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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-06881

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether any decision regarding rail booking office closures will be made before the consultation on women’s safety has concluded.

Question reference: S6W-06173

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm the budget allocated to the Energy Investment Fund in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-06557

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce is considered a public or a private body, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

The Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce is a short life group comprised of leaders from the bus operating, bus manufacturing, finance, energy and public sectors. Its remit is to explore the hurdles and opportunities in transitioning to a zero emission bus fleet. It is not a decision making body, it does not exercise any statutory functions nor handle any funds and its role includes helping to shape and inform relevant Scottish Government policy commitments.

Question reference: S6W-06558

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to ensure that any economic benefits resulting from electric buses being built in Scotland remain in the local community.

The Scottish Government is investing £62 million, through the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB), to support 276 new battery-electric buses and charging infrastructure. 137 of the buses will be built in Falkirk, bringing the total number of buses being built in Scotland with Government support to 344. ScotZEB Phase 1 included a “community benefit” criteria that all bids were scored against. Guidance encouraged bidders to be creative and innovative in finding ways that their bid would deliver wider benefits, giving the example of creating jobs or enhancing economic development, including in the local area. The review of Phase 1 of ScotZEB will consider how this criterion might be strengthened in the future.

We are fortunate that one of the world’s leading manufacturers of zero-emission buses, Alexander Dennis, is headquartered in Scotland. Alexander Dennis’s order book is typically comprised of about 25% of orders from Scottish operators, with the remainder coming from other parts of the UK or beyond, while the highly skilled, green jobs benefit the local community. Through the Falkirk Growth Deal, including £1 million from Scottish Government, ADL will lead on the creation of a Public Transport Net Zero Tech Cluster to focus on cost effective decarbonisation of public transport. This will include the creation of a campus with an R&D centre of excellence, a high-tech incubator and a dedicated flexible carbon neutral manufacturing space.

Question reference: S6W-06188

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people it estimates are eligible for the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority.

Up to 930,000 young people aged between 5 and 21 will be eligible for the Young Persons' Free Bus Travel Scheme. This is in addition to almost 60,000 young people in this age group who already hold National Entitlement Cards providing access to the existing Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled Persons. The following table provides population estimates calculated by Transport Scotland on the basis of data published by National Records of Scotland.

Scotland	989,300
Council areas
Aberdeen City Council	37,600
Aberdeenshire Council	51,400
Angus Council	20,800
Argyll and Bute Council	14,100
City of Edinburgh Council	84,800
Clackmannanshire Council	9,700
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	4,600
Dumfries & Galloway Council	25,100
Dundee City Council	26,600
East Ayrshire Council	22,400
East Dunbartonshire Council	21,000
East Lothian Council	20,900
East Renfrewshire Council	21,400
Falkirk Council	30,000
Fife Council	70,400
Glasgow Council	107,000
Highland Council	42,100
Inverclyde Council	13,600
Mid Lothian Council	18,600
Moray Council	17,600
North Ayrshire Council	24,500
North Lanarkshire Council	67,400
Orkney Islands Council	3,800
Perth and Kinross Council	26,700
Renfrewshire Council	32,400
Scottish Borders Council	20,400
Shetland Islands Council	4,500
South Ayrshire Council	19,100
South Lanarkshire Council	59,100
Stirling Council	17,500
West Dunbartonshire Council	16,600
West Lothian Council	37,900

Question reference: S6W-06189

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have applied to the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-06190

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority.

The Improvement Service (IS), who manage the application process, have informed us that at close of business on 1 March 2022 a total of 144,377 cards had been produced and despatched.

The latest figures that IS have provided broken down to a local council level are from close of business on 14 February 2022 and can be found in the following table.

Aberdeen City Council	3,949
Aberdeenshire Council	5,126
Angus Council	1,350
Argyll & Bute Council	1,136
City of Edinburgh Council	16,580
Clackmannanshire Council	504
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	260
Dumfries & Galloway Council	1,973
Dundee City Council	5,919
East Ayrshire Council	4,838
East Dunbartonshire Council	1,507
East Lothian Council	2,336
East Renfrewshire Council	2,375
Falkirk Council	1,888
Fife Council	7,426
Glasgow Council	8,209
Highland Council	3,155
Inverclyde Council	6,873
Mid Lothian Council	1,837
Moray Council	1,383
North Ayrshire Council	1,452
North Lanarkshire Council	3,999
Orkney Islands Council	176
Perth & Kinross Council	2,502
Renfrewshire Council	2,635
Scottish Borders Council	2,722
Shetland Islands Council	1,018
South Ayrshire Council	1,106
South Lanarkshire Council	2,840
Stirling Council	1,282
West Dunbartonshire Council	851
West Lothian Council	3,791

Question reference: S6W-06563

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the £1 million funding for the Community Bus Fund in 2022-23 will be sufficient to significantly increase bus passenger numbers across the 32 local authority areas.

The Scottish Budget allocated £1 million to develop the Community Bus Fund in 2022-23 to support Local Transport Authorities to improve public transport in their areas, and to explore the full range of options in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. We are currently working on the design and scope of the fund and this involves discussions with CoSLA and ATCO on how the £1 million may be best spent in 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-06193

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05586 by Graeme Dey on 24 January 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown by workstream of Transport Scotland FTE staffing levels between 2016 and 2021.

Attached are the figures for FTE requested since 2016 and broken down by workstreams.

Transport Scotland FTE (2016 - 2021)
Directorate	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Avaition, Maritime, Freight and Canals	27.7	29.1	30.5	33.3	38.4	42.7
Bus, Access and Active Travel	*	*	*	62.4	58.8	62
Chief Executive Office	5	13	10.8	3	3	3
Finance and Corp Services	48	51.7	50.7	47.9	51.3	53.5
Low Carbon Economy	*	*	*	16.3	21.2	25.8
Major Projects	71	66.8	72	59.6	62.8	58.6
Rail	55	53.1	53.1	62.8	69.6	66.5
Roads	121	116.9	116.1	98.2	99.5	110.6
Transport Strategy and Analysis	*	*	*	44	57.6	59.6
Transport Policy	48	49.2	52.6	*	*	*
TS Totals	375.7	379.8	385.8	427.5	462.2	482.3

* No figures for these years.

Please note that the Transport Policy directorate was disbanded in 2018. That same year, Low Carbon Economy, Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel and Transport Strategy & Analysis were created as individual directorates.

Question reference: S6W-06192

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05586 by Graeme Dey on 24 January 2022, for what reason the FTE staffing levels at Transport Scotland have risen from 375.7 in 2016 to 482 in 2021.

The reason for the increase in FTE staffing level’s from 2016 and 2021 are due Transport Scotland’s increasing pieces of work through changing ministerial responsibilities. These responsibilities include our work on EU Exit, COP26, Free Bus Travel for U22’s and the Strategic Transport Projects Review (SPTR2). These key commitments have led to the need for an increase in staffing numbers to ensure their delivery.