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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-03955

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many trees it has planted in each year since 2016, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-03947

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 8 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the time taken to complete a fatal accident inquiry into the death in custody of a young person, what is (a) the average time taken and (b) the longest time taken in each of the past five years.

The following table shows, in relation to deaths in prison where the deceased was aged 25 or younger, the average and longest time taken to conclude an FAI in each of the last five years. Days are calculated from the date of death to the date evidence at the FAI was concluded.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22 (as at 28 October 2021)
Total FAIs concluded in year	5	2	4	4	2	0
Average length (days)	883	935	1,132	733	568	0
Longest time to complete FAI (days)	1,428	1,236	1,549	1,091	647	0

Question reference: S6W-03766

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many eBike loans for key workers have been funded through the eBike Grant Fund to date.

Question reference: S6W-03763

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33521 by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020, whether it will provide figures for each month since November 2020 to date.

Successful and unsuccessful applications to Energy Saving Trust’s E-bike Loan Fund, broken down by month since November 2020, are summarised in the following table.

Month	Successful applications	Unsuccessful applications	Notes
Nov-20	64	2
Dec-20	43	4
Jan-21	55	2
Feb-21	64	3
Mar-21	87	14
Apr-21	64	11
May-21	74	13
Jun-21	72	9
Jul-21	53	5
Aug-21	84	5
Sep-21	50	4
Oct-21	0	0	Currently zero as update received late October

Question reference: S6W-03764

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33522 by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020, whether it will provide the figure for the year 2021-22 to date.

Question reference: S6W-03765

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33523 by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020, whether it will provide the (a) updated figure for 2020-21 and (b) figure for 2021-22 to date.

Funding allocations to the E-bike Loan Fund, and unallocated funds for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22 up until mid-October are summarised in the following table.

Financial Year	Funding	Unallocated	Notes
2020-21	£3,786,966	£879,833
2021-22	£3,800,000	£2,553,887	* up until 14 October 2021

The unallocated funds in 2020-21 are made up of loan repayments received by EST throughout the year. These have been taken into account by EST and will form part of any future financial transaction e-bike loan budget.

Question reference: S6W-03445

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes in each local authority area have been built through the (a) Rural Housing and (b) Islands Housing Fund.

Over the last Parliamentary term, over 6,000 affordable homes were delivered in rural and island areas across Scotland through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP). Between 1 April 2016 and latest published statistics to the end of June 2021, there has been a total of 100 affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund (RIHF), which forms part of the wider AHSP.

The fund is demand led and is open to a wide range of potential applicants, including those not able to access traditional funding streams such as community bodies, rural landowners, landlords and private developers. It complements existing investment in affordable housing directed through Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities, filling gaps in provision.

The following table shows affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund in rural and island communities by local authority area.

Affordable homes delivered through the Rural and Islands Housing Fund by Local Authority

Local Authority	Rural	Islands	Total Homes
Angus	6		6
Argyll and Bute		6	6
Dumfries and Galloway	9		9
Highland	36	6	42
Moray	6		6
Orkney		1	1
Perth and Kinross	16		16
Scottish Borders	8		8
South Lanarkshire	1		1
Western Isles		5	5
Total Homes	82	18	100

Question reference: S6O-00310

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to claims by the British Dental Association Scotland that “plans to return NHS practices to pre-COVID models of work may devastate dental services".

I have recently written to the profession about our plans for the recovery of NHS dental services.

Our commitment as a Government is to build back NHS dentistry, and ensure that NHS dental teams are focused on the need to tackle the backlog in routine dental care. Our NHS dental teams have been working hard throughout this pandemic in difficult circumstances, and it’s important that they feel supported by Government and representative bodies.

Which is why we have recently detailed a package of new improvements to support NHS dental teams, including new enhanced examination fees for all patients, both children and adults, with a particular emphasis on children and tackling oral health inequalities. This builds on recent announcements of £7.5m for new dental drills and £5m for ventilation improvements.

We want to build on what has been a hugely successful policy of protecting NHS dentistry during this pandemic period. We have provided £50m of financial support payments, in addition to between £30 and £35m of free PPE since the beginning of the pandemic, to ensure NHS dental services emerge well placed to care for the oral health of the population.

Question reference: S6W-03834

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its policy announcement on 15 October 2021 regarding trade support and promotion for the fossil fuel sector overseas differs from the UK Government’s strategy on this matter published in March 2021, and what its position is on whether it has sought to present the UK Government's policy as its own.

The Scottish Government first announced this policy regarding trade support and promotion for fossil fuel goods and services overseas, in January 2021 in Scotland’s Vision for Trade . This was in alignment with the 2019 Program for Government commitment to ensure all support for the Oil and Gas sector is conditional on enabling a sustainable energy transition.

Our policy cover note published on October 15 2021 explains the rationale for the decision to align with the UK Government’s guidance and relevant exemptions. This decision was made following wide stakeholder engagement and responds to strong feedback from stakeholders on the importance of technical alignment in order to avoid any unintended confusion for our agencies and the industry in the practical implementation of this policy.

Question reference: S6W-03444

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 04 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for how long it expects to extend the (a) Rural Housing and (b) Islands Housing Fund.

In November 2020, we announced that the Rural and Island Housing Fund would be extended beyond March 2021 with up to £30 million made available to support development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term.

The fund is part of the wider Affordable Housing Supply Programme which supports delivery of affordable homes across Scotland including in rural and island areas.