Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-09820

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to introduce free rail travel in Dumfries and Galloway for anyone holding a bus pass.

Question reference: S6W-09805

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed bus services with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Transport Scotland officials have regular engagement with local transport authorities regarding bus services. These have included discussions with SWestrans officials in October 2021 and June 2022 regarding bus services and concessionary bus schemes as well as more recent correspondence with relevant local transport authorities (SPT, SWestrans and Scottish Borders Council) regarding the 101/102 bus service from Dumfries to Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6W-09804

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it is taking to ensure the continuation of a bus service between Dumfries and Edinburgh.

Transport Scotland has corresponded with relevant local transport authorities in respect of the 101/102 bus service between Dumfries and Edinburgh. I am pleased that those authorities have now reached an agreement to continue a service until 31 March 2023 and I welcome the discussions now beginning with local communities to find long term solutions for this route.

Bus service provision in Scotland operates in an open de-regulated market and the provision of local bus services is a matter for bus operators and local transport authorities. The Scottish Government has, however, extended recovery funding for bus services via the Network Support Grant Plus, prioritising essential support for operators to support bus services like this with extra funding while travel patterns and demand adapt following the pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-09775

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to issuing guidance to local authorities on the use of innovative longer-lasting road surfacing materials to achieve improved outcomes and lower lifecycle costs.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas and no formal guidance is issued on this matter.

SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) – www.scotsnet.org , are responsible for implementing new materials and best practice on local road maintenance.

Transport Scotland does share knowledge and best practice through a number of forums. Transport Scotland hosts the Scottish Road Research Board (SRRB) which undertakes research and trials of innovative new materials. SCOTS and the Scottish Road Works Commissioner are members of the SRRB. Transport Scotland also hosts the Transport Scotland Pavement Forum which discusses latest developments in road surfacing. This includes representatives of SCOTS (Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) and from the road surfacing industry.

Question reference: S6W-09772

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been issued to local authorities to highlight current best practice in local roads maintenance to achieve improved outcomes and increased value for money, and how often any such guidance is updated.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas.

SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) – www.scotsnet.org , are responsible for developing guidance and good practice on local road maintenance which is published on their website. Local authority asset management processes and procedures are led by the SCOTS Asset Management Group. Transport Scotland does share knowledge and best practice with local authorities through a number of forums. Local authorities also align with the national guidance and tools produced by the Department for Transport through the UK Roads Leadership Group, UK Roads Board and the UK Asset Management Board.

Question reference: S6W-09967

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken for the legislative process to appoint a Victims’ Commissioner.

Question reference: S6W-09964

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what long-term discussions it is having with ASLEF (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) regarding salary settlements.

Question reference: S6W-09886

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 5 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on hospitality in each year since 2020, broken down by directorate.

A table showing spend by Scottish Government directorates within hospitality codes in the Scottish Government ledger in the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-22 is as follows.

Directorate	2020-2021	2021-2022
£	£
Advanced Learning and Science Directorate	85	0
Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy	517	1,771
Directorate for Budget and Public Spending	0	128
Directorate for Chief Economist	2	1,080
Directorate for Chief Medical Officer	3	0
Directorate for Chief Nursing Officer	18	0
Directorate for Children and Families	2,699	2,256
Directorate for Communications and Ministerial Support	43,181	10,435
Directorate for Constitution and Cabinet	96	896
Directorate for Corporate Transformation and Workplace	4,016	0
Directorate for COVID Business Resilience and Support	0	17
Directorate for COVID Public Health	9	0
Directorate for Culture, Tourism and Major Events	245	22
Directorate for Digital	2,631	340
Directorate for Early Learning and Childcare Programme	96	0
Directorate for Economic Development	1,602	805
Directorate for Energy and Climate Change	12	6,786
Directorate for Environment and Forestry	0	713
Directorate for External Affairs	371	8,283
Directorate for Fair Work, Employability and Skills	8	9
Directorate for Financial Management	0	7
Directorate for Health Workforce	10,628	0
Directorate for International Trade and Investment	568	540
Directorate for Legal Services (Solicitor to the Scottish Government)	0	911
Directorate for Local Government and Housing	3,485	848
Directorate for Marine Scotland	3,082	25,854
Directorate for Mental Health and Social Care	9	3,404
Directorate for People	10,645	29,915
Directorate for Performance and Delivery	1,879	0
Directorate for Population Health	11	22
Directorate for Primary Care	215	0
Directorate for Social Security	1,405	0
Directorate for Sustainable Land Use and Rural Policy	0	337
Directorate for Vaccines Policy and Strategy	0	22
Directorate of Equality Inclusion and Human Rights	254	624
EU Directorate	115	238
HM Inspectorate of Prisons	75	418
Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland	0	102
Justice Directorate	793	541
Organisational Readiness Directorate	6,687	943
Safer Communities	39	56
Scottish National Investment Bank	0	52
Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate	143	0
Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice	21	0
Grand Total	95,645	98,375

Question reference: S6W-10017

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils in (a) Stirling, (b) Clackmannanshire, (c) Perth and Kinross and (d) Fife have received a free laptop, Chromebook or tablet to date to use at school and at home.

The following table shows how many devices have been distributed by councils to school aged children using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020/21.

Local Authority	Devices Distributed
Stirling	1794
Clackmannanshire	828
Perth and Kinross	1507
Fife	5465

Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to the provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets.

The latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding.

The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring every school-aged child has access to a device to support their learning by the end of this Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-09620

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many times and (b) on what dates it has met with stakeholders that are concerned with cladding remediation, including (i) insurers, (ii) mortgage lenders, (iii) the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and (iv) homeowners, regarding the cladding remediation programme, since the Single Building Assessment pilot began.

Since the start of the pilot in June 2021 Scottish Government has met individually with:

Association of British Insurers 5 times

on 13 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 6 October 2021, 11 November 2021,
‎ 3 March 2022,

UK Finance 6 times

on 13 July 2021, 18 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 22 February 2022, 6 April 2022, 21 April 2022

‎ SFRS 2 times

on 9 July 2021, 15 September 2021

High Rise Scotland Action Group

15 times on 30 July 2021, 13 August 2021, 16 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 2 December 2021, 10 December 2021, 17 January 2022, 11 February 2022, 18 February 2022, 4 March 2022, 25 April 2022, 26 April 2022, 9 May 2022, 11 May 2022, 6 July 2022.

‎ Pilot building homeowners association representatives

23 June 2022

The Scottish Government has met with all stakeholders collectively at meetings of the Cladding Stakeholder Group. It has met on these dates:

‎2021

30 June, 19 August, 15 September, 20 October, 17 November, 15 December.
‎

2022

19 January, 16 February, 16 March, 20 April, 18 May.

Officials have also met with the SFRS regularly, at times daily, and likewise for homeowners affected by the cladding crisis. It is impossible to attach a figure to these meetings.

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