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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-13349

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding will be allocated to the Climate Justice Fund in financial year 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-13351

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to spend the full £2 million in loss and damage funding, which it announced during, and shortly after, COP26.

The £2m was committed to be spent over this parliament (to March 31 2026). Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly around climate justice, and one of few philanthropic players that works internationally on climate resilience. They have been selected as they have extensive experience of delivering rapid, community-based finance to address climate justice.

Through the Scottish Government’s partnership with the CJRF, five project in the Global South have been grant funded grants to date; £233k to Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), £228k to Helvetas Bangladesh, £205k to Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), £182k to Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and £136k to the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition Youth Grantmaking Council (LDYGC).

Furthermore, £500k of the initial £2 million has been granted to The Scottish Catholic International Fund to directly support communities in our partner country, Malawi, facing losses and damage resulting from recent tropical storms. With participation and co-design at the heart of their programming, SCIAF and partners have built long-term relationships through the delivery of the SG funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi with communities who are now experiencing severe loss and damages. SCIAF’s experience and existing relations will ensure Scottish Government funding has an immediate and much needed impact in Malawian communities.

Alongside grant funded projects on the ground, the Scottish Government identified a gap in global knowledge and understanding through extensive stakeholder engagement and as such, allocated part of the £2 million funding to further research on loss and damage. £75k has been awarded to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to investigate operationalising finance for Loss and Damage. A further £150k has been granted to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh for further research on loss and damage.

Final decisions on how the remaining unallocated funds will be spent will be made following stakeholder engagement and a thorough review of the global commitments made at COP27 to ensure that the Scottish Government creates maximum impact with our approach and does not duplicate funding efforts elsewhere.

Question reference: S6W-12923

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reference to its announcement of an additional £200 million of funding to improve capacity, connectivity, performance and journey times for passengers and freight between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, as set out on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, on what date the additional £200 million of funding was announced; how much has been spent to date; on what it has been spent, and whether it will provide details of any improvements to connectivity, performance and/or journey times that have been achieved.

The additional £200m of funding was first announced by Keith Brown MSP on 28 January 2016.

Network Rail advise that the cost of work done to date on the project is £6.5m (as of 12 November 2022).

Key areas of work completed to date include:

The development of a concept timetable that meets the projects stated output specification.
Design and development of infrastructure interventions that are required to deliver the proposed timetable.
Survey, site and ground investigations at the locations where each of the interventions is being developed.
Environmental assessment to support development of Environmental Screening for the project
Development of an Outline Business Case for the project, drawing on the information generated from each of the above activities

There has already been a number of improvements in recent years to the capability of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route, including signalling alterations in the Aberdeen area to create additional capacity.

Question reference: S6F-01680

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2023

To ask the First Minister for what reason two ferries, which will serve Islay, are being built in Turkey.

Question reference: S6W-13335

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 6 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12580 by Tom Arthur on 5 December 2022, whether its draft 2023-24 budget extends the 90% non-domestic rates relief for district heating networks powered by renewables until 2035.

Question reference: S6W-13058

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many miles of road have been constructed as a result of (a) commercial forestry and (b) windfarm developments in each of the last 10 years.

On Scotland’s national forests and land, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) constructs roads for use on a multi-purpose basis e.g. timber transport, tree planting, environmental improvement works, recreational access. FLS does not hold data that ascribes a particular use to sections of forest road, nor does it hold specific data as to what lengths of road have been constructed by windfarm developers. Over the past ten years, levels of forest road construction by FLS have been as follows:

2012: 46 Miles

2013: 52 Miles

2014: 43 Miles

2015: 34 Miles

2016: 37 Miles

2017: 37 Miles

2018: 44 Miles

2019: 32 Miles

2020: 27 Miles

2021: 24 Miles

2022: 22 Miles

Question reference: S6O-01766

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its response to the Climate Change Committee's reports, Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland - 2022 Report to Parliament and Scottish Emissions Targets - first five-yearly review.

Question reference: S6W-12922

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the "Missed" milestone, "Agree single option", on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, which had an aspirational date of May 2022.

Question reference: S6W-12920

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan, whether it is on track to "decarbonise the Aberdeen to Central Belt route by 2030".

Question reference: S6W-12921

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the "several opportunities to enhance the freight gauge along the line of route" are, as set out under the "Interfaces and Assumptions" on page 11 of the Scotland's Railway July 2022 publication, Enhancements Delivery Plan.

The Scottish freight gauge programme identified several sections of the Aberdeen to Central Belt route that would benefit from infrastructure interventions to allow larger intermodal freight containers that are common in road haulage which would support modal shift from road to rail. Such works would also facilitate the clearances between trains and infrastructure necessary for electrification.