- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-08649, S6W-09452 and S6W-09553 by Jenny Gilruth on 23 June and 28 July 2022, whether it can provide a breakdown of the figures provided in response to each of three questions for the North East region.
Answer
ScotRail does not record passenger complaints data by region, but by rail route. The following below table shows ScotRail’s complaints data for routes which serve the North East region.
Complaint Type | April | May | June |
1st Class | 14 | 21 | 28 |
Assisted Travel | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Capacity | 8 | 17 | 26 |
Contact Centre | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Customer Provisions | 1 | 6 | 0 |
Cycles | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Environment | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Policy And Product | 5 | 2 | 6 |
Staff | 5 | 3 | 3 |
Timetable | 0 | 5 | 2 |
Train Service Performance | 1 | 20 | 19 |
TOTAL | 42 | 78 | 88 |
ScotRail has confirmed that the routes detailed below were included in this data. The member should note that the data reflects complaints which may have occurred at any point on the route:
- Aberdeen-Edinburgh
- Aberdeen-Glasgow
- Aberdeen-Inverness
- Dundee-Glasgow
- Edinburgh-Arbroath
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it requires local authorities to record information regarding national identity of nursery pupils when an application is made for a place, and, if this is the case, for what reason it requires this information, and how any such data is (a) processed and (b) managed.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not require local authorities to record information regarding national identity of nursery pupils when an application for a nursery place is made.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland has provided CalMac Ferries Ltd with additional funding to
meet any financial penalties that may have been issued, and, if this is the
case, what the total cost has been of any such additional funding, broken down
by each year since 2007.
Answer
No additional funding is provided to CalMac Ferries Limited to offset performance deductions. Any performance deductions incurred are applied as a reduction in the grant subsidy paid by Transport Scotland for operating the ferry services.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage individual sponsors to house Ukrainian refugees.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10431 on
6 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that adequate public research is undertaken to quantify the risk and probability of the spread of giardiasis, so-called beaver fever, before any reintroduction of beavers into freshwater communities.
Answer
To date Giardia has not been found in any beavers in Scotland, though targeted testing has been carried out on both live animals and carcasses in Tayside as well as in Knapdale.
Although beavers can carry this parasite the EPIC report published in 2017 points to other sources of environmental contamination being equally or more likely to be a source of Giardia infection. Humans, livestock and wild animals are all potential sources of Giardia. EPIC conclude ‘the reintroduction of beavers is likely to present a very small additional risk as the number of beavers excreting these organisms will be likely to be small relative to the large number of wild, domestic and livestock animals and humans which contribute to existing public health risk’.
NatureScot continue to carry out general health screening to ensure that beavers released under licence from NatureScot are not acting as a source of disease prior to any translocations.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09619 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022, whether it will (a)
compile and (b) require local authorities to compile this information to
establish (i) the progress being made to remediate buildings, and (b) how much
remediation is being conducted (A) with the support of the Scottish Government
and (B) privately.
Answer
As the programme progresses, we will gather information from our Single Building Assessments to compile a register of buildings that have been assessed through the programme. Local Authorities will be asked to provide relevant information.
We are currently working with 7 buildings to finalise assessments ahead of remediation. We have asked developers, as part of the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord, to supply data on work that is being undertaken and privately agreed between residents and developers.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S6W-09248 by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022, how many buildings (a) have provided consent and details (i) by and (ii) on or since 20 July 2022 and (b) it requires to provide consent and detail before it will move to the contracting process; what the estimated timescales are for the contracting process; and, when contracting, what it plans to propose as a lead time for surveyors and fire engineers to be on site.
Answer
We have confirmed consent from 26 buildings. We have consent in principle from the homeowners from 29 additional buildings since we invited new buildings into the programme in May 2022. The timescale for the contracting process follows the standard Scottish Government procurement rules. We are aware of the supply chain constraints in this field, which is why are working closely with Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Institute of Fire Engineers to ensure an appropriate stream of qualified assessors. Time scales for the completion of Single Building Assessments are driven by the complexity of the building and are agreed as part of the normal contracting process.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-09248 and S6W-09249 by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022,
how many of the 15 buildings using its grant-based approach (a) have (i) been approached
to take up and (ii) requested directly commissioned assessments, (b) successfully
procured their own surveyors and fire engineers and (c) have an assessment
underway.
Answer
All the 15 buildings using the grant based approach have been issued grant letters and had initial payments to allow contracts to be placed. All have fire engineers and surveyors working on assessments.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09248 by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022, what pre-contracting activity it has undertaken to establish (a) how many contractors will be required to deliver assessments for all 29 buildings, (b) the (i) availability and (ii) capacity of surveyors and fire engineers to carry out the contract, and, in the event that any such pre-contracting assessments have identified an insufficient supply of contractors, what it anticipates the likely training needs will be to meet any identified requirements.
Answer
Every building must gain the consent of homeowners in order to begin the contract process. Every building will require a qualified Fire Assessor to spend typically a number of weeks on and off-site to gather sufficient data and evidence to conduct a competent Single Building Assessment.
We are aware of the supply chain constraints in this field which is why we are working closely with Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Institute of Fire Engineers to ensure an appropriate stream of qualified assessors.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09248 by Shona Robison on 20 July 2022, whether it will prioritise the assessment of the 29 buildings in the event of a limited supply of surveyors and fire engineer contractors, and if so, what the process will be for carrying out any such prioritisation.
Answer
We are aware there may be constraints in the market place and we are working closely with a number of Scottish firms and with industry bodies and forums to monitor market availability, therefore we are able to prioritise Single Building Assessments.