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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: S6F-01189

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

To ask the First Minister what changes have been made since the 2018 report by the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland regarding concerns about the restraint of children in schools.

Question reference: S6F-01186

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2022

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6T-00768

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent reports, whether it will provide further information regarding existing ScotRail contracts with Abellio.

Question reference: S6T-00764

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that less than a quarter of nursing shifts have enough staff.

Question reference: S6W-08625

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08258 by Jenny Gilruth on 12 May 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of the numbers of electrical vehicle charging points by local authority area.

The total charge points registered on the ChargePlace Scotland network owned by Local Authorities and Commercial Businesses for 2021 can be viewed on The Scottish Transport statistics report, Chapter 13: Environment and Emissions.

The full breakdown of the ChargePlace Scotland, publicly available charge points by local authority area will be published onto the ChargePlace Scotland website by the 30 June 2022.

Question reference: S6W-08704

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish an updated Social Security Programme Business Case, and whether the update will include refreshed implementation cost estimates for the benefits.

Question reference: S6W-08601

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on consultants for services relating to the ScotRail franchise in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

Transport Scotland incurred costs associated with advisors for services associated with the Abellio ScotRail franchise for the period (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22 are as follows:-

Company	2020-21 £s	2021-22 £s
Atkins	200,077.50	106,224.58
MacRoberts	364,443.39	164,843.95
Bramble Hub	218,865.45	40,630.59
Ernst & Young	239,674.51	0.00
Total	1,023,060.85	311,699.12

These costs are associated with advisors providing services associated with Abellio ScotRail Franchise in relation to Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs) Covid response and any other business as usual.

Question reference: S6W-08624

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08232 by Lorna Slater on 11 May 2022, whether it will provide a breakdown of the use of the reusable nappy vouchers that shows how (a) many have been used, (b) much the scheme has cost and (c) many families have switched permanently to reusable nappies.

The following table details the number of reusable nappies provided each year through the Baby Box reusable nappy voucher scheme and the cost.

Families who take up the nappy offer are offered a discounted package should they wish to continue with reusable nappies. From June 2020 – April 2022, 224 families have used the discount and purchased further reusable nappies. The supplier started recording the data from June 2020 and we do not have a record of voucher redemptions before that period.

Year	Total Nappy Vouchers Redeemed	Cost
2019 (starting from June)	4,912	£62,677.12
2020	7,192	£91,769.92
2021	5,864	£77,298.65
2022 (up to 30 th of April)	1,290	£18,229.72

Question reference: S6W-08604

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07657 by Jenny Gilruth on 28 April 2022, how the Temporary Measures Agreement performance fee for Serco Caledonian Sleeper will be calculated.

Question reference: S6W-09035

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will support families and households to make the switch to zero-emission transport.

The Scottish Government is delighted to announce a package of funding totalling over £30 million to support a more equitable transition to zero emissions transport, ensuring that those who often face the biggest barriers to adopting EVs are not left behind.

This includes almost £2m to support households living in flats and rural areas across Scotland, recognising that access to EV infrastructure must be more equal across our communities. We will intensify our focus in these areas, helping homeowners, businesses and charities cope with post-covid recovery and the cost of living crisis.

We are providing additional funding through our Plugged in Communities Scheme to community transport operators and not-for-profit third sector organisations. This will support zero emission car-clubs and the procurement of zero emission community transport vehicles for lower income and rural communities across Scotland.

Our Low Carbon Transport Loan will make available £28m in interest free loans to support the purchase of used electric vehicles. The electric vehicle market has transformed significantly, and now is the time to encourage growth in the second hand market which will provide more options to those on lower incomes. We will also continue to support businesses including the taxi industry make the transition to zero emission vehicles.

I am proud of our bold action to decarbonise Scotland’s Transport sector by supporting the shift to electric vehicles. Over the past 10 years we have provided interest free loans worth more than £165m to support the purchase of low emission vehicles, our plugged in community car clubs have covered over 400k zero emission miles. And we have also supported individuals and businesses across Scotland to install over 17,500 EV charge points.

To help encourage the shift to electric vehicles, we have also invested over £50 million to develop ChargePlace Scotland, Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2200 publicly available charge points. The latest figures show that Scotland is leading the way in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the UK, with Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefitting from over 50 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to less than 40 in England (regional totals and London excluded), just over 30 in Wales and less than 20 in Northern Ireland.

As further evidence of our commitment to decarbonise transport, in January this year we announced a new draft vision for Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network. It provides the guiding vision on how Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network will continue to grow across Scotland in a fair and inclusive way.

At its heart is a commitment to make the public charging network truly people-focussed, catering for the needs of all of its users and ensuring that it is reliable, accessible and affordable. The raft of financial support being announced today will strengthen this commitment further and provide much needed help for those who are coping with the rising cost of living.