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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: S5W-10358

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent IT failure at the Dundee Police Scotland control room; whether it will formally investigate the matter, and what action it is taking to prevent a reoccurrence.

Question reference: S5W-10366

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish details of all communication that it has had with Police Scotland regarding the recent IT failure at the Dundee Police Scotland control room and other similar incidents.

Question reference: S5W-10360

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scottish Police Authority monitors Police Scotland’s integrated communications control system, and whether it will publish the findings of any reports.

Question reference: S5W-10357

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how often police officers relied on hand-held radios to make so-called assistance shouts in the last year, and how many times this method of communication was required following the recent IT failure at the Dundee Police Scotland control room.

Question reference: S5W-10359

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent IT failure at the Dundee Police Scotland control room, what other failures of the force's integrated communications control system there have been.

Question reference: S5W-10378

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding whether the unemployment statistics from the Office for National Statistics take account of self-employed job losses in the oil and gas sector.

The Office for National Statistics estimates the level and rate of unemployment based on International Labour Organisation definitions. Further information can be can be found at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment:

Unemployed people are defined as those without a job who have been actively seeking work in the past 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next 2 weeks. It also includes those who are out of work but have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next 2 weeks.

Therefore in the situation where there has been a self-employed job loss in the oil and gas sector, if the person meets the criteria of being unemployed, as defined above they would be included in the unemployment statistics estimate.

Question reference: S5W-10376

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many self-employed oil and gas workers in the (a) North East Scotland parliamentary region and (b) rest of the country have lost their jobs in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-10404

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to (a) issue renewed guidance to local authorities and (b) review the 2010 research to support measures to tackle issues arising from gull nesting and, if so, when it plans to do so.

The Urban Gull Task Force (UGTF), which consists of members of the Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage, Dumfries and Galloway Council, and an experienced independent contractor, has been working on approaches since 2009 to try and (a) deter gulls from nesting in urban environments and (b) to reduce the numbers of young fledging each year. Various techniques have been or are being trialled and adapted to increase effectiveness, including falconry, water sprayers, and egg and nest removal. A further trial comparing permanent exclusion devices, as well as a trapping trial, is being planned for 2018. Once the UGTF has confidence that particular methods and procedures are capable of providing positive results, it is intended that this work will be published in the form of guidance for local authorities.

The Scottish Government does not intend to review the 2010 research.

Question reference: S5W-10403

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Councillor Nick Cook calling for a gull de-nesting programme in Edinburgh, whether it will support local authorities in pursuing such an initiative.

The management of urban gulls is the responsibility of local authorities.

Local authorities can help to minimise the problems caused by gulls by preventing the eggs from hatching, including by egg and nest removal, egg oiling or egg replacement with artificial dummy eggs. Where necessary, these actions can be licensed under Scottish Natural Heritage General Licence No. 3/2017, which authorises the killing or taking of certain species of gulls for the purpose of preserving public health and safety and for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease.

Question reference: S5W-09971

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 July 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of figures from Transport Scotland showing that, in the last year, 53.8%, 50.4% and 50% of trains arrived late at Stonehaven, Inverurie and Dyce stations, what steps it is taking to address punctuality of services in the North East Scotland parliamentary region, and when customers can expect improvements in arrival times.

The industry convention for reporting performance across the franchise as a whole, and for comparing ScotRail’s performance with other train operating companies in England & Wales, is the Public-Performance-Measure, which measures arrivals against a five-minute benchmark.

Performance for train services between the North-East and the Central Belt, and for train services between Aberdeen and Inverness, are at 86.0% and 88.8 %, respectively.

26 High-Speed-Trains (HSTs) will be introduced to run between Scotland’s seven cities from December 2018. This will ensure more capacity for services to Stirling, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow delivering 40% more seats than operate on those routes today. HSTs are faster, popular with passengers and will be refurbished to provide the latest standard of comfort, accessibility, catering provision.

Alongside the introduction of HSTs, the Scottish Governments investment in “Revolution in Rail” will see additional local services for the North East. This has been made possible by retaining 13 trains beyond the terms of their current lease, which were due to end in December 2018.

We are delivering a huge investment within the North-East with major projects, such as the Aberdeen to Inverness and Aberdeen to Central to Belt (STPR) rail improvements projects, which will be delivered over an incremental basis (in phases) until 2030. As well as the £200 million additional investment, announced over and above the £250 million Aberdeen City Region Deal, which will focus on improving performance and address capacity issues between Aberdeen and Dundee, with full delivery expected over the course of the 10-year City Deal period.

These levels of financial support reflect the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest in rail infrastructure and services to better connect our communities and support sustainable economic growth.