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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: S6O-00485

Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with NHS Fife and Fife Council about delayed discharges and winter pressures.

Question reference: S6O-00483

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the UK Government to discuss infrastructure projects of importance to Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-00482

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage a modal shift to increase train passenger numbers and journeys.

Question reference: S6O-00484

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support is in place for parents who experience stillbirth.

Question reference: S6O-00480

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to older people who may face financial hardship over the winter months due to the rising cost of living.

Question reference: S6O-00481

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 December 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards cutting emissions by 75% by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-04494

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many farmers have received support through the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme since 2018.

To ask the Scottish Government how many farmers have received support through the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme since 2018

Claim year	Number of businesses that received a LFASS payment in an individual claim year
2018	11,057
2019	10,890
2020	10,827

Between 2018 and 2020, 11,654 unique businesses received a payment

The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) provides essential income support to farming businesses in remote and constrained rural areas.

Funding is used to:

allow farmers and crofters to continue to operate as viable businesses
avoid the risk of land abandonment
help maintain the countryside by ensuring continued agricultural land use
maintain and promote sustainable farming systems
Applications are submitted yearly via the Single Application Form

Question reference: S6W-04367

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that tenants’ unions will be represented on the proposed tenant participation panel.

Initial work is underway to support the establishment of a PRS tenant participation panel. The first phase of this work is focusing on hearing from PRS tenants in developing our draft Rented Sector Strategy consultation document. As part of this, we are working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and through the Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service exploring tenants’ priorities for change.

This initial work, alongside engagement with tenant organisations, including tenants’ unions, such as Living Rent who the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights met with in September, will help to inform the longer term establishment of the panel and recruit participants.

Question reference: S6W-04435

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of sheep worrying have been recorded in North Ayrshire in each year since 2019.

Information on cases of sheep worrying is not held centrally in the format requested.

Information is available on the number of offences recorded by Police Scotland under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 – which relates to dogs worrying livestock on agricultural land (table below). However, as this legislation applies to all forms of livestock, these figures are not available for specific types of animal.

Table 1: Offences of Protection of Livestock from Dogs, North Ayrshire, 2018-19 to 2020-21.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
North Ayrshire	3	3	7

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2020-21.

Question reference: S6W-04281

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its capital allocation has been to North Ayrshire Council in real terms in each year since 1999-2000, up to and including 2021-22.

The total capital grant funding provided by the Scottish Government to North Ayrshire Council, in real terms, since 2008-09 is set out in the following table. Prior to 2008-09 the Scottish Government supported local authorities’ capital funding programmes through a combination of loan charge support for historic debt, supported borrowing allocations and a range of separate capital grants outwith the annual local government finance settlement (the details of which are not held centrally).

The capital funding for local authorities changed fundamentally with effect from 1 April 2008 with these individual capital grants being incorporated into the annual local government finance settlement. It should also be noted that funding for Police and Fire transferred out of the local government finance settlement with effect from 1 April 2013. As a result the years prior to 2013-14 are not comparable to the years after 2013-14.

The real terms figures were calculated using the October 2021 HM Treasury GDP deflators.

Year	Cash	Real terms
	£m	£m
2008-09	17.071	21.863
2009-10	17.445	21.996
2010-11	13.472	16.708
2011-12	12.193	14.897
2012-13	9.578	11.471

2013-14	9.739	11.402
2014-15	14.076	16.292
2015-16	16.190	18.624
2016-17	12.108	13.623
2017-18	32.387	35.824
2018-19*	1.894	2.055
2019-20	26.160	27.717
2020-21	32.339	32.121
2021-22*	0.609	0.609

* North Ayrshire Council's reduced allocations were due to slippage in the Flood Prevention Scheme projects (Millport Coastal and Upper Garnock). Capital funding provided in advance was adjusted to reflect the latest financial forecasts provided by the council.