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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: S5W-33450

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund it rejected, and for what reasons.

Question reference: S5W-33451

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 9 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, on what dates the committee overseeing the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund has met since the announcement of the fund; whether it will place a copy of the minutes of all of these meetings in SPICe, and whether the committee has any plans to meet in the future.

The Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund was overseen by a recommendations panel consisting of representatives of the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Wave Energy Scotland. The panel met six times, including on a monthly basis between March and June 2019 and on two occasions thereafter to discuss applications and agree its recommendations to Scottish Ministers. In addition, the panel were consulted by correspondence throughout the assessment process. Given the commercial nature of the projects discussed, it would be inappropriate to place the minutes of meetings on SPICe. There are no plans for the panel to meet again, following the closure of the Fund to applications on 6 December 2019.

Question reference: S5W-33434

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many vehicles have been in the ministerial fleet in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many were ultra-low emission vehicles.

Question reference: S5W-33553

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 7 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government on what dates the Health and Justice Collaborative Improvement Board has met in 2020, and when it will next meet.

Question reference: S5W-33435

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the average processing time has been for applications to the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) membership scheme, for applications completed in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019 and (d) each month of 2020.

With the agreement of Ministers, Disclosure Scotland invoked business continuity plans in March this year, and since then has been dealing with two separate application channels: business as usual, and coronavirus work. Applications in relation to recruitment solely for coronavirus work have been and continue to be prioritised.

The average processing time for all types of PVG applications is set out in the table below. For 2017, 2018, 2019 and January and February 2020, all applications were business as usual. From March 2020 the separate application channels are shown, with the figure for November being to the date the information was compiled.

Time period		PVG applications completed	Average processing time in calendar days
2017 – calendar year		286,866	3.38
2018 – calendar year		277,535	3.34
2019 – calendar year		282,981	8.0
2020
January		20,311	5.60
February		21,340	6.85
March	Business as Usual	21,347	7.44
March	Coronavirus Work	3,976	2.18
April	Business as Usual	631	8.57
April	Coronavirus Work	15,445	0.91
May	Business as Usual	43	6.18
May	Coronavirus Work	11,384	0.41
June	Business as Usual	57	11.44
June	Coronavirus Work	12,932	1.09
July	Business as Usual	3,526	5.71
July	Coronavirus Work	10,817	1.19
August	Business as Usual	9,907	7.98
August	Coronavirus Work	3,106	1.97
September	Business as Usual	15,030	10.34
September	Coronavirus Work	1,922	2.39
October	Business as Usual	15,317	12.62
October	Coronavirus Work	2,133	3.26
November (to 20 th )	Business as Usual	14,331	19.27
November (to 20 th )	Coronavirus Work	1,293	1.74

Note 1: Average processing days for Business as Usual incorporates the time from when an application is received to when an application is received at print house and excludes exception and customer contact times.

Note 2: Average processing days for Coronavirus Work incorporates the time from when an application is started to the time an application is sent to print house. It excludes exception and customer contact times.

Note 3: From 23-03-2020 to 09-06-2020: All applications received were provided at no cost.

Note 4: From 09-06-2020: Reintroduction of Business as Usual for basic disclosure applications.

Note 5: From 26-06-2020: Reintroduction of Business as Usual for all applications types, including for the PVG Scheme.

Question reference: S5W-33523

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated each year by the interest-free loan scheme for the purchase of e-bikes since it was established, and how much was unallocated at the end of each year.

Question reference: S5W-33414

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the most recent travel restrictions, whether people living in England can travel to Scotland to attend wedding ceremonies and, if so, to which areas and levels of restrictions they are permitted to travel to for this purpose.

From 6pm on 20 November 2020, the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels (Scotland) Regulations 2020 restrict a person living in Scotland from leaving Scotland in order to travel to England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, unless they have a reasonable excuse.

Similarly, a person living in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland is restricted from entering or remaining in Scotland, unless they have a reasonable excuse.

The Regulations provide a non-exhaustive list of reasonable excuses. One example permits travel to attend a gathering which relates to a marriage ceremony or civil partnership registration.

This example permits people living in England, Northern Ireland, Wales or the Republic of Ireland to enter or remain in Scotland in order to attend such an event.

In Scotland, marriage ceremonies and civil partnership registrations can take place at all protection levels, subject to guidance on the numbers who should attend. Wedding receptions cannot currently take place in an area affected by Level 4 restrictions.

Restrictions and advice in place in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland may also affect whether an individual can or should travel to Scotland, including for a marriage or civil partnership. Restrictions and advice in place in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are not matters for the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-33521

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applications there have been in respect of the interest-free loan scheme for the purchase of e-bikes, broken down by each (i) year since it was launched and (ii) month in 2020.

Successful and unsuccessful applications to the E-bike Loan Fund broken down by year, and month in 2020, is summarised in the following table.

(i)	(a)	(b)
Financial Year	Successful applications	Unsuccessful applications	Notes
2018-19	298	49	E-bike loan started June 2018
2019-20	614	147
2020-21	852	89	Up until the 29th November 2020

(ii)
Month	Successful applications	Unsuccessful applications	Notes
Jan-20	65	15
Feb-20	59	10
Mar-20	39	5
Apr-20	62	10
May-20	166	19
Jun-20	182	19
Jul-20	108	10
Aug-20	112	8
Sep-20	91	10
Oct-20	69	7
Nov-20	21	1	Up until 29th November 2020

Question reference: S5W-33522

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the median annual income of successful applicants to the e-bike loan fund has been in each year since it was introduced.

Question reference: S5W-33436

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 December 2020

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.

The following table shows the number of people assisted by the SPS Throughcare Support Service for each month during 2017, 2018 and 2019 up to July.

	2017	2018	2019
January	76	88	75
February	103	85	80
March	133	96	99
April	111	89	93
May	114	101	88
June	125	98	91
July	103	96	79
August	96	89
September	101	92
October	98	120
November	115	84
December	111	101
Total	1286	1139	605

Financial Year	Funding	Unallocated	Notes
2018-19	£900,000	£0
2019-20	£1,480,000	£0
2020-21	£2,786,966	£430,931	Up until 25th Nov. Full use of funding is forecast.

Year	Number of ULEV’s on fleet	Total number of vehicles on fleet (1)
15-16	2	25
16-17	3	25
17-18	4	27
18-19	13	33
19-20	21	41

Financial Year	Median Annual Income
2018-19	£28,200.00
2019-20	£27,600.00
2020-21	£28,848.00