are 23 contracts across Scottish Government public bodies that they would have considered bidding for, were it not for them having stepped back from bidding for Scottish Government work. The combined value of these opportunities is estimated to be over £137,000,000, but KPMG are not conducting internal assessments of these opportunities and so may not have bid for them all, and would be unlikely to have won everything that they bid-for.

As tenders are ongoing it would not be appropriate to list the contracts at this stage as, were bidders to understand that a potential competitor was not participating, it could distort the competition, either reducing quality or increasing costs to the public purse. However, the tenders cover a range of service types, including research, analytical services, business-planning, and economic modelling.