- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
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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”.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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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.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2022
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2022
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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.
Answer
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
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
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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.
Answer
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 |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has done on the potential impact on the sale price of new homes of its proposal to introduce new building standards to prohibit the use of direct emissions heating systems in new builds from 2024.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2022
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to change the law regarding the protection of seagulls, including in particular herring gulls.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not have any plans to change the law regarding the protection of gulls, including herring gulls.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 provides protection for all wild birds. NatureScot has responsibility for the issuing of General Licences under Section 16(1) of the Act, which authorise the killing and taking of certain wild birds including their eggs, for one or more of several reasons including public health and safety.
NatureScot held a consultation on General Licences between August and October 2019. Following this consultation, several species were removed from the 2020 General Licences, including herring, lesser black-backed and great black-backed gulls, either on the basis that there was insufficient evidence of the damage they caused; there are alternative non-lethal solutions; or there are conservation concerns over their population status. Where species have been removed from the General Licence, authorised persons are still able to apply to NatureScot for a specific licence to control them or undertake lethal control, including nest and egg destruction in some circumstances.
A UK seabird census, organised by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, is currently being undertaken which includes an element that aims to estimate the populations of species that breed in urban environments. The final report, which is due to be published next year, will help inform future policy in dealing with urban gull populations.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08116 by Jenny Gilruth on 6 May 2022, whether it will provide an update on whether the "rail improvement project" referred to has now concluded option selection, and, if so, what options have been selected.
Answer
The package of enhancements identified via the option selection process is to be confirmed by Transport Scotland by the end of 2022, as part of its endorsement of the Outline Business Cases for both this project and the related project to decarbonise this route. As advised in my response to S6W-08116, the package comprises signal enhancements, improvements to station approaches and specific capacity alternations to facilitate the mixed operation of faster and slower trains on the same route.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 August 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage terms difference between the running costs of heat pumps compared with those of a gas boiler, including what that would mean in cash terms as of August 2022, in light of its proposal to prohibit the use of direct emissions heating systems, such as those run on fossil fuel, in new buildings from 2024.
Answer
The Scottish Government is introducing the New Build Heat Standard from 2024 in direct response to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change on how to meet the net-zero obligation legislated for, and agreed by all parties, in the Scottish Parliament.
Heat pump operating costs will vary across properties, with the precise impact depending on factors such as the design and quality of the heating system, user operation, and the energy efficiency of the property.
We have commissioned two research projects which considered the running costs associated with zero direct emissions heating (ZDEH) technologies within new homes, including heat pumps, against a gas boiler counterfactual. A copy of these research reports is available here:
This analysis supports the reasonable assumption that the costs of an air source heat pump are generally comparable with gas in a new home. However, we would highlight that the analysis pre-dates the energy crisis, and that we do not have updated modelling available to reflect the current price cap. We also urge the UK Government to follow through on its commitment to publish proposals to rebalance energy bill costs by the end of 2022. Given the abundance of low cost renewables in the UK and the urgent need to decarbonise buildings, it should be cheaper to run an electrically-driven heat pump than a gas boiler.
A full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) will be published when these regulations are introduced, incorporating the findings from these research reports and other relevant information.
