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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: S6W-30901

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support local government to develop an open source cashless parking service app to avoid the rents extracted by private cashless parking app vendors, which are reported to be around 20p per transaction.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads with the local road authorities, including parking. The provision of parking, the charges levied and how they are collected is therefore at the local authorities discretion and this is not something in which the Scottish Government would become directly involved.

There is a National Parking Platform available across the UK, run at no cost to local authorities by the Department of Transport, which local authorities in Scotland would be free to participate in if they so wish.

Question reference: S6W-30798

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22487 by Mairi McAllan on 9 November 2023, whether it will provide an update on which of the 42 formal flood protection schemes or engineering works are (a) under construction and (b) at the planning or other stage of development, broken down by the (i) expected completion date, including the reason for any date being beyond the 2021 timeframe, (ii) number of properties that will be protected and (iii) (A) initial forecast and (B) final expected cost of each.

The responsibility for development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities, who are best placed to respond to local resilience needs.

The first set of Flood Risk Management plans covering the period 2015-2021 included 42 prioritised flood protection schemes. Work was expected to start, but construction was not necessarily expected to be completed, on those schemes within this six-year timeframe.

Flood protection schemes have impacts on individuals, communities and the environment, and require careful and thorough planning. Like all infrastructure projects, it can take many years for flood schemes to progress from option appraisal to completion.

The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to enable delivery of these important projects. £570million will be invested in flood resilience in the period 2016-2026.

40 of 42 have received funding to support development. 2 were not deemed eligible because they had previously received funding.

16 schemes are complete. The detailed status of those that remain is as follows:

4 are under construction.

Scheme	(ii) Properties protected	(i) Completion Date	(iii A) Initial cost (£ million) (1)	( iii B) Estimated final cost (£ million) (2)
Upper Garnock	600	?2024	?15.5	18.5
Hawick	970	2024	37.4	78.6
Campbeltown	770	2024	9.3	15.2
Millport Coastal	657	2024	12.1	48.6

Schemes (b) under development are as follows:

2 will commence construction in 2025.

4 have been legally confirmed as required under the FRM Act (2009) and are undergoing further development and detailed design towards construction.

5 have begun the legal notification process towards confirmation.

Scheme	Stage	(ii) Properties protected	(iii A) Initial cost (£ million) (1)	( iii B) Estimated Final Cost of Scheme (2)
Milnathort	Construction start 2025	79	1.9	0.9
Mill Burn Millport	Construction start 2025	124	1.1	1.7
Kilmacolm – Glenmosston Burn	Confirmed (3)	Not held	0.5	0.5
Comrie	Confirmed (3)	189	15.7	40.0
Dumfries - Whitesands	Confirmed (3)	166	18.9	37.5
Quarrier’s Village	Confirmed (3)	60	0.2	0.2
Dumbarton - Gruggies Burn	Legal notification complete (4)	370	14.5	20.0
South Kinross	Legal notification complete (4)	Not held	3.2	15.1
Musselburgh	Legal notification complete (4)	2500	8.9	95.9
Bridge of Allan	Legal notification complete (4)	Not held	4.4	17.0
Newton Stewart/ River Cree	Legal notification complete (4)	270	7.5	19.1

8 have been withdrawn from the cycle one funded programme (2 voluntarily and 6 because they failed to meet the notification deadline of 31 March 2024). 1 is no longer required.

(1) Note: Initial costs as provided by local authorities in 2016-17.

(2) Note: Final Scheme costs are the latest estimates provided by local authorities. Differences between these latest estimates and initial cost estimates arise as a result of inflationary pressures and because flood protection schemes are put forward for prioritisation at various stages of their development to fit with Flood Risk Management Planning cycle set out in the FRM Act. Costs are revised over time as designs are finalised and more detailed investigations are carried out and as new information emerges.

Schemes will only be taken forward for construction if they receive the necessary statutory and regulatory approvals, so the expected completion date is not yet known.

More detailed information on each of the schemes can be obtained from the relevant local authorities whose responsibility it is to develop and deliver flood protection schemes and who are best placed to answer specific questions on each of the schemes.

(3) Note: Formally confirmed under Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act (2009).

(4) Note: Notification (first stage towards legal confirmation) complete under Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act (2009)

Question reference: S6W-30740

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many fault reports have been submitted by members of the public in relation to the public electric vehicle charging network in each month of the last three years.

We can only provide information relating to the Scottish Government funded ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) public electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The commercial sector does not make their own charge point fault information readily available to third parties.

Overall reliability across the CPS network is typically very good with charge points being available for use 95% to 97% on average each month. Most faults on the CPS network are short-lived in nature and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention. Typically around 90% of faults are resolved within 48 hrs with the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk remedying most faults remotely.

Please note, ‘faults’ cover many different scenarios and do not necessarily relate to issues that affect the operation of the charging infrastructure itself, for example, it could relate to lighting at the site. Some faults may be reported by more than one member of the public and therefore each recorded fault is not necessarily a unique instance. The following table shows the total number of ‘faults’ logged by members of the public.

CPS have published a Network Performance page on the CPS website Network Performance – Charge Place Scotland which provides a breakdown of ‘fault tickets’ by local authority from November 2022 onwards. Information prior to November 2022 has not been published on the website but is detailed in the following table.

Month	Faults reported by the public
Nov-21	696
Dec-21	734
Jan-22	765
Feb-22	675
Mar-22	795
Apr-22	922
May-22	753
Jun-22	588
Jul-22	550
Aug-22	509
Sep-22	434
Oct-22	556

ChargePlace Scotland notifies the charge point host and the supplier (the private company who sends out engineers to units) of faults. Members of the public can inform CPS of faults (for example, by phoning and advising that a charge point they have tried to use is not operational) but please note that separate data is not kept purely on reports submitted by members of the public.

Weekly data is kept on a tracker beginning 30th October 2022 which had 109 faults for the week.

The monthly figures thereafter are as follows:

DATE	FAULTS
November 2022	433
December 2022	525
January 2023	515
February 2023	425
March 2023	419
April 2023	409
May 2023	391
June 2023	408
July 2023	429
August 2023	318
September 2023	472
October 2023	471
November 2023	634
December 2023	603
January 2024	449
February 2024	366
March 2024	446
April 2024	471
May 2024	381
June 2024	500
July 2024	418
August 2024	534
September 2024	431

The full month of October 2024 has not concluded at the time this response was compiled. However the following weekly figures are available –

05-10-2024	99
12-10-2024	114
19-10-2024	101

Question reference: S6W-30566

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many collisions have been recorded at, or within a half mile radius of the Toll of Birness in each year since 2015, including the period from January to end of September 2024.

The following table provides the number of injury road collisions recorded by Police Scotland as taking place at or within a half mile radius of the Toll of Birness.

Please note that the figures for 2024 are provisional, as they are based on monthly returns received thus far from Police Scotland in 2024, with the most recent returns being received on 10th October 2024. This may be an incomplete picture of casualties up to that date due to a slight lag between collisions occurring and the data being processed and shared by Police Scotland. These figures are also subject to change due to subsequent corrections and late records.

Injury road collisions within half a mile radius of the Toll of Birness, by severity
	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2015	0	0	1	1
2016	0	0	1	1
2017	1	1	0	2
2018	0	0	2	2
2019	0	1	0	1
2020	0	1	0	1
2021	0	1	0	1
2023	0	1	0	1
2024 1	0	1	0	1
1. Provisional to September 2024

Question reference: S6W-30643

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities applied to its school meal debt fund, and how much funding each received.

Question reference: S6O-03971

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the hospitality and tourism sectors to promote safety on Scotland’s mountains in winter 2024-25.

Question reference: S6O-03966

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the benefits to Scotland will be of a fully circular waste management system.

Question reference: S6O-03965

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the calls from Sir Chris Hoy to change the advice on testing for prostate cancer, to encourage more younger men to be checked.

Question reference: S6O-03967

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local residents to take forward a replacement river crossing in Annan following storm damage in 2021, in light of the findings of the recently completed feasibility study.

Question reference: S6O-03970

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its ministers have had with their UK Government counterparts regarding the changes made to agricultural property relief on inheritance tax.