Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-15394

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14560 by Neil Gray on 21 February 2023, who the members of the group undertaking the Joint Assurance Review are.

Question reference: S6W-15393

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14560 by Neil Gray on 21 February 2023, how many times the Joint Assurance Review group has met since November 2022.

Question reference: S6O-01986

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to extend free bus travel to everyone under the age of 26.

Question reference: S6W-15281

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were temporarily housed on the MS Ambition on (a) 1, (b) 8 and (c) 21 February 2023.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes the latest data and information on the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland, including the number of people temporarily housed on the MS Ambition. As published on 23 February, there were around 995 guests onboard the MS Ambition as at 14 February 2023, occupying 475 cabins. The next update is expected to be published in late March.

The data are provisional management information from live operational systems and are subject to change. The number of displaced people from Ukraine in welcome accommodation on M/S Ambition is reported directly by operational teams.

The published tables and accompanying methodology notes for the February publication can be found here:

Question reference: S6W-15282

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cabins were occupied on the MS Ambition on (a) 1, (b) 8 and (c) 21 February 2023.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes the latest data and information on the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland, including the number of people temporarily housed on the MS Ambition. As published on 23 February, there were around 995 guests onboard the MS Ambition as at 14 February 2023, occupying 475 cabins. The next update is expected to be published in late March.

The data are provisional management information from live operational systems and are subject to change. The number of displaced people from Ukraine in welcome accommodation on M/S Ambition is reported directly by operational teams.

The published tables and accompanying methodology notes for the February publication can be found here:

Question reference: S6W-14806

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14221 by Neil Gray on 31 January 2023, when it will provide an update to the Parliament on these matters.

Question reference: S6W-14804

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14221 by Neil Gray on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on the launch of its Offers of Accommodation scheme.

The Offers of Accommodation scheme set out to replace the previous two-stage Expression of Interest process which enabled potential hosts to submit information about their properties, with a streamlined, single-stage online form, designed on user-centred principles and built by the Scottish Government’s Digital teams. The new Offer to Host form can be found at The form went live, initially for a limited trial, on 22 November and was promoted through a news announcement, social media and a distribution of a partner toolkit. Since the form went live, it has had 442 completed submissions as of 14 February, which are now being checked by Local Authorities and fed back to Matching teams.

The Offers of Accommodation form now feeds in directly to the Warm Scottish Welcome Matching Tool used by the National Matching Service since September 2022. This digital tool was designed by Scottish Government Digital teams, in collaboration with COSLA and Scottish Government operational officials, to facilitate the matching of Ukrainian Displaced People in Welcome Hub accommodation to longer term hosting and social housing opportunities across Scotland.

The Matching Tool is currently being rolled out to a small selection of Local Authorities, with the ambition of all 32 Local Authorities being invited to have access to the platform over the course of the coming months. Ahead of the wider roll-out, staff at all Scottish Local Authorities have been invited to begin necessary background checks on 17 February.

Question reference: S6W-14805

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14221 by Neil Gray on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on the property matching app that it is developing.

Question reference: S6W-14803

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14221 by Neil Gray on 31 January 2023, whether the date reconciliation project has been completed.

Question reference: S6W-14435

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 10 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to putting in place further discounts for students to access public transport.

The Scottish Government provides the most generous concessionary fare scheme in the UK, investing £300 million annually to provide free bus travel for over 2 million people. Over 2.3 million people, including everyone under 22 and aged 60 and over and eligible disabled people, can benefit from free bus travel.

We introduced free bus travel to everyone under 22 one year ago. In that time almost 45 million journeys have been made through the scheme helping young people and students cut their travel costs and also helping protect our climate. I strongly urge any under 22's, students or not, who have yet to make use of this scheme to do so.

Additionally, the Scottish Government is progressing the Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares that supports the long term viability of our public transport system as we recover from the pandemic. The Review is considering both the cost and availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.

As part of the Fair Fares Review, we have announced a pilot to remove peak-time rail fares on all Scotrail routes for a six month period, during the next financial year, as a way of making rail travel more affordable and attractive to travellers. Further details on both the rail peak-fares pilot and the Fair Fares Review will be announced in due course.

��˿��

Chamber and committees