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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-10764

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support and advice it has given to (a) local authorities and (b) transport providers to reduce vehicle emissions in cities.

The 2022-23 local government finance settlement of almost £12.7 billion represents an increase of over £1 billion or 9.2 per cent in cash terms compared with 2021-22.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on reducing vehicle emissions, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government provides support for lower income households and small businesses to get prepared for Low Emission Zones. The LEZ Support Fund offers financial support towards the disposal of non-LEZ compliant vehicles and offers ‘Travel Better’ grants to help households to switch to more sustainable modes of transport. Administered by Energy Saving Trust, the LEZ Support Fund provides people and micro-businesses with financial support to travel more sustainably and comply with forthcoming measures to improve air quality and protect public health. The LEZ Support Fund awarded £1.7 million in grants In 2020/21, and £3.85 million in 2021/22; with a further £5 million made available in 2022-23.

The Scottish Government has also made LEZ retrofit grants available to micro business owners (including taxi operators) which cover up to 80% of the capital costs for the retrofitting of non-compliant vehicles to the latest Euro 6 emissions standard. The fund also provides an incentive of a cash grant (up to £2,000) for the safe disposal of a non-compliant vehicle. To date, LEZ Support funding has resulted in over 2,000 non-LEZ compliant vehicles being disposed of or retrofitted with cleaner technology. Since 2019, over £4 million has been received by business operators through the fund, comprised of approximately £2 million in disposal grants for micro-businesses, and approximately £2 million for taxi retrofitting.

On rail, the Scottish Government has made a commitment to decarbonise rail passenger services by 2035, removing diesel trains that will improve the air quality across Scotland’s cities and communities.

To support bus and coach operators with the financial costs associated with engine and exhaust retrofitting to meet LEZ standards, the Bus Emission Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) grant funding has been offered by Scottish Government since 2018. BEAR Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 provided £18.4 million funding to support the costs of retrofitting of 1143 buses and coaches to Euro VI standard in Scottish Air Quality Management Areas from 2018 to 2022. An additional £2.65 million has been made available for BEAR 5 in 2022/23, with further funding also currently under consideration.

On 10 August 2022, the Scottish Government opened the Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme, which makes funding available to transport providers and local authorities to develop new business models for a rapid decarbonisation of bus transport. This fund – worth £500,000 – is open for applications until 09 December, or until all funding has been awarded, whichever occurs first.

Further details of these, and other recent schemes designed to enable local authorities and transport operators to reduce emissions is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63670)

Question reference: S6W-10765

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many discussions it has had since January 2019 with Scotland's Climate Emergency Response Group about making every Scottish city "vehicle emission free" by 2030.

Question reference: S6O-01482

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with the UK Government regarding making MSPs prescribed persons under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and extending parliamentary privilege.

Question reference: S6O-01473

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given in its planning policy to the role of mixed energy generation methods.

Question reference: S6W-11352

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of all currently operational Scottish Development International offices, broken down by location and staff numbers at each office.

Our Internationalisation Plans take an evidence-led approach to trade and investment policy and delivery, focusing on those sectors and opportunities where Scotland strengths align to global trends in trade and investment. All of our plans were developed in collaboration with our key delivery partners including Scotland's enterprise and skills agencies. Implementation of the Plans align our priorities around trade and investment with those countries and markets where Scotland already does well, but could perform better. This evidence base enables Scottish Development International, on behalf of the enterprise agencies and Scottish Government, to align their resources, including international offices and specialist staff.

For details of the specifics in this question, I have asked Scottish Enterprise to write to you directly with the information you seek.

Question reference: S6W-11140

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff currently working in the overseas offices network are also employed by the UK Government's overseas embassies.

There are no Scottish Government staff working within our international offices, who are also employed by the UK Government.

Scottish Government international offices are staffed by Civil Servants and Country Based Staff.

Civil Servants are appointed to represent Scotland in our international offices by a recruitment panel which includes the posts’ line manager. Appointees are recruited from existing Scottish Government roles or from wider UK Government departments.

Country Based Staff are recruited using the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office recruitment processes in each country and are paid for by the Scottish Government. There are currently 17 Country Based Staff employed within our Scottish Government international offices. It is common practice with the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive to recruit country based staff for their overseas offices in the same way.

Question reference: S6W-11139

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons Scotland’s Winter Festival Fund for the 2022-23 season is no longer in operation, and what support exists for winter events in Scotland in 2022.

Following the emergency budget review announced by the First Minister on 11 August 2022, the Scottish Government took the difficult decision not to provide funding for the Scotland’s Winter Festivals Fund in the 2022-23 season. This decision was considered carefully and taken based on the need to focus the Scottish Government’s finite resources in order to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, where possible.

Round 46 of Event Scotland’s National Events Programme is providing approximately £280,000 for 29 events taking place from September to December 2022 (inclusive). Additionally, over £600,000 has been provided to support 21 events to take place during 2022 through the Year of Stories 2022 Open Events Fund, with 181 community events supported by over £700,000 through the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund, which is funded by the Scottish Government, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Museum Galleries Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-11179

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what factors it has identified as being the cause of the reported drop in life expectancy for (a) men and (b) women in Scotland.

The National Records of Scotland published the latest life expectancy statistics on 22 September 2022. The report shows that COVID-19 deaths accounted for the vast majority of the fall in life expectancy in 2020 and 2021, in both men and women. However, there were also some increases in other causes of death, including drug related deaths and deaths due to circulatory problems in men.

The Scottish Government expresses its deepest sympathies to everyone who has lost a loved one as a result of the pandemic.

Question reference: S6F-01419

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2022

To ask the First Minister what discussions she has had with the UK Government about new investment zones for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-10789

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many nights' accommodation have been booked for Ukrainian refugees under the Super Sponsor scheme with Expedia.co.uk since 1 March 2022, and for any such bookings, what the (a) lowest, (b) highest and (c) average cost per night is, and what the (i) shortest, (ii) longest and (iii) average length of a stay in a hotel is.