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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-10617

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what incentives exist to encourage solar farm developers to offer forms of community financial benefit.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments can help generate lasting social and economic benefit for communities across Scotland.

Our longstanding Good Practice Principles for Community Benefit from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments (2019) set national standards, which we encourage all renewable energy developers and communities to utilise, regardless of technology type.

We are keen to see the number of solar installations offering community benefit increase and, as we work with the solar sector towards solutions for its future in our forthcoming draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Strategy, will continue to encourage the sector to consider what packages of community benefit it can offer.

Question reference: S6W-10670

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the introduction of noise cameras on certain roads.

Transport Scotland is aware of the DfT Roadside Vehicle Noise Measurement trials and will continue to monitor their progress and effectiveness. There is an established Transport Scotland remote sensing programme for vehicle emissions and how these relate to air quality. My officials are preparing to include noise monitoring in the next round of this programme later this year.

Setting of legal limits for noise levels from new vehicles is reserved to UK Government via the Construction and Use Regulations and enforced by Police Scotland. Any noise monitoring and enforcement trials tackling excessively noisy car exhausts within Scottish towns or cities would be the collective responsibility of Police Scotland and the relevant road authority, which we would be happy to support as appropriate.

Question reference: S6O-01387

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to consult further on electoral reform in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-10309

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many release sites for beaver translocations have (a) been identified and (b) had licence applications submitted for that purpose, by (i) NatureScot (ii) Forestry and Land Scotland (iii) Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (iv) Cairngorms National Park and (v) other public bodies.

The Scottish Government does not hold specific information of how many release sites for beaver translocations have been identified.

Following the Scottish Government’s announcement to actively support the expansion of the beaver population in November 2021 much work has been undertaken by NatureScot to support the policy. While there have been no licence applications made by public bodies to date, NatureScot have logged a number of expressions of interest and are liaising with RSPB Scotland and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority in relation to the consultation for beaver translocations in progress for Loch Lomond, and with Forestry and Land Scotland for the consultation in progress for Glen Affric.

Question reference: S6T-00873

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is regarding the impact in Scotland of the reported plans of the UK Government to grant up to 130 new oil and gas exploration licences.

Question reference: S6W-10500

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration has been given to changing the start of the woodcock shooting season in order to improve populations.

Scottish Government has asked NatureScot to review the contents of Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Schedule 2 lists the species of birds which are protected during the close season but which may be killed or taken outside this period. Consideration of, and proposals for any changes to the shooting season for woodcock will be undertaken within this review, and in the context of other scheduled species.

We expect the review to be completed early next year.

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.