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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-14533

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) length, (b) beam and (c) maximum operational draught will be of (i) Hull 802, currently under construction for CMAL and (ii) the two vessels that CMAL has ordered from the Cemre Marin Endustri yard to serve on the Uig to Lochmaddy and Uig to Tarbert ferry routes.

Question reference: S6W-14542

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether the two vessels that CMAL has ordered from the Cemre Marin Endustri yard to serve on the Uig to Lochmaddy and Uig to Tarbert ferry routes will have Changing Places toilets, and whether it can confirm whether all future new ferries will have Changing Places toilet facilities.

Question reference: S6W-14916

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12640 by Mairi McAllan on 8 December 2022, which states that "we expect to issue the release on Scottish Government's attendance and expenses incurred at COP27 by the end of January 2023", whether the release was issued, and, if so, whether it will provide it.

Question reference: S6W-14930

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13041 by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023, whether it will itemise the sub-contracts placed with Scottish firms by Cemre Marin Endustri to supply the build programme for the new Islay vessels, including the total value of those respective sub-contracts.

Cemre have signed an agreement with Kongsberg for Fins Stabilisers with the production facility in Dunfermline. Neither the Scottish Government, nor CMAL as procuring authority, have details of the value of this commercial contract between the manufacturer and Cemre. Further information can be found at the attached link:

https://www.kongsberg.com/maritime/about-us/news-and-media/news-archive/2022/contract-to-supply-aquarius-50-retractable-fin-stabilisers/

Question reference: S6W-15171

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to remove funding from any of the school culture coordinators that it presently supports and, if so, how many coordinators will be affected.

The Scottish Government does not fund culture coordinator posts in schools. However, some Local Authorities choose to employ culture coordinators to support the delivery of the Youth Music Initiative programme, administered on behalf of the Scottish Government by Creative Scotland.

Creative Scotland do not require Local Authorities to have a specific coordinator role in place to deliver the fund. Scottish Government give Local Authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and allocate the resources available to them in response to local need.

Question reference: S6W-14981

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the First Minister last met the co-leaders of Aberdeen City Council.

Question reference: S6W-14798

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can commit to setting a (a) start date and (b) timetable for its national conversation on rail services, as announced by the Minister for Transport in the Scottish Parliament on 9 February 2022.

The National Rail Conversation will be formally launched in April to mark the one year anniversary of ScotRail coming in to public ownership. Through the National Rail Conversation, we will listen to feedback from passengers, staff and stakeholders to shape a vision for ScotRail which best meets the needs of the people of Scotland. I will announce the timetable for the conversation at the launch.

Question reference: S6W-15332

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been convicted of a crime of animal cruelty, of any kind, in each year since 2016, and, of those, how many were given a (a) lifetime and (b) temporary ban on owning animals.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2020-21 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people convicted for animal cruelty offences, where main charge, 2016-17 to 2020-21.

	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total convicted	60	75	63	56	33

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Note: Main charges were under Animal Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 sections 19-23,29(1)(A)(B) and 29(2)(A)&(B); Protection of Badgers Act 1992 Section 2; Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 Section 1(1); Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Sections 10A(1), 11(1)(A), 11A(2)(B)&(6), 11(1)(AA), 11C(B), 11(G)(1) and 11(2)(A)&(F); Welfare of animals (Transport) (Scotland) Regs 2006 Regulation 3(1)(A); Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act 1912 Section 7.

(a), (b) The number of disqualifications on owning animals is not held centrally.

Question reference: S6W-15209

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to publish the interim findings from the Green Heat Finance Taskforce.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce will publish the interim report in spring this year. This report is one of a number of documents relating to Heat in Buildings that will be published this year, such as the Consultation on Proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill, introducing powers to create a regulatory framework which drives energy efficiency and zero direct emissions heating across Scotland’s building stock.

Question reference: S6W-15163

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the number of Police Scotland Special Constables fell to 423 in 2022, compared with 1,394 in 2014, and what steps it is taking to increase the number of Special Constables.

The Scottish Government is grateful to Special Constables who are an integral part of Police Scotland’s workforce mix.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on Police Scotland’s Special Constable programme. Statistics on Special Constable numbers and recruitment are a matter for the Chief Constable.

Whilst Police Scotland are actively recruiting they have in recent years focused their investment on fully trained Special Constables who are willing to deploy regularly and able to fully support officers in our communities.