- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that park home site owners comply with safety and maintenance standards.
Answer
Local authorities are the licensing authority for permanent residential mobile home sites in their area and are responsible for setting the licence conditions and enforcing them if breached.
To ensure a degree of consistency, under section 5(6) of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, the Scottish Government publishes guidance (https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-local-authorities-licensing-system-mobile-homes-sites-permanent-residents/) to local authorities on how to operate the licencing system effectively. This includes a set of model standards (https://www.gov.scot/publications/model-standards-residential-mobile-home-site-licences/) for sites which covers issues such as site safety and maintenance, supply of utilities, roads, gateways and traffic routes as well as pedestrian routes. Different organisations have responsibility for enforcing safety standards, depending on the service provided.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many properties in the North Lot area have been connected to superfast broadband through the R100 build scheme since it was established, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The following table sets out the total number of premises currently contracted to receive connections through the R100 North contract by 2028, the number of premises connected as of 13 January 2025 and the number of premises yet to be connected as of the same date.
Openreach are also delivering a number of additional connections to premises that were not in the contracts, but have been connected as a result of nearby R100 contract build. This is known as overspill. The number of such connections delivered are also provided in the following table.
It should also be noted that our demand-led R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) remains available for those not expected to benefit from superfast broadband through R100 contract or commercial build plans.
Local Authority | R100 Contractual Premises | Premises Delivered | Premises Remaining | Overspill Premises Delivered |
Aberdeen City | 622 | 170 | 452 | 61 |
Aberdeenshire | 16,049 | 5,856 | 10,193 | 1,211 |
Angus | 6,635 | 708 | 5,927 | 100 |
Argyll and Bute* | 7,191 | 2,408 | 4,783 | 573 |
Dundee City | 124 | 0 | 124 | 0 |
Highland | 12,768 | 2,852 | 9,916 | 1,038 |
Moray | 4,888 | 1,446 | 3,442 | 361 |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar | 2,206 | 0 | 2,206 | 0 |
North Ayrshire* | 232 | 0 | 232 | 269 |
Orkney Islands | 3,320 | 1,563 | 1,757 | 539 |
Perth and Kinross* | 4,031 | 1,164 | 2,867 | 722 |
Shetland Islands | 2,424 | 1,181 | 1,243 | 79 |
Stirling* | 274 | 0 | 274 | 486 |
Total | 60,764 | 17,348 | 43,416 | 5,439 |
*Please note that the figures for Argyll & Bute, North Ayrshire, Perth & Kinross and Stirling only represent connections delivered through the R100 North contract. These Local Authorities are also receiving connections through the R100 Central contract.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the average occupancy rate of the Parliament crèche has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
We can’t easily calculate an occupancy rate for the creche, as the overall capacity of the creche varies depending on the ages of the children using it and the required staffing ratios (i.e. 0-2 years requires 1 staff member to every 3 children, 2-3 years requires 1 staff member to every 5 children, 3-5 years requires 1 staff member to every 8 children).
In terms of overall usage, in 2019/20 the creche had a total of 2759 bookings with average length of stay of 1hr 41mins. In 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23, the creche service was closed due to the pandemic and the time required to set up a new service contract. In 2023/24, the creche returned with reduced opening hours (now only operating 3 days per week, rather than 5 day per week). There were 894 bookings in 2023/24 with an average length of stay of 2hr 13mins. The number of bookings in 2023/24 only reflect 10 months of opening, as the service was still being mobilised for the first 2 months of the year.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many sachets of (a) sauce and (b) salt and pepper (i) it and (ii) its suppliers have procured, and what the average cost was for each item, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Our catering services contractor holds data from 2015 onwards:
Salt & Pepper sachets | Quantity | Average value |
2015 | 60,000 | 0.00341p |
2016 | 62,000 | 0.0034p |
2017 | 62,000 | 0.0036p |
2018 | 58,000 | 0.003595p |
2019 | 64,000 | 0.0036p |
2020 | 24,000 | 0.0036p |
2021 | 22,000 | 0.0037p |
2022 | 38,000 | 0.003677p |
2023 | 58,000 | 0.00409p |
2024 | 62,000 | 0.00292p |
2025 | 8,000 | 0.00292p |
Sauce sachets | Purchased | Average value |
2015 | 39,600 | 0.0228p |
2016 | 40,200 | 0.024p |
2017 | 19,600 | 0.02625p |
2018 | 16,200 | 0.032p |
2019 | 9,000 | 0.0329p |
2020 | 10,800 | 0.0319p |
2021 | 13,400 | 0.0337p |
2022 | 14,800 | 0.0236p |
2023 | 16,400 | 0.0236p |
2024 | 18,200 | 0.0376p |
2025 | 1,000 | 0.0348p |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many flags it has purchased in each of the last 15 years, and what flags were purchased.
Answer
We do not hold this information.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws (i) it and (ii) its suppliers have procured, and what the average cost of each straw was, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Our catering services contractor does not hold data on straws that were purchased prior to 2022. We do not procure plastic straws for use in the catering services, the table below shows the data held for paper and metal straws.
| Paper straws | Metal straws |
Year | Straws purchased | Average price | Straws purchased | Average price |
2022 | 250 | 0.005p | 0 | n/a |
2023 | 500 | 0.005p | 20 | 0.78p |
2024 | 500 | 0.005p | 0 | n/a |
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the total cost of window cleaning services has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Window cleaning services at the Scottish Parliament are carried out by both Mitie Cleaning and Environmental Services Ltd (general cleaning contract) and TRAC International Ltd (High-level Building Maintenance Contract). We do not hold information in a format which allows us to identify the costs of cleaning windows. Payments made under both contracts do not distinguish window cleaning from other cleaning services undertaken by Mitie or as part of the work regularly done by Trac. Information about suppliers for each business area within the SPCB, including the provision of cleaning services is publicly available in the Contracts Register on the Scottish Parliament website.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost has been of providing (a) tea, (b) coffee, (c) fruit and (d) biscuits in (i) the Members’ lounge and (ii) committee rooms, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
We do not hold information on individual catering items that have been served at meetings, as meeting room hospitality is often ordered in a package format without specific item breakdowns being recorded. The costs for internal hospitality within the building cannot accurately be broken down to individual rooms or spaces.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many Parliament passes have been reported lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Answer
The total number of Parliament passes that have been reported as lost or stolen for the last five calendar years are set out below:
- 2020 – 14
- 2021 – 12
- 2022 – 15
- 2023 – 20
- 2024 – 21
These numbers do not include passes that were reported as lost or stolen but were subsequently found.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 20 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the cost of PAT testing Christmas decorations in the Parliament building has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Christmas tree decorations are stored and delivered onsite by our service provider, with PAT testing costs covered by the contractor.