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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: S6W-24134

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether GEOAmey is effectively fulfilling its obligations in its Court Custody and Prisoner Escort Services contract.

Question reference: S6W-24131

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on whether the Court Custody and Prisoner Escort Services contract with GEOAmey stipulates that a penalty for poor performance is the cancellation of the contract and nationalisation of court custody and prisoner escort services.

We have been supporting the Scottish Prison Service and other partners in delivering an improvement in the GEOAmey contract that has resulted in early positive signs, with a slowdown in staff attrition and improved staff numbers.

The Criminal Justice Board has been engaged with issues relating to the contract and, as Teresa Medhurst, the Scottish Prison Service Chief Executive, stated at the Criminal Justice Committee in November 2023, all options remain under consideration in relation to prisoner escort arrangements in Scotland.

The Scottish Prison Service will continue to monitor the performance of the contract carefully to ensure target thresholds are met, so we can have a level of service which meets the needs of our justice system.

Question reference: S6W-24168

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have created a VisitScotland listing in each year since the creation of the VisitScotland website.

VisitScotland has provided the following data.

Year	Total
2012, migration	15265
2012, Apr-Dec	1784
2013	2802
2014	3921
2015	2698
2016	2859
2017	2255
2018	3634
2019	2927
2020	2481
2021	2228
2022	1467
2023	1735

It should be noted that:

This is a count of individual listings, not individual businesses. There is insufficient data for historical reporting to provide figures for unique businesses.
Figures of listings created are only available since the first year after migration to the current Destination Management System (DMS) listing provider.
The total figure for created listings will include draft listings never published to the site - a snapshot of active listings is only available for current status.

Question reference: S6W-24002

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes have had energy efficiency measures installed in each year since 2019 to date.

We record data on energy efficiency measures installed as part of Scottish Government programmes, but do not monitor the measures installed by households acting independently. According to the 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS), 55% of households had an Energy Performance Certificate band of D or lower. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, fieldwork for the 2020 SHCS was suspended and the methodology for the 2021 SHCS was also impacted. Future SHCS publications will provide more information to measure progress.

The number of energy efficiency measures installed through SG funded delivery schemes are as follows:

Financial Year	Area Based Schemes – number of measures	Warmer Homes Scotland – number of measures	Social Housing Fund - number of measures	Total number of measures
22-23	4,172	6,902	13,267*	24,341
21-22	4,287	6,390	593	11,270
20-21	5,715	3,703	0	9,418
19-20	7,737	3,918	0	11,655

*Includes project with Wheatley Group installing 10,000 Connected Response devices in homes.

For Home Energy Scotland, these figures are per household (not per measure) and include a wider range of measures than just energy efficiency:

Financial Year	Home Energy Scotland Grants and Loans Scheme - Households Receiving Insulation and/or EE Measures
22-23	739
21-22	607
20-21	424
19-20	295

We have recently published the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy ( heat-buildings-monitoring-evaluation-framework.pdf (www.gov.scot) ). This includes a proposed indicator ‘share of domestic properties achieving a good level of energy efficiency (equivalent to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or better)’. We will report against this Framework for the first time in October 2024.

We record data on energy efficiency measures installed as part of Scottish Government programmes, but do not monitor the measures installed by households acting independently.

Question reference: S6W-23981

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers were first made aware of reported concerns raised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency regarding aspects of the design of MV Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa in relation to escape routes.

Question reference: S6W-23879

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has approached any universities to lead the Centre of Teaching Excellence.

Question reference: S6W-24521

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6T-01731

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to bring more homes back into use, in light of reports that the stock of empty homes is valued at an estimated £3.4 billion.

Question reference: S6T-01736

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an assessment of the state of readiness of Scotland’s frontline services in response to the yellow warnings in place for freezing temperatures over the next 10 days.

Question reference: S6F-02729

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2024

To ask the First Minister, in light of reported concerns regarding food labelling being a devolved matter, what the Scottish Government's position is on what impact the UK Government’s reported plans to roll out "not for EU" labelling on food and drink products across the whole of the UK could have on Scotland’s food and drink industry.