Chamber and committees

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-32185

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many laptops or other devices were received by pupils as a result of the £25 million announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 23 June 2020 to roll out the provision of digital devices to school pupils, broken down by (a) type of device and (b) local authority area.

Local authorities are responsible for distributing devices from the initial tranche of 24,485 chromebook devices, and for securing and distributing further devices and connectivity solutions from their grant allocations. We are working with local authorities to collate and assure information on how many devices have been ordered, received and distributed to learners, although indications are that up to 70,000 individuals will benefit from this investment.

Question reference: S5W-32184

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the processes it used to decide where to allocate the £25 million announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 23 June 2020 to roll out the provision of digital devices to school pupils.

Question reference: S5W-32065

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address reported concerns regarding (a) worker safety and fatigue and (b) lack of rest berths for workers on the Serco Caledonian Sleeper.

Question reference: S5W-32112

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31747 by Michael Matheson on 23 September 2020, whether it expects any parts of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to be fully in place by the end of the current parliamentary session, and, if so, which.

The implementation of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 has been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. However, Part 1 of the Act requires the publishing of a National Transport Strategy, and this was brought into force on 15 January 2020. Provisions around Regional Transport Partnerships and Canals are also fully in place. As I indicated at my appearance before the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on 2 September 2020, there is limited space in this current parliamentary session to implement the other aspects of the Act.

Question reference: S5W-32328

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Serco Caledonian Sleeper’s announcement on 29 September 2020 that it had cancelled trains on 4 and 5 October due to possible industrial action by the RMT union, in light of this announcement being made prior to the commencement of ACAS talks on 30 September.

Caledonian Sleeper is bound by the Franchise Agreement to inform passengers in a timely manner of any potential changes to their timetabled travel.

Caledonian Sleeper advises it took the decision to announce on 29 September the cancellation of trains on 4 and 5 October to ensure that all passengers were fully informed ahead of the strike action, allowing them to make alternative plans for any travel or onward accommodation bookings.

Question reference: S5W-32115

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Autumn Budget Revision, whether it will provide a full breakdown of all changes made in the Transport, Connectivity and Infrastructure budget since March 2020.

Through the two budget revisions to date a total of £583m has been added to the Transport and Infrastructure and Connectivity Budget in respect of Covid-19 and other funding changes. This has been partly funded through £193m reprioritisation of existing portfolio expenditure. There have also been 33m of transfers to other portfolios.

The breakdown of all changes to the Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Budgets through the Summer and Autumn Budget Revisions is as follows:

Budget Revision	Level 2	Change	Amount £m
Summer Budget Revision	Rail Services	Covid-19 support for the Rail Franchise	220
Summer Budget Revision	Air Sevices	Logan Air Grant Prepayment	2
Summer Budget Revision	Concessionary Fares & Bus Services	Covid-19 support for bus operators	92
Summer Budget Revision	Air Services	Air services - costs of providing a skeleton service to islands	1
Summer Budget Revision	Ferry Services	Covid-19 support for Ferry loss of income (£46m)	46
Summer Budget Revision	Rail Services	Result of Reduced rail service provision to reflect lower demand whilst maintaining connectivity.	- 20
Summer Budget Revision	Concessionary Fares & Bus Services	To reflect forecast reduction in payments to bus operators on relation to the National Concessionary Travel Scheme and Bus Service Operators' Grant.	- 92
Summer Budget Revision	Ferry Services	Reduction in operating costs due to reduced Ferry services reduced passenger numbers	- 12
Summer Budget Revision	Air Services	Reduction in planned spend on Aviation Route Development.	- 1
Summer Budget Revision	Air Services	Repayment of Air Discount Scheme advances to Loganair.	- 2
Autumn Budget Revision	Digitial Connectivity	Digital Connectivity Resource: Transfer to Scottish Futures Trust to support infrastructure investment in digital workstreams	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	Digital Connectivity	Miscellaneous minor transfer - The transfer of budget to EFWC Portfolio - Economic Advice is required to enable the Scottish Government to meet the costs of the annual boost of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in Scotland from the OCEA budget.	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	Energy	Transfer to Housing in relation to additional investment in local energy efficiency projects.	- 16
Autumn Budget Revision	Energy	Transfer to Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support the work of Wave Energy Scotland.	- 5
Autumn Budget Revision	Energy	Transfer to Environmental Services to fund Zero Waste Scotland - Energy Workplan.	- 3
Autumn Budget Revision	Energy	Release of emerging/planned underspend to support priorities.	- 2
Autumn Budget Revision	Energy	Miscellaneous minor transfers	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	Cities and Investment Strategy	Release of emerging/planned underspend to support priorities.	- 10
Autumn Budget Revision	Rail Services	Further revenue shortfall as a result of reduced demand due to Covid-19.	104
Autumn Budget Revision	Concessionary Fares & Bus Services	Additional Covid support measures for bus operators through to mid-November.	110
Autumn Budget Revision	Active Travel, Low Carbon and Other Transport	Funding to support measures for Light Rail operators in Scotland.	9
Autumn Budget Revision	Active Travel, Low Carbon and Other Transport	The TIC portfolio (Transport Scotland) approved budget includes £5.0 million indirect capital within the Future Transport Fund to support the Strategic Timber Transport Scheme managed by the Directorate for Environment and Forestry.	- 5
Autumn Budget Revision	Active Travel, Low Carbon and Other Transport	CapitalContribution from Transport Scotland to Major Events to take advantage of the opportunity of the UCI Cycling World Championships being held in Scotland in 2023. To showcase the progress and further the promotion of active travel. ‎	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	Active Travel, Low Carbon and Other Transport	Miscellaneous minor transfers	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	Motorways and Trunk Roads	Repayment of last year's budget transfer which allowed Transport Scotland to utilise Energy's underspend.	- 1
Autumn Budget Revision	TIC Central Government Grants to Local Authorities	Release of underspend on ‘Heat Networks Early Adopters Challenge. The ‎ allocation of this funding was paused due to the Covid-19 lockdown	- 50

Question reference: S5W-32020

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what communications the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity has had with trade union representatives from the aviation sector to discuss short-, medium- and long-term support for the sector in the face of COVID-19.

Question reference: S5W-32064

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Serco Caledonian Sleeper’s reported decision not to engage the services of ACAS to attempt to resolve the RMT's dispute with it regarding worker safety and fatigue.

Question reference: S5W-32019

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity has to meet trade union representatives from the aviation sector to discuss what action can be taken to support the sector.

Question reference: S5W-31981

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 October 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the terms of Abellio ScotRail’s extended Emergency Measures Agreements permit the commencement of pay talks in relation to the April 2020 pay award for ScotRail employees.

The Scottish Government has already provided around £250 million of additional financial support which has allowed Abellio ScotRail and Serco Caledonian Sleeper to maintain full employment for their staff despite the significant drop in passenger revenue during the pandemic, and substantial additional sums will be required in future.

The UK Government has not yet provided clarity about the future additional funding for the Scottish Government arising from UK transport spending. Any pay discussions between ScotRail and its staff will need to reflect the extremely challenging budgetary position and the ongoing budgetary uncertainty.