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: S6W-14793

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many trees it estimates will need to be removed in order to meet its 2030 targets for onshore windfarm development.

While the Scottish Government holds some relevant information relating to tree removal as a result of onshore windfarm developments on Forestry and Land Scotland sites, it does not hold information relating to all onshore windfarms. Further data is held by Local Planning Authorities.

Where trees are proposed to be felled for the purpose of building an onshore wind farm it is most likely that there would be a condition attached to the consent requiring compensatory planting. This is to accord with the Scottish Government’s policy on the control of woodland removal –

The monitoring and enforcing of such conditions are undertaken by the Local Planning Authority.

Question reference: S6W-14586

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12922 by Jenny Gilruth on 21 December 2022, which states that it expects "an update from Transport Scotland on this matter imminently", whether the update has now been produced, and, if so, whether it will provide a revised answer to the question.

Question reference: S6O-01945

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service capital budget for 2023-24 on the amount of maintenance work required in court buildings across the country.

Question reference: S6T-01182

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a report by WWF Scotland that states that Scotland will fall "significantly short" of its target for decarbonising heating in homes.

Question reference: S6O-01922

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Rural Housing Fund.

Question reference: S6W-14314

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13828 by Michael Matheson on 24 January 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether it consulted (a) Wood Mackenzie (b) Rystad and (c) Westwood Global Energy as part of the development of its Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which was published on 10 January 2023.

The Scottish Government drew on data from Wood Mackenzie and other organisations in developing the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

As we committed to in the Bute House Agreement, the Scottish Government is undertaking in-depth analysis work to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero, ensuring an approach that supports and protects our energy security and our highly skilled workforce whilst meeting our climate obligations.

This work has already provided evidence which was used to underpin elements of the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan relating to the oil and gas sector, together with other commercially available data.

The independent report on the analytical work we have commissioned will be published in full, once it is complete and following independent panel review. We expect publication during the consultation period for the draft ESJTP.

Question reference: S6W-14322

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it decided that allocating (a) £2 million and (b) the later amount of £5 million to the Climate Justice Fund was the "right" amount to allocate, and what pre-existing strategy it was following, or outcomes or targets it was aiming to achieve.

The Climate Justice Fund aims to support communities facing the impacts of climate change under a justice-based approach. The decision to allocate £2m of it to address loss and damage was based on the scale of the need, the lack of funding from others, and the influence the additional funding would have on other governments and organisations to commit funding to address loss and damage.

The £2 million for loss and damage aims to increase ambition and accelerate global action and to influence the global agenda on the issues of loss and damage and climate justice. It has funded the programs outline in the response to question
‎ S6W-13351 on 10 January 2023 .

An additional £5 million on loss and damage was subsequently allocated on the basis that the initial £2m was effectively supporting communities (based on feedback from global stakeholders and evidence from ongoing quarterly monitoring of the programmes) and that a specific allocation on non-economic loss and damage would both support vulnerable communities and bring focus to an area that was under-researched and under-funded. The need for more to be done to both understand and address non-economic losses and damages, in particular as experience by women, was one of the key insights from the Scottish Government hosted as well as from ongoing consultations with our partners.

The £7 million on loss and damage does not meet the scale of the global need. But it does allow the funding of pilot projects that support communities and the building of an evidence base of what works that will strengthen both Scottish Government’s and global partners’ future work. It has also played a role in unlocking funding commitments from other governments and organisations. While Scotland was the first country to commit funding to loss and damage, the global commitments to fund loss and damage have grown to over $300m.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-13934

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10553 by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2022, what the ScotRail budget for Rail Passenger Services (a) is for 2023 and (b) was in each of the years set out in the answer; how much of the budget remained unspent at the end of each of those years, or, if there was an overspend, how much the overspend was, and from which budget line any overspend was funded.

The draft budget for rail passenger services for (a) 2023-24 is £458 million, as published in December and remains subject to the Parliamentary approval process.

The following table sets out (b) budget against expenditure and explanations for variances that are included in the published outturn statements within the Scottish Government consolidated accounts each year.

Year	Budget £m	Expenditure £m	Comments
2016-17	266	266	No variance
2017-18	311	170	The underspend is offset by an overspend on the capital budget and relates to the reclassification of Fixed Track Access Charges expenditure.
2018-19	183	155	The underspend is offset by an overspend on the capital budget and relates to the reclassification of Fixed Track Access Charges expenditure.
2019-20	150	180	The overspend is due to increased revenue support in response to COVID-19 that was agreed to be funded within the wider SG budget.
2020-21	659	659	No variance
2021-22	568	534	The underspend is due to higher than expected fare box revenue that reduced requirement for COVID-19 support.
2022-23	431		Full year not complete. No overspend is expected at this time.

Question reference: S6W-14232

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any external organisations or individuals have provided paid consultancy services to date in relation to the development of a Biodiversity Investment Plan, as set out in the new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and, if so, which external organisations or individuals have done so.

Question reference: S6W-14233

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent to date on a Biodiversity Investment Plan, as set out in the new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and how many civil servants have worked on delivering this.

Following the recent publication of the draft biodiversity strategy, a delivery plan is now being developed and this will include the development of an investment plan. The delivery plan is being led jointly by Scottish Government and NatureScot officials, drawing on engagement from key policy areas and across a wider network which includes significant stakeholder engagement. No expenditure has therefore been directly devoted to the development of the Biodiversity Investment Plan yet.