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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-05836

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of which services will no longer be available to passengers at times when ticket offices are proposed to be closed, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.

Transport Scotland has not undertaken any assessment however Abellio ScotRail has carried out an assessment of all ticket sales, passenger assistance, ticket buying facilities, waiting areas, toilets, passenger footfall, links to local schools, colleges and businesses for every station with a ticket office. In addition, Abellio ScotRail also reviewed any instances of anti-social behaviour to ensure the proposed changes do not reduce the customer experience.

Abellio ScotRail has also confirmed that no job loses would occur and any change to opening times would be redeployed in the local area to ensure customers were better supported by having staff more visible and on the frontline.

Question reference: S6W-05829

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its or Transport Scotland's officials had with representatives of Abellio ScotRail regarding its proposals to change ticket office opening hours, and on what dates these discussions took place.

Question reference: S6W-05835

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates any changes to ticket office opening hours being implemented prior to 1 April 2022, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.

Question reference: S6W-05741

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what documentation can be used by asylum seekers under the age of 22 to make an application under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme if they do not have the documentation required for a Young Scot card.

The Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme is being delivered through the National Entitlement Card (NEC) in the same way as the long standing Older and Disabled Persons’ Scheme. The Improvement Service is the accountable body for the NEC Scheme. People applying for an NEC or Young Scot NEC are asked to provide proof of person and proof of address.

Young people aged 16 and over apply for the new NEC card themselves, whilst parents, guardians or carers apply on behalf of children aged 5-15 and are required to provide proof that they hold that role in relation to that child. Full details of the acceptable proofs are listed on the NEC website .

In relation to asylum seekers and refugees, the Improvement Service issued updated guidance to local authorities in September 2021. One proof of specific relevance to asylum seekers and refugees is the Application Registration Card (ARC), issued by the Home Office. Under the UK Proof of Age Scheme (PASS), the ARC cannot be used to establish evidence of identification and so cannot be used online to verify parental responsibility of a young person under 16 years. It may however be used when applying offline and in conjunction with other information or evidence available to a council, a school or a dedicated staff member within a Local Authority assigned to help asylum seekers and refugees. This will enable the official to vouch for an applicant or a parent acting on their behalf by considering other information, evidence or context not available to the online application process.

Question reference: S6W-05838

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government over which period in 2019 the ticket sales data in ScotRail's consultation on ticket office closures relates to.

Abellio ScotRail advise they carried out analysis from ticket issue data for each of the current ScotRail ticket offices covering the seven-week period from 30 October to 17 December 2016 & 2019, regarded in the industry as the busiest period in the year.

It is important to note the data used for the review was from 2019 and represents a period not impacted by the Covid pandemic and the associated fall in customer numbers.

Question reference: S6W-05828

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it or Transport Scotland was notified that Abellio ScotRail was planning to consult on changes to ticket office opening hours at a number of its stations.

Question reference: S6W-06191

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2022
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Government how it is applying evidence-based psychological interventions to change lifestyle behaviours related to (a) obesity, (b) disability and (c) chronic disease.

Question reference: S6W-05568

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government who attended each COBR meeting on its behalf during 2021.

COBR is shorthand for the UK Government Civil Contingencies Committee that is convened to handle matters of UK national emergency or major disruption. COBR ministerial meetings are described as COBR (M).

The Scottish Government can only report on COBR meetings we are invited to attend by the UK Government. The following table sets out the COBR meetings that the Scottish Government was invited to and which Scottish Ministers attended during 2021.

Meeting	Subject	Date	SG representative(s)
COBR (M)	Winter resilience	01-01-2021	Deputy First Minister
COBR (M)	Storm Christoph	19-01-2021	Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Land Reform
COBR (M)	Storm Christoph	20-01-2021	First Minister
COBR (M)	Storm Christoph	21-01-2021	Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Land Reform
COBR (M)	Covid-19	10-12-2021	First Minister Chief Medical Officer Director General, Constitution and External Affairs
COBR (M)	Covid-19	15-12-2021	First Minister Chief Medical Officer Director of COVID Coordination
COBR (M)	Covid-19	19-12-2021	First Minister Chief Medical Officer Director General, Constitution and External Affairs

Question reference: S6W-05394

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the use of the CitizenCard as valid ID for the purposes of the vaccine certification scheme.

Question reference: S6W-05506

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many workers it anticipates its Just Transition (a) Fund and (b) plans will assist to "transition"; where specifically these workers will be required to (i) live and (ii) work, and whether these will include oil and gas workers who are based outside of the UK.

Our Just Transition plans (beginning with the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan due to be published later this year) will set out how the economic and social impacts of our transition to Net Zero will be managed in a way that delivers on our national just transition outcomes.

From this programme of work, and the co-design activity that will be undertaken to support the Plans, we will develop a clearer evidence base regarding the nature and scale of impacts on workers across our economy, including the over 70,000 workers supported by oil and gas.

Our Just Transition Fund is a new financial commitment and so its design is being shaped by dialogue with regional partners to ensure that together we secure maximum impact. Given this is a regional Fund, the focus is to support opportunities and investments for the benefit of people who currently work and live in the region.