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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-10603

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10026 by Richard Lochhead on 22 August 2022, who or which body will judge whether a bidding organisation is “headquartered, or demonstrate[s] a strong connection to at least one of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City or Moray"; what its written definition is of “a strong connection”; whether Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and/or Moray local authorities are able to bid into the fund, and, if so, whether they count as the partner that “must be based or have majority of operations in one of the regions”.

Scottish Government officials assess whether each bidding organisation to the Just Transition Fund is “headquartered, or demonstrate[s] a strong connection to at least one of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City or Moray". Only proposals that meet this criteria are considered for funding.

Aberdeenshire Council, Moray Council and Aberdeen City Council were all able to bid into the fund. They can count as the partner that is based or has operations in the region, however that is not mandatory and any private organisation can be considered as the local partner organisation.

Question reference: S6W-10555

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total final cost of ScotRail's nationalisation was, in relation to the transfer of operations of ScotRail from Abellio to the nationalised operator.

The decision to bring ScotRail under public control avoided the need to run an expensive and inappropriate rail franchising competition. Though widely acknowledged as a failed model, franchise competitions remain the preferred approach in current UK Legislation. Such exercises typically cost in excess of £10m for franchising authorities, as well as the similarly significant costs of each bidder.

As confirmed during my Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee appearance on 15 March 2022, prior to that date, since the decision to proceed with the “Operator of Last Resort” (OLR) option was taken in March 2021, £3.6 million had been spent on the OLR activity.

Final reconciliation figures confirm that £5.5 million has been spent in total on OLR activity, and ScotRail Trains Ltd. was mobilised successfully on 1 April. I am confident you will notice the saving this achieved when compared with a franchising competition.

Question reference: S6W-10658

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Japanese government’s reported decision to consider building new nuclear power plants due to the Ukraine war, soaring energy costs, and to meet Japan’s target of going carbon neutral by 2050, will have an impact on Scotland and Scottish Government energy policy-making.

Question reference: S6W-10600

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many successful prosecutions for stalking and harassment offences there have been in (a) Scotland and (b) Aberdeen in each year from 2018-19 to 2022-23 to date.

The latest available information on the number of people convicted for ‘stalking offences’ is provided in the following table.

Number of people proceeded and convicted for stalking offences (where main crime) in Scottish courts, 2018-19 to 2020-21.

	Scotland		Aberdeen
	Total prosecuted	Total Convicted	Total prosecuted	Total Convicted
2018-19	620	531	57	44
2019-20	562	496	33	25
2020-21	249	219	11	9

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Please note: Information for 2021-22 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2021-22 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in 2023.

We are unable to provide data on harassment. There is no specific crime of harassment and harassment can conform to a wide range of both criminal offences and civil matters. As such there are no meaningful data we can provide.

Question reference: S6W-10553

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09822 by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022, what the ScotRail budget has been in each year from 1 April 2016 to 1 April 2023, and, for each year, what proportion of the budget, expressed as a percentage, was allocated to (a) staff costs, (b) rolling stock improvements and changes, (c) station facilities, (d) rail replacement services, (e) maintenance, operations and upgrades and (f) any other headline category of spend used by ScotRail.

Question reference: S6W-10736

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10125 by Patrick Harvie on 25 August 2022, whether it will provide the information requested and confirm what (a) information it holds on what the estimated demand for electricity will be in Scotland from 2025 should its proposed ban on the use of direct emissions heating systems in new-build properties from 2024 be put in place, and in light of its projected increase in EV use, and (b) its position is on whether renewables will be able to consistently meet any increased demand for electricity in Scotland from 2025 as a result of its proposals; on what data or projections its position is based, and, in light of it not providing this information in its answer, whether it will confirm whether it has undertaken any planning or work to gather this information or make its own projections in relation to its proposals in this area.

Security of electricity supply is a reserved policy area, delivered through UK Government electricity policy, Ofgem as the independent GB energy regulator, and National Grid ESO (the GB Electricity System Operator), as noted in the response to your question on 25 August.

Scotland has an abundance of renewable electricity generation that exceeds our average annual demand. Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will set out further analysis on electricity security, in light of increased decarbonisation of heat and transport.

However, based on current rates of new build development, a ban on the use of direct emission heating systems in new build properties could equate to an additional 100GWh of demand every year. This would add just 0.3% to our total electricity demand remaining well within the margin of our maximum supply capacity of 10GW.

Similarly, based on Transport Scotland’s electricity demand scenarios, the average annual additional electricity demand from EV’s (cars and vans) is just 186GWh for the period 2022 – 2030.

It is also important to highlight that network companies are investing to ensure that our infrastructure can support our transition to net zero. Both Scottish Distribution Network Operators have worked closely with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders to ensure that their business plans reflect the scale and pace of deployment necessary to meet Scotland’s net zero and interim targets.

These plans are being assessed by the energy regulator Ofgem, and we expect a final decision on proposed investments by November this year.

Question reference: S6O-01375

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on transport infrastructure improvements in the north east.

Question reference: S6W-10254

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-08649, S6W-09452 and S6W-09553 by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June and 28 July 2022, whether it can provide a breakdown of the figures provided in response to each of three questions for the North East region.

ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region, but by rail route. The following below table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the North East region.

Complaint Type	April	May	June
1st Class	14	21	28
Assisted Travel	1	0	0
Capacity	8	17	26
Contact Centre	0	0	1
Customer Provisions	1	6	0
Cycles	1	1	1
Environment	6	3	2
Policy And Product	5	2	6
Staff	5	3	3
Timetable	0	5	2
Train Service Performance	1	20	19
TOTAL	42	78	88

ScotRail has confirmed that the routes detailed below were included in this data. The member should note that the data reflects complaints which may have occurred at any point on the route:

Aberdeen-Edinburgh
Aberdeen-Glasgow
Aberdeen-Inverness
Dundee-Glasgow
Edinburgh-Arbroath

Question reference: S6W-10221

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints were received by ScotRail from (a) passengers and (b) staff between 1 and 31 July 2022, broken down by the reason for the complaint.

The number of passenger complaints received by ScotRail, through their official complaints process, is set out on the following table for the period 1 July to 31 July 2022. The complaints may involve incidents that occurred before 1 July 2022.

The figure for 1 July to 31 July 2022 is 1192. This complaints figure is likely to reflect the point in time when several services were impacted due to driver shortages and the subsequent reduction in services as a result of the temporary timetable in place from 23 May to 20 July 2022. In this period there was also a GB-wide strike by Network Rail staff on 27 July which significantly impacted services in Scotland, with ScotRail only able to run a very limited service as a result.

The temporary timetable that was in place until 20 July 2022 aimed to provide the best available service to as many passengers as possible.

Complaints from staff are not included in figures due to these being customer relation figures. However, ScotRail do have a system in place to record staff grievances within their HR team.

Complaint Categories	01-31 Jul 2022
Policy And Product	260
Staff	224
Train Service Performance	136
Capacity	110
Timetable	107
Environment	102
1st Class	62
Assisted Travel	25
Customer Provisions	25
Ticket Buying Facilities	22
Safety & Security	20
Information Provision	18
Contact Centre	18
Smartcard	15
Promotions	13
Station Facilities	13
Cycles	9
Rail Replacement	8
Double Debit	5
Total	1192

Question reference: S6W-10210

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any schemes in place to reduce the number of seagulls, particularly herring gulls, nesting in residential areas.

The responsibility for dealing with nuisance gulls on private property lies with the property owner, although local authorities can provide advice and assistance, and have powers under environmental protection legislation to tackle nuisances.

Local authorities are expected to respond to statutory nuisance complaints on council owned property, such as where the deposit of bird droppings may have an effect on public health.