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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-02334

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an update to Cycling by Design.

Question reference: S6W-02155

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the climate emergency is a material consideration in Scotland's planning system.

All planning applications are required to be determined in accordance with the relevant development plan unless material planning considerations justify a departure from the development plan.

Whilst it is for decision makers to decide what considerations are material to, and what weight to attach to each consideration in, the determination of a planning application, Scottish Government Planning Policy is a significant material consideration in the planning system.

Currently, our National Planning Framework 3 and Scottish Planning Policy aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate adaptation to climate change. Responding to the global climate emergency is at the heart of the preparation of National Planning Framework 4, that we will lay in Parliament and consult on widely this autumn.

Question reference: S6O-00086

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with the UK Government regarding the UK seasonal workers scheme.

Question reference: S6W-02333

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on car parking arrangements at Ninewells Hospital.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside have concluded agreements to buyout the PFI car park contracts for the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, respectively. As a result, these car parks have now come under the direct control of the NHS and the Scottish Government’s policy of free hospital car parking for patients, staff and visitors will continue to apply.

Negotiations for NHS Lothian to buyout the PFI car park contract for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh are at an advanced stage with an agreement expected to be reached in the coming months. Car parking charges there remain suspended as a result of an arrangement reached with the PFI operator in March 2020 and the Scottish Government does not expect them to be reintroduced.

Question reference: S5W-36241

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its energy efficiency investment in housing in Dundee in each year since 2016, also broken down by area.

Question reference: S5W-36247

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Dundee to support active travel in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S5W-36248

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Dundee to support the expansion of zero and low carbon transport in each year since 2016.

The answer refers to funding for low or zero carbon road transport. It does not cover funding for areas such as active travel.

Since 2016 we have awarded £12.3m of funding for low carbon transport projects through initiatives such as the Local Authority Installation Programme, Switched on Towns and Cities, Switched on Fleets and our Low Carbon Travel and Transport Programme. Funds have been awarded to Dundee City Council and other organisations across the public and private sectors, such as Xplore Dundee who were awarded £1.9m of funding this year through the Scottish Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS) for the purchase of 12 ultra-low emission busses and the associated infrastructure.

Scottish Government is also working in partnership with the seven Scottish cities through the Scottish Cities Alliance (SCA) to support its decarbonisation ambitions. Dundee are working with Transport Scotland on the transport element of this transition, focused on the switchover to zero-emission city fleets and public transport. Scottish Government are working closely with all City partners, including Dundee, on a Funding and Investment Strategy for Net Zero.

The breakdown of funding since financial year 2015-2016 is as follows

2015-2016 - £214,715

2016-2017 - £202,871

2017-2018 - £73,455

2018-2019 - £1,995,736

2019-2020 - £6,761,349

2020-2021 - £3,053,353

Total - £12,301,479

We will continue to support opportunities to capitalise on these and future investments, growing the local and wider Scottish economy, creating quality and lasting employment opportunities across Scotland and supported by ongoing developments around the impressive and strategically important Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) site where innovation in low carbon transport solutions, particularly in hydrogen, is emerging as a speciality. This builds on £3 million of funding provided by Transport Scotland in 2019 to Dundee City Council to support hydrogen project activities.

Question reference: S5W-36245

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial support it has provided to higher and further education students in Dundee in each year since 2016.

Student support funding provided to further education students at Dundee and Angus College:

Academic Year	Total Funding
2015-16	£6,753,116
2016-17	£7,203,208
2017-18	£7,622,562
2018-19	£8,957,814
2019-20	£9,230,814
2020-21	£10,107,293

Student support funding provided to higher education students at Dundee and Angus College:

Academic Year	Total Funding
2015-16	£10,087,381
2016-17	£10,391,974
2017-18	£10,054,356
2018-19	£10,236,983
2019-20	£10,089,198

Student support funding provided to higher education students at the University of Dundee:

Academic Year	Total Funding
2015-16	£44,218,314
2016-17	£48,064,256
2017-18	£51,261,390
2018-19	£51,750,576
2019-20	£55,364,040

Student support funding provided to higher education student at the University of Abertay:

Academic Year	Total Funding
2015-16	£20,641,300
2016-17	£20,664,521
2017-18	£21,841,921
2018-19	£23,849,838
2019-20	£24,237,678

To note:

- Figures for further education student funding provided by the Scottish Funding Council.

- Figures for higher education student funding provided by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)

- Figures for higher education funding in the 2020-21 academic year will be published by SAAS in Autumn 2021.

Question reference: S5W-36250

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 22 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to Dundee from the Town Centre Fund in each year since its creation in 2019-20.

Question reference: S5W-36242

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Dundee have received each of the social security benefits administered by Social Security Scotland in each year since 2016, also broken down by the total amount administered through each of the benefits.

Social Security Scotland was established in September 2018.

The number of carers in receipt of Carer's Allowance Supplement in Dundee City by financial year are:

	Carers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance Supplement
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	Total since September 2018
Carer's Allowance Supplement	2,785	2,885	2,925	3,700

The amount of Carer’s Allowance Supplement paid in Dundee City by financial year is:

	Value of payments (£)
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	Total since September 2018
Carer's Allowance Supplement	1,125,000	1,197,000	1,884,000	4,207,000

The number of applications authorised for payment in Dundee City by financial year and benefit are:

	Applications authorised for payment 1
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21 (up to published date)	Total since September 2018
Best Start Grant/Best Start Foods 5	445	3,115	1,935	5,495
Funeral Support Payment 6	N/A	125	185	315
Young Carer Grant 7	N/A	35	60	95
Job Start Payment 8	N/A	N/A	20	20

The amount paid in Dundee City by financial year is:

	Value of payments (£) 2 3 4
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21 (up to published date)	Total since September 2018
Best Start Grant/Best Start Foods 5	155,100	859,378	716,591	1,731,069
Funeral Support Payment 6	N/A	205,332	359,210	564,542
Young Carer Grant 7	N/A	10,800	17,965	28,765
Job Start Payment 8	N/A	N/A	5,650	5,650

1. Applications are processed once a decision has been made to authorise or deny the application, or once an application is withdrawn by the applicant.

2. Payments are issued once applications are processed and a decision is made to authorise the application. Data is presented by the date a payment is issued rather than date the application was received or the date of decision.

3. Includes payments that are a result of redeterminations and appeals.

4. Excludes a very small number of payments which are made manually to clients

5. Data is published up to 30 November 2020

6. Data is published up to 31 December 2020

7. Data is published up to 31 January 2021

8. Data is published up to 31 December 2020

N/A = Some benefits do not have costs in 2018/19 or 2019/20 as they were not devolved or had not launched at this time.

People may be authorised for more than one payment across more than one year or benefit, so it is not possible to sum these figures to give a total view of how many people are supported in total.

The Scottish Government routinely publish local authority level information in official statistics publications on each of the devolved benefits, at:

https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-scotland-stats-publications/

Statistics on decisions and payments of Scottish Child Payment will be included in the official statistics publication on 11 May 2020.