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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: S5W-24347

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage change there has been in seating capacity on (a) eastern and (b) central ScotRail services since September 2018.

Question reference: S5W-24348

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many "electric towns" have been established since September 2018, and how many there will be by 31 December 2019.

Transport Scotland’s Switched on Towns and Cities initiative was announced in June 2018. The challenge fund attracted a number of bids from Local Authorities and 5 successful applications received funding, averaging £2.4m each over 2 fiscal years. The successful bids were from Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow and Stirling.

With the programme expected to have further funding rounds, making up to 5 awards in each round, we will be on course to developing up to 10 electric towns and cities in Scotland by December 2019.

Question reference: S5W-24345

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what change there has been in the number of ultra-low emissions vehicles in the public sector fleet since September 2018.

Question reference: S5W-24344

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many public charge points for electric vehicles have been installed since September 2018.

A total number of 173 public charge points have been added to the ChargePlace Scotland network since September 2018, with a further 150 in the final process of being added to the network. In addition to the comprehensive ChargePlace Scotland network, we continue to work with industry including commercial public charge point providers to maximise investment in and increase the availability of public charging in Scotland..

Question reference: S5W-23854

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many low-carbon jobs there have been in the West Scotland region in each of the last five years.

The estimates for low carbon and renewable energy jobs in Scotland are not published by the Scottish Government, but instead they are compiled and published by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) in their "UK Environmental Accounts: Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey". The dataset and methodology, including breakdown by sector and technology, are available on the ONS website. The dataset does not include a breakdown for Scottish Parliamentary regions, including West Scotland.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/finalestimates/2017

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/datasets/lowcarbonand
renewableenergyeconomyindirectestimatesdataset

Question reference: S5W-24353

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many remote sensing air quality monitors on local and trunk roads there are, and how this compares with September 2018.

Question reference: S5W-24352

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it has developed greenways for walking and cycling since September 2018.

Question reference: S5W-23130

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost to (a) repair and (b) maintain work the CalMac fleet in each year since 2007.

CalMac Ferries Ltd. invests significantly in vessel maintenance. As well as maintenance activities carried out whilst in service, each vessel is taken out of service annually to undergo an established programme of inspection, planned maintenance, preventative maintenance, repair and certification renewal to ensure the continued safety and reliability of the service.

The annual cost of repairs and maintenance by CalMac Ferries Limited on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services fleet since 2007 is detailed in the following table:

2007	£7,920,199
2008	£8,279,384
2009	£8,575,398
2010	£9,581,796
2011	£9,800,410
2012	£10,714,167
2013	£12,594,035
2014	£15,460,375
2015	£18,018,939
2016	£18,231,507
2017	£19,751,529
2018	£16,930,400

CalMac’s expenditure reduction on repairs and maintenance between 2017 and 2018, is due to the conclusion of a series of one off programmes, cyclical overhauls and major maintenance events carried out, some of which occur every 3 to 5 years.

In August 2018, the Scottish Government announced the creation of a £3.5 million Resilience Fund for the CalMac fleet during 2018-19. As well as the expenditure for repairs and maintenance listed above, £3,491,955 of the Resilience Fund was invested in the CalMac fleet in 2018-2019 to ensure future reliability and availability of vessels. A further £4 million of funding has been allocated in the 2019-2020 budget to carry out further resilience work on CalMac vessels.

Question reference: S5W-23708

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication under FoI of its paper, A737 Dalry Bypass: cost-benefit assessment: EIR release (FOI/18/02139), what the source was of the information that was provided, and how the figure of £53 million in VAT was calculated.

The information was based on advice given by our technical advisors (Mouchel Fairhurst Joint Venture).

As part of development of the scheme in line with the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, our advisors produce cost estimates, consistent with Treasury Guidance, which are regularly updated throughout the design development process as well as before award of the construction contract, once final costs are confirmed.

The figure of £53 million inclusive of VAT was an estimate for the construction cost, together with other project costs including purchase of land, public utilities diversions, advisor fees and preliminary works such as geotechnical and environmental surveys. An allowance was also made for risk, optimism bias and inflation in line with guidance in The Green Book, published by HM Treasury.

The construction cost, which is the figure usually quoted in public information about the project, is £31.2 million exclusive of VAT.

Question reference: S5F-03416

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2019

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to strike action taking place at Glasgow and Aberdeen airports.