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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-00546

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland’s growth target for rail freight will be achieved by 2024.

Network Rail is on track to meet our innovative growth target for rail freight. Despite the health pandemic, rail freight demand has held up well and 216 new freight trains ran on the network in Scotland in the past 12 months. Supported by Scottish Government and third party investment more new freight services in Scotland are planned in the next 18 months, in addition to new cross border express logistics services. Modal shift to rail will play a key part in decarbonising the overall transport network to meet our ambitious climate change targets.

Question reference: S6W-00236

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 10 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many delays to ferry services operated by CalMac have been caused by mechanical complications in the last five years.

The number of times a mechanical problem has resulted in a delay to ferry services operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd between October 2016 to March 2021 is detailed in the following table.

Period	Scheduled Sailings	No. of Sailings Delayed	% of sailings delayed
Contract Year 1 Oct 2016 – Sept 2017	156,820	213	0.14
Contract Year 2 Oct 2017 – Sept 2018	163,892	198	0.12
Contract Year 3 Oct 2018 – Sept 2019	164,161	249	0.15
Contract Year 4 Oct 2019 – Sept 2020	119,651	272	0.23
Contract Year 5 Oct 2020 – March 2021	68,966	86	0.12
TOTAL	673,490	1,018	0.15

Question reference: S6O-00029

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 June 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support local government in the delivery of community services.

Question reference: S6W-00233

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the travel budget will be spent on active travel in the next five years.

Full details of active travel funding for the next five years has not yet been agreed and will form part of the annual Budget process. The Active Travel budget for 2021-22 increased by £15 million to £115.5 million, and in the Programme for Government 2020 we committed to spending over £500 million on active travel over the next five years. This Government has given a further commitment to spending 10% of the Transport Scotland capital budget on active travel by the end of the parliament.

Question reference: S6W-00234

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to put the role of the Active Nation Commissioner on a statutory footing.

Question reference: S6W-00235

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to allow local transport authorities to propose bus services will be implemented.

Following a necessary pause to the implementation of Part 3 (Bus Services) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 last year owing to the reallocation of national and local government resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, work resumed with a virtual stakeholder event held in March this year.

The outputs of that and ongoing engagement will feed into a consultation paper for launch later this year. That will inform the development of secondary legislation and supporting guidance. The timetable for the introduction of secondary legislation will be dependent, to an extent, on parliamentary process.

Question reference: S6W-00237

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on a solution to prevent the build-up of ice on the Queensferry Crossing.

Ice accretion and precipitation sensors were installed on the towers and deck in 2020. Weather forecasting, bridge monitoring and traffic management procedures have been continuously improved, and the mechanism of ice accumulation specific to the Queensferry Crossing is now better understood. A working group comprising Transport Scotland, the bridge Operating Company BEAR Scotland and a number of expert consultants has been established. A number of possible solutions are under consideration in terms of their feasibility.

Question reference: S5W-35675

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next review the provision of building control verification services.

Scottish Government monitors all verification services on an ongoing basis through quarterly performance data returns.

During the COVID-19 pandemic period individual verification services have been monitored weekly to assess the impacts on workforce capacity and business continuity. Verifiers have demonstrated their service resilience by responding to the needs of their customers by enhancing digital processes.

In advance of any further periods of appointment from May 2023 a full review of verification performance is planned for Autumn 2022.

Question reference: S5W-35676

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many professionally-qualified building control officers have been employed by each local authority in each year since 2016.

Scottish Government launched the Building Standards Workforce Strategy on 1 October 2020, which includes an annual workforce data collection. The number of professionally qualified staff across the whole workforce has increased from 264 in 2019 to 270 in 2020. Only local authorities as employers will be able to provide this information from 2016 to 2018.

The lead officers involved in delivery of the building standards verification service are senior building standards surveyors and building standards surveyors. The data shows there were 258 lead officers in 2019 and an increase to 262 in 2020.

Officer role	2019	2020
Senior Surveyor	49	47
Building Standards Surveyor	209	215
Total	258	262

The number of professionally qualified staff is expected to rise in the short to medium term as a result of career progression and the successful recruitment of graduate surveyors into the profession. In 2020 there were 113 people in junior roles who offer potential to become professionally qualified.

Officer role	2019	2020
Assistant Building Standards Surveyor	47	46
Building Inspector	35	37
Graduate Surveyor	7	13
Building Standards Technician	20	17
Total	109	113

The number of qualified staff across the whole workforce has increased during the 2019-20 period.

Qualification level (All Workforce)	2019	2020
Degree-level (SCQF level 9 to 11)	310	316
HNC/ HND (SCQF level 7 to 8)	140	149
Total	450	465

From the total number of staff employed, the data indicates that 264 held membership of a construction sector professional body in 2019 and that figure rose to 270 in 2020.

Question reference: S5W-35680

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the performance of all local authorities that are delivering a building control verification service.

The national performance levels for verifiers providing a building standards service across Scotland have remained steady for building warrant applications turnaround times over 2019-20 and 2020-21, see table below. Overall performance has improved across Scotland since 2017 and looks set to continue.

Scottish Government monitors the performance of all local authorities through quarterly performance returns, and where performance issues are identified, officials offer tailored support through an engagement programme.

During the COVID-19 pandemic period, fee income levels have reduced by around one third. However, local authority verifiers remain committed to investing in their services by sustained levels of investment in staff and non-staff costs such as IT.

Key Performance Outcomes (KPO) - KPO1 Summary Scotland

KPO1	First report issued	BW granted
(Target =)	(95% within 20 days)	(90% within 10 days of compliant details)
2020-21 (Q2)	94.65%	88.53%
2020-21 (Q1)	92.77%	89.20%
2019-20 (Q4)	90.22%	85.74%
2019-20 (Q3)	88.57%	84.52%
2019-20 (Q2)	84.55%	84.78%
2019-20 (Q1)	89.58%	83.47%
2018-19 (Q4)	89.52%	81.73%
2018-19 (Q3)	85.83%	78.23%