Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S5O-03146

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Highlands and Islands Airports Limited regarding the incident on 5 April 2019 when a plane left Kirkwall Airport without air traffic control clearance.

Question reference: S5W-22447

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when double-tracking will be installed on the railway line north of Dalwhinnie to prevent blockages, such as that caused by the breakdown of a freight train on 11 March 2019.

Currently there are no plans to double track the Highland Mainline North of Dalwhinnie.

The completion, on 25 March 2019, of phase 2 of the Highland Mainline enhancements programme on time and under budget has delivered new infrastructure which provides an immediate performance and resilience enhancement onto the route. This will allow the roll out of improved ScotRail Inter7city services as the re-engineered High Speed Trains are delivered.

The long-term goal of the Highland Mainline enhancements programme seeks to achieve a fastest journey time of 2 hours 45 minutes between Inverness and the Central Belt with an average journey time of 3 hours and an hourly service by 2025.

The exact scope and timing of works for future phases has yet to be determined and will be led initially by the forthcoming refresh of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR). The STPR will be informed by a review of our National Transport Strategy (NTS) which is underway. To achieve these outputs, an increase in double tracking may be required, however, interventions will be determined through Network Rail’s development process.

Question reference: S5W-22443

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many rail services were (a) cancelled or (b) delayed, broken down by minutes delayed, following the breakdown of a freight train on the single track north of Dalwhinnie on 11 March 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22302

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an islands impact assessment of the Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) remote towers project and, if so, whether it will publish the findings.

Question reference: S5W-22301

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs will be (a) directly and (b) indirectly lost because of the Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) remote towers project, also broken down by the total value in salaries lost, and what the economic impact will be on each community affected.

Question reference: S5O-03085

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to Orkney and Shetland island councils to continue to operate inter-islands ferries services.

The Scottish Government understands the significant financial challenges that can fall on individual local authorities and remains committed to the principle of fair funding in the provision of ferry services and infrastructure.

As part of this commitment, this year's Scottish Government Budget approved last month by Parliament has made available a further £10.5m in support for internal ferry services, bringing the total support provided for this purpose in the last two years to £21m.

I wrote to both councils on 6 March to advise that £5.3m was being provided to Orkney Islands Council and £5.2m to Shetland Islands Council.

Question reference: S5T-01570

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent BBC investigation, what action it is taking regarding its dealings with Natural Retreats and CairnGorm Mountain Limited.

Question reference: S5W-21386

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the third supplementary to question S5F-03014 by Nicola Sturgeon on 31 January 2019 (Official Report, c. 16), whether it held any discussions with Talk Talk when it announced the planned closure of the call centre and, if so, what the outcome was.

The Scottish Government and our economic development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), are in continuous contact with HIE and TalkTalk with a view to mitigating against job loss, and exploring what support we can offer staff affected.

I have written to the CEO of TalkTalk seeking a meeting to discuss their decision to close the call centre. HIE have met with TalkTalk on two occasions and on the 14 th of February the Deputy First Minister met with them to discuss the ongoing situation.

Question reference: S5W-21276

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it plans to provide a continuous level of rural payments for farmers after 2020.

Rural payments for farmers will stay the same until 2021.

Between 2021 and 2024, broadly the same CAP system will be in place with changes to simplify and streamline where appropriate. These changes are currently being developed by the Simplification Taskforce.

Our ability to provide a continuous level of rural payments depends on the level of funding we receive from the UK Government. At the moment they have committed to maintaining the same cash total in funds for “farm support” until 2022. While this commitment is welcome, they have yet to provide clarity on precisely what is meant by “farm support”, and whether it would cover CAP Pillar 2 schemes such as LEADER. They have also yet to clarify how this will fit with their proposed Shared Prosperity Fund. I have repeatedly pressed the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on this matter, and will continue to do so.

Question reference: S5O-02886

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for how many hours on-call ambulance drivers can safely work in addition to their dayshift.