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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-04798

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04433 by Graeme Dey on 30 November 2021, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether it has undertaken an assessment of introducing a specific scheme for island businesses that lose income as a result of ferry delays and cancellations, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

There are no plans for a compensation scheme to be offered to businesses due to travel disruption as a result of ferry delays and cancellations. Any such scheme would be extremely challenging and would ultimately draw resources otherwise intended for the operation of ferry services.

Scottish Ministers do fully recognise the importance of reliable ferry services to the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities. We have committed to investing at least £580 million in ports and vessels over the next five years to improve resilience.

CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL), have operational responsibility to deliver the lifeline services and work throughout disruptions to find ways to continue the freight and passenger service to the communities. However, it is impossible to completely remove the risk of disruption due to either inclement weather or other reasons.

Transport Scotland continue to work with CalMac Ferries Ltd and engage with local stakeholders in order to ensure any disruption to services have minimum impact on communities, and assess all the options available to maximise available capacity across the CHFS network.

Question reference: S6W-04799

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when the sectoral Just Transition plan for the nuclear sector will be produced, and what role (a) the workforce, (b) its unions and (c) local communities will have in this.

Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, to be published next year, will provide a roadmap for the future of Scotland’s energy system. We will co-design this Plan with the workers, businesses and communities most impacted by the net zero transition, including those within or associated with the nuclear energy industry. Workers, unions and the communities they are part of have always been at the heart of a just transition and will continue to be so. Together, we must provide certainty for those affected as we set out how the economic and social impacts of Scotland’s changing energy system will be managed.

We will outline the sequencing for specific Just Transition Plans in the new year, and as part of that, will explore if there are any sub-sectors of the energy system that would benefit from a standalone Plan.

Question reference: S6W-04729

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on developing ecosystem health indicators subsequent to those introduced in 2017, as referenced in one of the supporting documents to the 2018 document, Developing an Environment Strategy for Scotland: Discussion Paper, which states that "work is underway to develop a set of ecosystem health indicators for Scotland which will provide a comprehensive assessment."

There is now a suite of 15 ecosystem health indicators relating to condition, function and resilience of ecosystems, available on Scotland’s Environment Web at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/ . NatureScot is currently working on updates to the indicators to take advantage of new data that have become available.

At the time of the 2018 discussion paper, NatureScot and the James Hutton Institute were working to develop two new indicators, for nitrogen pollution and summer temperatures. Both indicators use bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) which are very sensitive to environmental change. This work has been completed and the additional indicators are available on Scotland’s Environment Web, at: https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/state-of-the-environment/ecosystem-health-indicators/resilience-indicators/ .

Question reference: S6W-04747

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the age is of ScotRail's (a) newest and (b) oldest rolling stock, and what the average age is of ScotRail's rolling stock.

ScotRail’s (a) newest rolling stock are the seventy class 385 trains which were introduced in 2018-19 and (b) oldest rolling stock are the twenty-five Inter-city High Speed Trains which were introduced from the late 1970s and extensively re-engineered and refurbished in 2017-2020.

The Scottish Government recognises the sustainability advantages of re-engineering older rail vehicle structures, when appropriate, thus avoiding the energy expended in the production of new rail vehicles.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures from 2020-21 calculates that the average age of the 350 trains in the ScotRail fleet is 21.69 years.

Question reference: S6W-04753

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates any voluntary redundancies or voluntary early retirement schemes to be offered to ScotRail employees as part of the nationalisation of ScotRail.

Question reference: S6W-04855

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many days were spent at sea on operational duties by the Marine Protection Vessels (a) Minna, (b) Jura and (c) Hirta in each year between 2018 and 2020, broken down by whether they were (i) within and (ii) outside the six nautical mile limit.

The number of days spent at sea for the Marine Protection Vessels is as follows:

	Number of Days at Sea
Vessel	2018	2019	2020
MPV JURA	285	322	299
MPV HIRTA	297	318	305
MPV MINNA	296	320	264

We are unable to separate patrol days between inside and outside inshore waters (inshore waters are generally considered to be the area covered by 6 miles from the baseline), as we do not record them in this way.

MPV Minna is an inshore/offshore vessel that generally focuses on territorial waters (0-12 nautical miles) while MPV Hirta and MPV Jura are offshore patrol vessels which spend the majority of their time patrolling territorial waters and offshore areas, apart from when transiting to patrol areas or where there is specific tasking to patrol inshore waters.

Question reference: S6W-04979

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for grant assistance to deliver affordable housing above Affordable Housing Investment Benchmark level have been required to be withdrawn and resubmitted due to (a) contract offers having expired and (b) costs having increased since the initial application was submitted, in each quarter since Q1 2016.

Question reference: S6W-04800

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the scope will be of the forthcoming review of snaring.

A statutory review as required by section 11F of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is currently underway which will be complete early in 2022.

We are also currently developing the scope for a wider review of aspects of snaring including the question of a ban. Details of this review will be announced in due course.

The Scottish Government is committed to upholding the highest standards of animal welfare and we shall, of course, engage widely with stakeholders as part of this work.

Question reference: S6W-04739

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in the event that current ScotRail employees transfer to a new nationalised organisation under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations, which groups or grades of employees will remain on terms and conditions that include (a) bonuses, (b) car allowances and (c) private healthcare, and whether it will provide details of their (i) current and (ii) anticipated post-transfer renumeration packages.

Abellio ScotRail staff will transfer to the new operator, ScotRail Trains Limited on 1 April 2022. In accordance with the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations, all employees will transfer on their current contractual terms and conditions, which in some cases may include car allowances and healthcare provisions. Non-contractual bonus schemes are not covered by TUPE. As new staff are recruited, previous terms and conditions covered by TUPE need not apply to new contracts.

Question reference: S6W-04748

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to purchase any additional rolling stock for the ScotRail fleet.

ScotRail Trains Limited will be responsible for operating services from 31 March 2022 and it is currently finalising plans for its future fleet requirements, including the new emission free vehicles needed to deliver the Scottish Government’s Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan.

Further information on the Decarbonisation Action Plan can be accessed via the following link:-

Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan (transport.gov.scot)