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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-02357

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 13 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether fully electrifying the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh Haymarket and Aberdeen is required for it to achieve its ambition to decarbonise Scotland's Railway.

As made clear in the Scottish Government’s Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan published last year, electrification offers clear advantages over other rail decarbonisation technologies for both passenger and freight services on busy main line routes, such as the Central Belt to Aberdeen routes.

Delivery and development work for Scotland’s enviable rolling programme of electrification proceeds apace, and the plans for future phases will be announced in due course, consistent with the wider Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 Process.

Question reference: S6W-02567

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether National Planning Framework 4 should take account of (a) net zero targets and (b) the climate emergency, and what measures it is taking to ensure that the framework does take account of these.

Question reference: S6W-02692

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure engineers are trained in the repair and installation of non-gas-powered boilers.

Heating engineers are vital to the success of our Heat in Building Strategy which sets out how we will achieve our Net Zero Emissions in Scottish buildings by 2045. Ensuring heating engineers are sufficiently trained in the repair and installation of zero emissions heating are a key part of this. Our support for this includes:

• A doubling of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund to £20m - enabling employers to access up to £15,000 each to address skills gaps in their workforce. This fund is available to all Scottish employers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

• Providing funding to support apprentices with zero emissions heat skills with 95 apprentices applying for funding across five Scottish colleges.
‎• Funding zero emissions training equipment (e.g. heat pumps) for colleges in the north of Scotland to ensure pan-Scotland training provision (colleges in the south of Scotland have benefited from Scottish Power’s Green Economy Fund). By the end of this financial year there will be 13 training centres - including the North East Scotland College (currently installing their equipment) - across Scotland covering repair and maintenance of heat pumps.

In addition, we have also been working with industry, the sector skills bodies and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to develop skill requirements for zero emission technologies that will help professionalise the sector and provide career pathways for young people. We have also set up an independent group to provide recommendations to Scottish Ministers on the potential scope and content of a heat pump sector deal with an interim report published in June and we will respond to final version once published.

Finally, we are working hard to unlock workforce investment by driving up the demand for products and services in the zero emissions heat and energy efficiency sector. This includes investing almost £1.8bn to build upon, expand and improve our heat and energy efficiency funding programmes over the next five years, and a proposed framework of regulations to require action from building owners.

Question reference: S6W-02397

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what funding and incentives it will make available to stimulate consumer take-up of heat pump technology.

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Loan and Cashback scheme, provides interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback grant funding for homeowners to replace fossil-fuel heating systems such as gas with low or zero emissions heating systems such as heat pumps alongside insulation measures.

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

free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
HES loans with up to 40% cashback for energy efficiency measures;
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. If applying for a heat pump, then a maximum of up to £10,000 is available (either air source to water, ground source to water, water source to water or hybrid air source to water (£2,500 loan & £7,500 cashback)).

These advice and support schemes can be accessed through Home Energy Scotland, managed on behalf of Scottish Government by the Energy Saving Trust.

Question reference: S6O-00159

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported decline in air passengers travelling through Scottish airports.

Question reference: S6W-02148

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01498 by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021, whether its response at (b)(ii) means that it no longer plans to meet the commitment, as part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, or whether the "maximum benefits" referred to are anticipated to at least meet that commitment, and, if it is still committed to reducing journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 20 minutes, when it plans to achieve this.

Transport Scotland remains committed to working with key industry partners to achieve, by 2026, the 20 minutes journey time saving between Aberdeen and Edinburgh (average journey time of 2 hours 10 minutes for express services). This outcome was agreed at the final meeting of the Aberdeen to Central Belt Reference Group.

The Reference Group also endorsed a service specification, previously set out in Network Rail’s 2016 Scotland Rail Study of:

1. an average journey time of 1 hour 10 minutes or less for inter-city services between Aberdeen and Dundee;

2. an average journey time of 2 hours 30 minutes or less for inter-city services between Aberdeen and Glasgow;

3. half-hourly services from local stations into Aberdeen and Dundee during peak times;

4. an hourly stopping service between Aberdeen and Dundee; and

5. new freight paths.

Question reference: S6W-02143

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01498 by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2020, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding how much of any remaining funds it plans to spend on the railway between Aberdeen and Dundee and, if this information is not held centrally at present, whether it will confirm if there is an option that none of the funding could be allocated to that route.

Question reference: S6O-00128

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to mitigate coastal erosion.

Question reference: S6W-02396

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates the Heat Pump Sector Deal Expert Advisory Group will meet its objective to report on its findings and strategy, as set out in the group's interim report published in June 2021.

Heat pumps will be a strategically vital technology to deliver low carbon heat in buildings as part of the Scottish Government’s statutory target to meet net zero emissions by 2045. Following a call from the Climate Emergency Response Group, we have established an expert advisory group to make recommendations to Scottish Ministers on the scope of a potential heat pump sector deal for Scotland.

The group is independently chaired by Mike Thornton of the Energy Saving Trust and supported by Scottish Government officials. In June, the group published a detailed interim report offering views across a range of important issues for the heat pump sector. Since then, the group have met to discuss these issues further with a view to finalising their recommendations in late summer. We are confident that the group will meet this objective and we have committed to responding to the group's recommendations in our final Heat in Buildings Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-01407

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 30 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what carbon-impact assessments have been completed for the planting of additional forestry, and what analysis it has carried out regarding whether this will help with achieving its net zero targets.

The contribution of additional new planting towards Scotland’s net zero targets has been calculated by the Scottish Government using an economy-wide model that projects future CO ₂ emissions and removals to 2045.

The forestry element of the model uses data from the forestry part of the UK GHG projections for Scotland and from estimates of forest growth following planting. The model is responsive to different levels of woodland planting in future. The UK GHG projections show the forest estate in Scotland remaining a carbon sink throughout the period to 2045.