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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: S6F-02384

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reported comments from COSLA and council leaders questioning the achievability of net zero targets without a detailed plan and adequate funding.

Question reference: S6W-20580

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the total value of its investments in CodeClan were.

Question reference: S6W-20581

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of CodeClan entering liquidation, what assessment it has made of how the loss of the digital skills academy will impact its ambition to establish Scotland as a leading destination for tech companies.

Codebase, the operator of Scotland's Techscaler network, has acquired CodeClan’s training materials and other assets. The Scottish Government has agreed to provide financial support to Codebase for the explicit purpose of allowing students who have paid for courses to complete their studies.

We look forward to working Codebase and other partners to ensure the provision of quality, modular skills training is continued and enhanced.

In the meantime, Scotland’s tech sector is served by a world class post-16 education system which each year generates thousands of skilled graduates in key technological disciplines.

Question reference: S6W-20474

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government who has responsibility for (a) monitoring the quality of private water supplies and (b) the enforcement of water quality, and how these organisations work collaboratively with each other.

Question reference: S6W-20475

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring processes are in place (a) before and (b) after the development of areas near private water supplies, and who is responsible for any such monitoring.

Dependent on the development, there are processes in place that require consideration to be given to the impact on the surrounding water environment during planning stages. Information about the type and location of private water supplies should be considered by local authorities at this point.

It is important that owners of private supplies undertake their own routine monitoring of the quality and quantity of drinking water together with risk assessments. This ensures they understand the factors that are likely to affect their water supplies. Regulated supplies must be sampled once every year by local authorities. At the request of owners, local authorities can arrange for samples to be taken at Exempt supplies

Question reference: S6W-20473

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 29 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures the enforcement of private drinking water standards.

The enforcement of drinking water standards for private supplies, as set out in the Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supply) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 and The Private Water Supply Regulations (Scotland) 2006, is a matter for local authorities. Compliance with the standards is reported annually in the Drinking Water Quality Regulator’s annual report, available at Annual Report (dwqr.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-20472

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 29 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance is available to private water suppliers to assess any impacts of developments on the surrounding hydrology, in order to ensure that developments do not introduce any point-source contamination.

General and technical information on private water supplies is available on the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland’s website at Technical Guidance and Information (dwqr.scot) and on the Scottish Government's website at Private water supplies (mygov.scot) .Further guidance on protecting private water supplies from developments, in particular forest activities, is available at Guidance documents (confor.org.uk) .

Question reference: S6W-20341

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 28 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take to ensure that local authorities use the infrastructure levy for blue-green infrastructure as well as traditional grey infrastructure.

The infrastructure levy powers in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 would, once in force, provide local authorities with an additional mechanism for seeking financial contributions towards the cost of infrastructure. The definition of infrastructure in the Act is intentionally broad, enabling local authorities to spend levy income on a potentially wide range of projects in accordance with local priorities. This includes green and blue infrastructure but also educational and medical facilities, recreation facilities, flood defences and transport infrastructure – among other things.

Policy development to inform implementation of the infrastructure levy powers is at an early stage and in that context, it would be premature to comment on matters of detailed policy design. Furthermore, seeking to influence how local authorities might use future income from the infrastructure levy would seem to be contrary to the recently signed Verity House Agreement.

Question reference: S6W-20198

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19064 by Maree Todd on 26 June 2023, what assessment it has made of the (a) availability and (b) impact of existing talking therapy provision to improve the mental health and wellbeing of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and what its position is on whether there is a need for this support to be improved for people with CKD

Question reference: S6W-20275

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 21 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards delivering its commitment to invest £500 million in bus priority infrastructure, and whether it anticipates any further projects to convert motorway hard shoulders into bus lanes as part of this investment.

Through the Bus Partnership Fund, Transport Scotland has awarded an initial £26.47m of funding to Bus Partnerships to develop and deliver bus priority measures on both local and trunk roads. The Scottish Government remains committed to providing further funding for bus priority once Partnerships have identified further projects supported by completed business cases.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) will inform the Scottish Government’s transport investment programme over the next 20 years and help to deliver the National Transport Strategy. STPR2 recommends bus priority is implemented in Scotland’s cities and towns where congestion is highest, many of which are being progressed though BPF. In the case of the motorway network, Transport Scotland would progress plans for the M8, M77 and M80, which includes looking at actively managed hard shoulders for buses like those already operating on the M90/M9 Queensferry Corridor and on the M8 eastbound approach to Hermiston Gait.

All these measures are aimed at reducing the negative impacts of congestion on bus services for passengers and addressing the decline in bus patronage.