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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: S5O-01768

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in North Ayrshire will see their income tax increase in 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-13657

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) delayed and (b) cancelled trains there were between Edinburgh and Perth in 2017, broken down by date and time.

Performance in the railway system in Great Britain is measured using the Public-Performance Measure (PPM), which counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Trains which are cancelled, either in full or in part, or which do not stop at stations at which they are meant to stop, are counted against this measure.

The lateness of ScotRail services is measured using the industry standard of the Public-Performance-Measure (PPM). In the year to early-December 2017 (period 9), 90.5 percent of trains arrived at Perth within the 5 minutes allowed under the PPM measure. More information on ScotRail’s performance can be found at this weblink: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability

ScotRail provides Transport Scotland with performance information by Sector Group and these data are monitored against the specified benchmarks contained in the Franchise Agreement.

Question reference: S5W-13722

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which stakeholders are being consulted by the water charges exemption scheme review.

The Scottish Government has sought feedback from a number of charities, Community Amateur Sports Clubs and voluntary organisations and has consulted with a wide range of stakeholders including:

Scottish Water
the Water Industry Commission for Scotland
Citizens Advice Scotland
Licensed Providers
The Scottish Charity Regulator
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
Federation of Small Businesses
Scottish Sports Association
The Scottish Licensed Trade Association

Question reference: S5W-13721

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the water charges exemption scheme review will be (a) completed and (b) published.

Question reference: S5W-13559

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the new Ardrossan-Arran ferry will require upgrades to (a) it and (b) (i) Ardrossan and (ii) Brodick Harbour to facilitate its berthing.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) has undertaken a major redevelopment of Brodick harbour. No upgrades will be required to facilitate berthing of the new ferry.

A Ministerial Task Force for Ardrossan was established in February 2016 to ensure improvement of the operational effectiveness of the Ardrossan facility in supporting the lifeline ferry services and the new vessel on the Arran route.

A number of options for infrastructure improvements at Ardrossan Harbour are currently being considered by Transport Scotland, North Ayrshire Council, Peel Ports, CalMac and CMAL as they look collectively to improve resilience of the facility over the long-term.

The original vessel design has been updated with the additional provision of mooring winches.

Question reference: S5W-13558

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the new Ardrossan-Arran ferry sea trials have suggested any concerns regarding its ability to (a) meet the requirements of its specification and (b) perform its originally intended operational duties.

Question reference: S5W-13557

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when the new Ardrossan-Arran ferry will come into service; what the total cost of the project will be, and how these compare with the original estimates.

In October 2015, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) announced that Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) in Port Glasgow had been awarded the contracts worth £97 million to build two 100 metre ‘dual-fuel’ ferries; i.e. £48.5m per vessel.

In my letter of 9 November 2017 to the Convenor of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, I noted that FMEL has indicated that delivery of the first of these ferries, the MV Glen Sannox, is expected to be delayed from summer 2018 to winter 2018-19. The vessel will subsequently enter into service following trials and familiarisation by CalMac Ferries Ltd.

There have been some agreed design changes during the build process. Additional costs agreed between CMAL and FMEL relate to enhanced mooring winching arrangements at £800k per vessel.

Question reference: S5W-13560

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government under what (a) weather and (b) sea conditions the new Ardrossan–Arran ferry will be able to operate, and how this compares with the existing service.

The new ferries are being designed and built by Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) to be capable of operating in the challenging weather conditions experienced on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

The new ferry for Arran has 3 x bow transverse thrusters, each rated at 620kW and one stern transverse thruster rated at 480kW.

The new vessel has 3 times the transverse thruster power in comparison to MV Caledonian Isles, the larger of the two vessels currently operating the route; which has 2 x 360 kW bow transverse thrusters (total 720kW).

Operation of a vessel in adverse weather will remain at the Master’s discretion, in accordance with maritime legislation.

Question reference: S5W-13428

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol-related crimes on trains the festive period have been recorded in each year since 2006-07, and what action it is taking to reduce such crime.

Year	Number recorded
2006-07	16
2007-08	6
2008-09	13
2009-10	9
2010-11	7
2011-12	9
2012-13	19
2013-14	10
2014-15	19
2015-16	17
2016-17	5

The figures are defined as follows:

Niche Occurrences (all crimes/offences) recorded on D Division, committed between 1 Dec and 2 Jan for each year
Counts occurrences either flagged as Alcohol-related and/or alcohol-specific offences
Counts only occurrences where premises are described as “On-Train”

Question reference: S5W-13421

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce class sizes in primary schools.

In 2010, the Scottish Government legislated to reduce the maximum class size in Primary 1 to 25, its lowest ever level. Since then the number of P1 pupils in a class size of 26 or more has decreased by 90% from 6,896 in 2010 to 631 in 2017.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of actions to help increase the number teachers, including committing £88 million this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers with the right skills, investing over £1 million through the Scottish Attainment Challenge to support universities in developing new innovative routes into teaching, and launching the second phase of our “Teaching Makes People” recruitment campaign. This action has halted a period of steady decline in teacher recruitment, resulting in almost 800 more teachers than there were two years ago.