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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: S5W-21330

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it (a) has had and (b) plans with the private sector to maximise the commercial roll-out of broadband and enable the R100 programme to focus on the most hard to reach areas.

By focussing our £600 million investment in Scotland’s rural areas, while creating the right environment to encourage commercial providers to invest in our urban areas, we are ensuring we meet our commitment to deliver 100% superfast broadband access across Scotland.

To comply with EU State Aid legislation, we regularly engage with telecoms providers to understand their commercial deployment plans as they relate to R100 and to secure access to detailed data on their commercial proposals. We will continue to review commercial deployment and will be able to intervene should commercial investment in urban areas not materialise as planned by commercial providers.

Question reference: S5W-21328

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that public intervention in the R100 programme will (a) focus on the areas of market failure and (b) not impact on private investment.

It is a legal requirement under state aid legislation that public funding can only be invested in areas of market failure. An Open Market Review was initiated at the end of 2016 to identify those premises that did not have access to superfast broadband, and those for whom there were no commercial delivery plans over the next three years. This information forms the basis of the ‘intervention area’ for the R100 programme, ensuring that public investment will not impact on private investment in broadband infrastructure. I am pleased to note that, in parallel with the R100 procurement, we continue to see significant private sector investment in Scotland; most recently in regard to CityFibres investment programme in Glasgow, in addition to its investment in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-21623

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to end the use of supplementary planning guidance and, if so, when.

The Planning (Scotland) Bill, which is currently before the Scottish Parliament, proposes to remove section 22 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. Planning authorities can currently adopt supplementary guidance under section 22 which would form part of the development plan for their area. It will remain open to planning authorities to use planning guidance in connection with their respective plans but changes proposed would mean that this guidance would not itself form part of the development plan.

Question reference: S5W-21622

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether supplementary planning guidance is treated in the same manner as a Local Development Plan.

Under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, supplementary guidance can be adopted and issued by a planning authority in connection with a local development plan. Any such guidance will form part of the development plan, and have that status for decision making in line with section 25 of that Act.

Unlike development plans, there is no requirement to scrutinise supplementary guidance through an independent examination. The statutory process for the preparation and adoption of supplementary guidance requires planning authorities to make people, who may wish to comment, aware of the guidance and give them an opportunity to comment and there is a requirement to notify Scottish Ministers of their intention to adopt the guidance.

Question reference: S5O-02922

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports Men's Sheds.

Question reference: S5W-21219

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the money allocated in its digital connectivity budget for the last three years has occurred as a result of Gainshare.

Gainshare funding does not form part of the Scottish Government's digital connectivity budget.

Gainshare is a mechanism in the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) contracts that allows for reinvestment of additional funds generated if take-up of superfast broadband services exceeds an agreed level. BT offered to bring forward a proportion of the Gainshare funding for reinvestment in both DSSB contracts and this was accepted by public sector partners. This has resulted in new deployment in every local authority area across Scotland and will see build continue throughout 2019.

Question reference: S5W-21166

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported disparity in average broadband connection speeds between rural and urban areas.

Despite the UK Government having responsibility for investing in broadband across the UK, the clear absence of a UK-wide strategy for improving rural connectivity has meant that the Scottish Government has had to step in, take the lead and use Scottish Government resources, given its economic importance to Scotland.

Scotland's unique geography and dispersed population has meant that speeds are often lower in Scotland's more remote and rural areas. However, the recent Which? report on Local Authority broadband speeds does not represent the full scope of superfast broadband availability; nor are they necessarily accurate.

Through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, we have already delivered truly transformative results across much of rural Scotland. Fibre coverage in Dumfries and Galloway alone has increased from just 18.9% in 2014 to 94.9% now, with superfast coverage of 30Mbps and above increasing from 17% to 83.3%. Average download speeds have increased as a result - from 7.7Mbps in Q1 2014 to 23Mbps now.

The R100 programme will deliver superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps and above to 100% of premises in Scotland, regardless of remoteness or rurality. We have also excluded urban premises from the R100 procurement, reflecting our view that public spending must be focussed where it is needed most - in rural Scotland and given limitations on our ability to intervene in areas when commercial operators plan to invest.

As the UK’s telecoms regulator, issues such as quality of service are the responsibility of Ofcom to remedy.

Question reference: S5W-21168

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures will be taken to ensure that the R100 broadband scheme meets its target by 2021.

We recognise the challenges associated with delivering such an ambitious procurement to deliver the Reaching 100% programme. Our investment of £579 million (96.5%) towards the £600 million R100 programme reflects the complexity of the challenge and represents, at this time of writing, the biggest ever public sector investment in the UK in a single digital connectivity project.

We are currently conducting a detailed, careful and competitive procurement process, designed to maximise competition and drive value, innovation and coverage. In parallel with R100, we are taking forward work to design aligned interventions, so that we can move swiftly to deliver access to any premises not met by the procurement exercise. The detail of which premises will be covered by the main procurement contract and those which may require aligned interventions will be determined later this year, once detail of bids are submitted.

Question reference: S5W-21167

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason spending on digital connectivity is reported to decrease in 2019-20.

Question reference: S5O-02810

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on staffing ambulances.