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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: S6T-01077

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that, during freezing temperatures in December, ambulances were called out to 800 people with hypothermia.

Question reference: S6T-01078

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to mitigate the impact of recent teacher strikes on children's education.

Question reference: S6W-13134

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities to help develop path networks on disused railway lines.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities to develop new walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure through the Places for Everyone programme (PfE) with over £52 million in funding committed in 2022-23. Local authorities can apply for funding and support for projects that aim to develop path networks on disused railway lines.

The Scottish Government also invests in developing active travel networks on disused railway lines as part of the National Cycle Network, with £1.6 million committed in 2022-23 to projects on disused railway lines. This includes £280,000 allocated to constructing a section of route along an old railway alignment from St.Fillans to Lochearnhead, and £45,000 for design work on a route from Comrie to Crieff.

Local groups with proposals to promote active travel by utilising disused railway assets should in the first instance raise with their local Regional transport Partnership and with Network Rail, who own most disused railway across Scotland. The Network Rail Property team in Scotland will assist where possible in the development of any initiatives that will support the Scottish Government’s aims to increase active travel, as is demonstrated at Levenmouth.

Question reference: S6W-13086

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in (a) Inverclyde, (b) North Ayrshire and (c) Scotland have made use of the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme, and what the financial value of that usage has been.

Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme (SCRS) is delivering 30,000 cycle repairs or services to people in Scotland, focusing on those that need the support the most. Repairs and servicing are provided through a network of over 300 shops, retailers, community organisations and sole traders. The scheme has run since August 2020 and delivered a total of 64,945 repairs to date. The specific figures you have requested since May 2021 are as follows:

Inverclyde – 560 repairs at a financial value of £28,000

North Ayrshire – 2,060 repairs at a financial value of £103,000

Scotland – 70,070 at a financial value of £3,503,500

It is worth noting there is a time delay in reporting and not all participants provide their postcode, so all of these figures will be higher.

Question reference: S6W-13096

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current composition is of the ScotRail Trains Limited train operating company fleet in terms of ownership by third-party rolling stock companies.

Question reference: S6W-13015

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set out how it calculated that the extension of Scottish Child Payment amounts to £1,300 per eligible child.

Question reference: S6W-13098

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to recover the reported 11,363 childminding places lost since 2016.

We recognise and value the unique role that childminders play in delivering 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to children and families. We are pleased to see an increasing proportion of childminding services being approved to deliver funded ELC, with the most recent data from December 2021 showing that 1,319 childminders had been approved. At the time, this was 33% of all childminders operating, though clearly challenges remain in terms of recruitment and retention.

We continue to work with our partners, including the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA), to increase the number of childminders - and therefore childminding places - in Scotland through the implementation of Our Commitment to Childminding , which was developed with partners and published in January 2021. The report sets out how Scottish Government, Local Authorities, partners and childminders will work together meaningfully and in genuine partnership to deliver improved outcomes for childminders, while continuing to ensure that a high quality experience for children is maintained.

Our work with partners includes supporting the delivery of targeted recruitment models, such as the Scottish Rural Childminding Partnership which aims to recruit and train 100 new childminders in remote and rural areas.

Question reference: S6W-13064

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08334 by Tom Arthur on 17 May 2022, whether it will provide an update on phase 3 of the review of permitted development rights.

The phasing of the PDR review programme is kept under review to ensure that it reflects – and helps to promote – wider Scottish Government objectives. The stakeholder update which I issued with the Chief Planner in October 2022 confirmed that, in light of the current cost and climate crises, Phase 3 of the review will focus on PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewable energy equipment – and that a consultation will be published early in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13083

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has given to high streets in the South Scotland region in each year since 2007, broken down by (a) town and (b) local authority.

The primary Scottish Government funds which enable local authorities to support town centre regeneration are the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which includes the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and the Town Centre Fund which pre-dated the PBIP. I have placed a copy of tables in SPICe bib number 63928 which set out the information we have available to date on what the South Scotland region has received in each year since 2007, broken down by Town and Local Authority.

In addition, though not included in the table, the Scottish Government has provided offers of other financial and non-financial support which has benefited high streets. This is not limited to:

funding to agencies and partnerships such as South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Business Improvement Districts, VisitScotland, Historic Environment Scotland;
funds and funding such as Regional growth deals, the Climate Challenge fund, Active Travel funding. and Covid funds such as the £80m Local authority covid economic recovery funding;
programmes such as the Scotland Loves Local, Empowering Communities, and Vacant and Derelict Land; and Climate Action Towns.

Question reference: S6W-13010

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 9 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for Social Security Scotland to refer clients to VoiceAbility advocacy service.