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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-16192

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to secure the repayment of loans made to Liberty Steel Dalzell.

Question reference: S6W-16198

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of jobs that have been created at Liberty Steel Dalzell as a result of the financial support that it has provided to GFG Alliance.

Question reference: S6W-16224

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Police Scotland has recorded substandard road conditions as a contributory factor in road traffic accidents in the Highlands and Islands in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by command area.

The following table shows the number of contributory factors in injury road accidents where road surface was poor or defective in Highlands and Islands police division, broken down by council area. In addition to the Highlands and Islands, the North command area also covers Grampian and Tayside. These areas have therefore not been included.

Contributory factors in injury road accidents where road surface was poor or defective in Highlands and Islands police division by council area

	Eilean Siar	Highland	Orkney Islands	Shetland Islands	Total
2012	1	14	0	2	17
2013	2	13	1	1	17
2014	0	11	0	0	11
2015	1	13	1	0	15
2016	0	3	0	0	3
2017	0	7	0	1	8
2018	0	5	0	0	5
2019	0	2	0	0	2
2020	0	2	0	0	2
2021	0	4	0	1	5

Question reference: S6W-16200

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on, or estimates it has made of, the number of people who have been employed at Liberty Steel Dalzell in each year since 2016, including 2023.

Question reference: S6W-16196

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many times its relevant department has received correspondence from Audit Scotland regarding the Lochaber Aluminium Smelter in each year since 2016, including 2023 to date.

The Scottish Government has engagement with Audit Scotland in relation to the Lochaber Guarantee and the year end accounts. The outcome of the most recent Consolidated accounts for the 2021-2022 financial year has been published in full on the Scottish Government’s website and the Auditor General has publicly commented on the findings in relation to Lochaber in December 2022 which can be accessed at this link https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/publications/the-202122-audit-of-the-scottish-government-consolidated-accounts .

The Auditor General has stated at page 12 of the 2021-2022 Audit that:

“I have concluded for 2021-22, the Scottish Government’s approach to setting the level of provision against the potential exposure through the guarantee is reasonable”.

Question reference: S6W-16226

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 6 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14079 by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023, how many potholes were (a) reported to and (b) repaired by Transport Scotland in Skye in each month of (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.

The following tables show how many potholes have been reported and repaired by Transport Scotland’s Operating Company, BEAR Scotland, in Skye in each month of (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.

2021	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Potholes Reported	14	13	15	17	10	5	8	2	6	6	4	4
Potholes Repaired	14	12	15	17	10	5	8	2	6	6	4	4

2022	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Potholes Reported	3	8	12	10	16	9	8	4	1	7	8	11
Potholes Repaired	3	8	11	10	16	9	8	4	1	7	4	6

The number of reported potholes may differ to the number repaired within the same month. Reasons for this include delays due to severe weather, restrictions on the network, although temporary repairs will have been made, and repairs being completed the following month while still meeting the requirement to be permanently repaired within 28 days.

Question reference: S6W-16230

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has undertaken on distance decay in relation to health outcomes in the Highlands and Islands, and whether it has any plans to record the impact of any such distance decay in relation to health outcomes.

Question reference: S6W-15774

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, for each ferry in the CalMac fleet, how many days each vessel has been out of service or unable to operate in each of the last 10 years because of (a) breakdown, (b) a refit, (c) refit overruns and (d) concerns over performance of the vessel in bad weather.

Question reference: S6W-15773

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, for each ferry in the CalMac fleet, how much has been (a) budgeted for each vessel’s annual refit, (b) spent on each vessel’s annual refit and (c) spent in total on both the vessel's annual refit and any additional repairs carried out, in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-15776

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average annual maintenance cost for a CalMac vessel has been in each of the last 10 years.

The answer to the question is provided in the following table, detailed for each vessel in the Calmac Ferries services fleet.

(CY) denotes contract year and (CHFS) denotes Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service

	CHFS2*
	CY1	CY2	CY3	CY4	CY5	CY6
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
ALI CAT	-	-	27	130	103	219
ARGYLE	390	1,003	409	463	514	1,088
ARGYLL FLYER	-	-	389	494	160	159
BUTE	468	461	427	487	430	947
CALEDONIAN ISLES	711	1,094	1,179	1,396	1,227	1,955
CATRIONA	73	154	210	172	217	332
CHIEFTAIN	-	-	-	4	200	101
CLANSMAN	807	1,190	865	636	1,232	2,008
CORUISK	316	461	283	455	512	1,018
EIGG	32	47	3	(4)	-	-
FINLAGGAN	977	951	681	1,030	1,604	1,791
GALL/KERRERA	-	10	36	24	22	25
HALLAIG	183	282	186	259	201	341
HEBRIDEAN ISLES	1,068	884	1,169	1,227	1,211	1,688
HEBRIDES	1,026	930	895	1,049	1,216	1,869
ISLE OF ARRAN	556	1,444	919	1,119	897	1,075
ISLE OF CUMBRAE	145	225	238	168	119	148
ISLE OF LEWIS	1,009	1,248	1,271	1,765	1,368	1,869
ISLE OF MULL	969	1,085	1,077	1,486	947	1,725
LOCH ALAINN	201	179	211	188	122	394
LOCH BHRUSDA	121	174	187	156	187	493
LOCH BUIE	243	332	309	258	178	269
LOCH DUNVEGAN	186	282	144	237	147	222
LOCH FYNE	699	262	161	153	205	370
LOCH LINNHE	111	168	251	160	140	237
LOCH PORTAIN	381	572	324	315	371	444
LOCH RANZA	150	254	179	237	137	188
LOCH RIDDON	152	282	341	41	190	464
LOCH SEAFORTH	711	990	832	1,161	1,030	1,793
LOCH SHIRA	373	556	312	527	328	585
LOCH STRIVEN	141	170	232	189	240	176
LOCH TARBERT	154	169	176	236	155	312
LOCHINVAR	204	282	363	223	293	331
LOCHNEVIS	443	518	520	607	384	1,370
LORD OF THE ISLES	951	1,468	1,146	1,156	982	2,089
RAASAY	41	17	-	(5)	-	-
LOCH FRISA	-	-	-	-	-	80
Non-vessel specific	73	112	(227)	164	(5)	349
TOTAL	14,063	18,254	15,723	18,359	17,262	28,525