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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-04366

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with tenants’ unions, including Living Rent, regarding its proposed rented sector strategy.

As we committed to in Housing to 2040 , tenant participation is at the heart of our work to develop the Rented Sector Strategy. Alongside meetings with tenants and tenants’ groups, we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service to understand tenants’ lived experiences and hear their views.

The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights met with Living Rent in September to discuss a range of issues, and going forward, we will also look at the wider role of tenants’ unions across Europe.

The Draft Rented Sector Strategy Consultation will be published by the end of 2021 for a full 12 week public consultation, at which point tenants and tenants’ groups will have further opportunity to provide their views. We will also undertake further engagement with tenants groups during the consultation period and on the lead up to publishing a final version of the Strategy in the latter part of 2022.

Question reference: S6W-04334

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated spend per student will be on the Saltire Scholarship scheme for EU students.

Scotland welcomes international students and recognises the important and valuable contribution they make to institutions, the economy and Scottish society. Hundreds of EU students will be supported to study in Scotland through the new £2.25 million scholarship programme.

A total of 290 places have been allocated to institutions, with an estimated average spend of £7,759 per student. This is based on a split of £4,000 per college place and £8,000 per university place.

Question reference: S6W-04421

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will deliver on The Promise that it made to care experienced young people.

On 5 February 2020 the Independent Care Review published its conclusions which became ‘The Promise’ . On the same day the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament agreed to implement all the findings of the Independent Care Review by 2030. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with The Promise Scotland to progress the actions set out in Plan 21-24 and Change Programme ONE .

Question reference: S6W-04363

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Police Scotland on the reported use of policing tactics such as kettling during COP26.

Question reference: S6W-04353

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been an underspend of the social security budget in this financial year and, if so, how much the underspend is, and how it compares to initial forecasts.

The overall social security budget for the 2021-22 financial year was set in January 2021, at almost £4 billion. This includes £3.5 billion for demand-led benefits expenditure, and almost £0.5 billion for Social Security Programme implementation investment and Social Security Scotland operating costs.

The Scottish Government has put in place robust processes to manage the risks associated with demand-led expenditure on this scale and the potential impact any variations could have on the wider Scottish Budget. After the financial year has ended, our Budget position will be presented to Parliament in the Provisional Outturn statement and confirmed in the 2021-22 consolidated accounts in the normal way.

Question reference: S6W-04199

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether any pharmacy has breached their NHS contract in the last 12 months and, if so, how many have done, and for what reason.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of pharmacies that have closed over the past 12 months nor reasons for closures. The provision of community pharmacy pharmaceutical care services are the responsibility of territorial Health Boards as set out in the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, including pharmacy closures. Each Health Board holds separate data on those community pharmacies that have been unable to deliver pharmaceutical care services due to closures.

Any challenges faced by community pharmacies in ensuring the safe and effective dispensing of treatments should be discussed with the local Health Board to minimise impact and risk to patients.

Question reference: S6W-04124

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when ScotRail’s response to the public consultation on the Fit For the Future proposals will be published.

Question reference: S6W-04355

Asked by: Marie McNair, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many electric cars have been sold in each of the last five years, how the percentage of cars that are electric compared to those that use other fuels has changed over the last five years, what incentives will be put in place to encourage drivers to switch to electric cars and what (a) funding and (b) support is being provided to (i) local authorities and (ii) businesses seeking to install electric charging points.

The Department for Transport (DfT) publish annual figures on their website on the number of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) registered in the UK, a link can be found here Cars (VEH02) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . This data does not provide a breakdown of EV’s registered per region, data is only available per region on the total number of vehicles registered across all propulsion groups.

The following table which includes the total number of EV's registered in the UK over the last 5 years and the market share they represent.

Year	BEV/Unknown (Thousands)	Market Share	Non-BEV/Unknown (Thousands)	Market Share
2016	10.7	0.40%	2713.1	99.60%
2017	14.0	0.50%	2550.3	99.50%
2018	15.8	0.70%	2378.2	99.30%
2019	38.1	1.60%	2308.5	98.40%
2020	108.0	6.50%	1548.4	93.50%

BEV - Battery Electric Vehicles, Unknown - Ultra Low Emission Vehicles not Petrol/Diesel.

Since 2014 the Scottish Government has supported decarbonisation of fleets in local authorities. As part of our overall Fleets funding of almost £50 million we have provided over £30 million of funding to local authorities to enable the procurement of over 2,300 zero and ultra-low emission vehicles as well as charging and refuelling infrastructure.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government through the Energy Saving Trust (EST) have funded the Low Carbon Transport Loan (LCTL) which provides an interest free loan to support individuals and businesses across Scotland purchase new EV’s. To date this scheme have helped over 5100 individuals and businesses across Scotland make the switch to ultra-low emission vehicles by providing loan funding of over £140 million.

The Scottish Government has made grant funding available for installing Domestic (Home) Chargepoints. Since this scheme launched the Scottish Government has supported the installation of almost 12,000 domestic chargepoints to a value of almost £10 million.

The Scottish Government has made grant funding available through the Business Chargepoint Fund to support organisations install EV charging infrastructure on their premises for use by occupiers, staff and visitors. Since 2011 the Scottish Government through this fund has supported almost 1300 businesses with grants worth over £9 million to install EV chargepoints.

To further support the uptake of EV’s, the Scottish Government has invested over £50 million in the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network, which now has over 2000 publicly available chargepoints located around Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-04393

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of its commitment to provide 1,000 additional staff members in primary care mental health services, including (a) which roles it expects to provide, (b) by what date recruitment for the roles is expected to begin and (c) by what date all 1,000 additional staff are expected to be in place.

The Scottish Government will hold a debate in the Scottish Parliament before the end of the year to set out its plan to deliver this commitment.

The plan will detail how every General Practice across Scotland will have access to a Mental Health and Wellbeing Service by April 2026, creating 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and help direct social prescribing.

Question reference: S6W-04362

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Police Scotland and (b) the Scottish Police Authority, regarding the policing of protests during COP26.