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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-10719

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that every child leaves school with the ability to cycle safely.

Bikeability Scotland is a national cycle training programme for school children which supports the next generation of confident and responsible people travelling by bike. More than 41,000 children benefited from cycle training across all levels of the programme in 2020-21, and 37% of all primary schools delivered essential life skills through Level 2 on-road training.

The child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022 recognises transport as a key lever of poverty and child poverty through its impact on household income access to employment, education, goods and services. We have a commitment to provide free bikes to children who cannot afford one, and to date over 2,000 young people in Scotland have benefited from this commitment through our nine pilot projects.

Ensuring that every child leaves school with the ability to cycle safely, is not only about training. It’s also about providing a safe environment through the development of active travel infrastructure. We are committed to supporting many more people to walk, wheel or cycle for everyday journeys and are allocating record funding for that purpose.

The Active Travel budget for 2022-23 increased to a record £150 million; of which £137.7 million is capital investment. This includes the Cycling Walking Safer Routes grant of £35 million that goes directly to local authorities on a pro rata basis. We are investing in ambitious on and off-road segregated walking and cycling routes, safer junctions and improved design of place.

Question reference: S6W-10304

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what level of carbon production associated with energy generation it considers as low-carbon.

The Scottish Government considers renewable, nuclear, bioenergy and energy from waste generation technologies to be low carbon. This is consistent with the definition used by the UK Government (BEIS).Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type, and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification. Lifecycle emissions are used to classify bioenergy as low carbon, because whilst bioenergy is not necessarily low emissions at the point of generation, it is low carbon over its lifecycle.

Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.

Question reference: S6W-10307

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09016 by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June 2022, whether it will provide updated figures on how many young people have now received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority, based on the latest information available.

The following table shows the number of cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of the end of the day on 12 September 2022, broken down to local authority level.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The table includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile application.

Local Authority	Cardholders
Aberdeen City	21,431
Aberdeenshire	24,031
Angus Council	7,120
Argyll & Bute	5,589
City of Edinburgh	58,777
Clackmannanshire	2,780
Comhairie nan Eilean Siar	1,382
Dumfries and Galloway	8,739
Dundee City	17,282
East Ayrshire	14,084
East Dunbartonshire	8,340
East Lothian	11,226
East Renfrewshire	8,723
Falkirk	9,054
Fife	41,233
Glasgow City	52,152
Highland	13,341
Inverclyde	10,775
Midlothian	8,507
Moray	6,996
North Ayrshire	15,812
North Lanarkshire	27,591
Orkney Islands	1,288
Perth & Kinross	12,039
Renfrewshire	17,193
Scottish Borders	9,087
Shetland Islands	2,487
South Ayrshire	6,492
South Lanarkshire	28,143
Stirling	6,612
West Dunbartonshire	9,638
West Lothian	15,987
Total	483,931

Question reference: S6W-10539

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is, regarding any potential impact on Scotland, to the reported UK Government policy proposal to require cyclists to be licensed and to display a number plate.

Vehicle registration is generally a reserved matter operated by the DVLA. We have not been involved in discussions to date and would have to establish whether bicycles are classes as vehicles to understand what its impact on Scotland, if any, would be.

We are committed to supporting many more people to walk, wheel or cycle for everyday journeys and are allocating record funding for that purpose. Cycle licences or registration plates have played no part in our proposals and would run counter to our aims by making it harder for people to make the choice to choose cycling for everyday short journeys. There are many more effective steps that can be taken to ensure that roads are safer for all users – for examples, increasing accessible cycle infrastructure, improving street design and making sure that all road users are aware of good safe ways of using the roads.

Question reference: S6W-10308

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 12 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many journeys have been completed by young people using a free bus pass through the Young Persons' (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, based on the latest information available.

Question reference: S6O-01353

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is addressing court backlogs that are reportedly leading to young people being held on remand for longer than 140 days in young offenders institutions.

Question reference: S6W-10465

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is encouraging public collections to consider returning cultural artefacts that were stolen during colonial times.

The Scottish Government encourages our public collections to consider the method of acquisition of all objects in their care, the vast majority of which were obtained ethically and legally.

Any consideration of returning cultural artefacts would initially be a decision for the relevant Board of Trustees. However Scottish Government officials engage in ongoing discussions with the museums sector, and will continue to encourage open and inclusive discussion on this topic.

Question reference: S6W-10200

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards its target of rolling out 20 mph speed limits on appropriate roads in built-up areas by 2025.

The multi-stakeholder task group continues to meet on a regular basis and is making good progress towards the development of a national strategy for 20 mph speed limits which incorporates the 2021 Programme for Government commitment “We will ensure all appropriate roads in built-up areas have a safer speed limit of 20 mph by 2025, forming a task group to plan the most effective route for implementation”.

Transport Scotland formed sub groups to develop the place criteria for 20 mph speed limits and research the development of pre and post communication plans to support behaviour change. Funding has been allocated to assist road authorities in carrying out road assessments on their network which is expected to be complete by Spring 2023. This is a key milestone agreed at the task group, noting that further consideration and evidence was needed on the number of roads affected and the financial implications before an informed decision on the most effective route to implement 20 mph speed limits can be reached. Transport Scotland has also been discussing the possibility of some roads authorities becoming early adopters of 20 mph speed limits to make progress on the delivery of the national strategy.

Question reference: S6W-10541

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to allow Bikeability training to count as curricula PE in schools.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children in primary school receive at least two hours of physical education (PE) every school week, and that all young people in secondaries 1 to 4 receive at least two 50-minute periods of PE every school week. Under Curriculum for Excellence, schools and local authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of PE at local levels taking into account the needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. This includes whether Bikeability training should be made available within PE.

Where a school is considering whether to offer Bikeability training as a part of PE, we would urge that there are clear links to the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes within physical education and that the learning is appropriate for all learners within the lesson. Alternatively, schools could also consider offering Bikeability training as an extra-curricular activity. Any school interested in obtaining more information about Bikeability training can access this through Cycling Scotland's website on the following link: Bikeability Scotland - Schools - Cycling Scotland .

Question reference: S6O-01320

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the proposed National Treatment Centres for NHS Tayside and NHS Fife.