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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.

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Question reference: S6F-00755

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is working with local authorities to reduce air pollution.

Question reference: S6F-00752

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will give a commitment to keep ferry services in public ownership.

Question reference: S6F-00742

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6F-00743

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-05208

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to COSLA leaders’ agreement, as notified in the elected members briefing of 6 July 2021, to pause Flood Risk Management schemes that were not legally committed by local authorities, what its position is on how the term “not legally committed” should be (a) interpreted and (b) applied by local authorities.

COSLA recommended that a “non-legally committed” scheme is defined, for this purpose, as a scheme that has not been notified under schedule 2 of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. This did not mean that current contracts should be immediately stopped but they should be paused at an appropriate time, where practicable, for example when a key project milestone is reached. Local authorities should not begin the notification process for Cycle 1 schemes if they have not already done so.

Question reference: S6W-05786

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms it is putting in place to ensure the robustness of public sector procurement in terms of the purchase of low-carbon, circular economy products and services.

The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. This work is framed in terms of the Sustainable Procurement Duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which requires public bodies to consider how they can improve the environmental, as well as social and economic, wellbeing of the authority’s area, and act in a way to secure improvements identified. Public bodies routinely report on the environmental benefits generated through their procurement activity in their Annual Procurement Reports.

In response to the Climate Emergency the Scottish Government established the Climate and Procurement Forum with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

Examples of actions leading from the Forum include publishing a procurement policy note to clarify expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations; Ministers writing to local leaders stressing their role in enabling sustainable outcomes through procurement, and producing Climate Literacy eLearning to assist public bodies to take account of climate and circular economy through procurement. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector and charities, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks supports the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors. Additionally, we host the latest current guidance on training on the Sustainable Procurement Tools platform.

Question reference: S6W-05738

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that businesses that did not qualify for business funding support, made available in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 will be eligible for such support in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-05747

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the explanation provided in the 2022-23 Level 4 Budget data, whether it will provide further details of the reasons for the budget allocation to Skills Development Scotland being reduced by £5.8 million in its draft Budget 2022-23, and what assessment has been made of the impact of this reduction on (a) upskilling and (b) reskilling workers.

This was one of the most fiscally challenging Scottish Budgets to date, with efficiencies having to be found across a number of portfolios. The budget allocation to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) should be seen in that context.

The SDS budget allocation includes Grant in-Aid for programme delivery and programme liabilities, which fluctuate depending on the numbers of people in training. The allocation also covers operational and staffing costs.

In 2021-22, the SDS budget allocation included around £8m for the continued delivery of programmes created as a response to COVID-19 which we do not expect will be continuing at the same levels in 2022/23.

We are working with SDS to finalise the details of their budget approach in 2022-23. This will ensure continued provision against Ministerial priorities and prioritise the delivery of training and learning opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-05715

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle incidents of hare coursing across the Mid Scotland and Fife region.

Operation Wingspan, a Police Scotland led partnership operation which ran from October 2020 – October 2021, was a year-long commitment to raising awareness of wildlife crime priorities, including hare coursing. Police Scotland also contributed to Operation Galileo in 2021, a UK wide hare coursing operation.

In the summer and autumn months of 2021, Police Scotland wildlife crime operations focused on hare coursing and poaching. This included a social media campaign, work with key stakeholders and awareness raising with local police stations.

Police Scotland is providing relevant training to 60 existing police officers which will enable them to undertake Wildlife Crime Officer duties on a part-time basis, ancillary to their core role.

A number of actions were taken in the Mid Scotland and Fife region including information on hare coursing being distributed to the farming community encouraging members to report incidents of hare coursing and advising them how to note key evidence in a safe manner. Wildlife crime officers and roads policing officers also conducted intelligence-led stops of vehicles and proactive patrols of hare coursing hot spots.

Question reference: S6W-05785

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 31 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what new funding it is planning to bring forward to drive early adoption of best practice procurement standards.

The Scottish Government provides a range of centrally funded procurement best practice tools that are continually updated to reflect changes in legislation (such as VAT), introduction of new policy outcomes (such as Climate Change, Fair Work, Innovation and Prompt Payment) and improvements across procurement processes and procedures (such as Contract and Supplier management). Both the Procurement Journey and the Supplier Journey have been refreshed after wide consultation with public sector buyers and suppliers and are extensively used, not only by public sector buyers and suppliers across Scotland, but across the rest of the UK and internationally. The Procurement and Commercial Improvement Plan (PCIP), which assesses public sector bodies procurement capability and capacity, has been through an extensive review phase, with public sector buyers, to ensure that it includes enhanced support and guidance that promotes best practice procurement standards.