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-01977

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many community right to buy applications have been received in the last 24 months, and what proportion has been approved.

Question reference: S5W-15094

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on implementing a consent-based sharing model to enable citizens to control, manage and share their own data.

The Scottish Government is working to ensure that the processing and sharing of personal data and special category personal data, within public service delivery, is fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This includes consideration of the legal bases for processing that data and the role of consent within that. The GDPR sets out individuals’ rights in relation to the processing of information about them, with the effect of providing greater control to data subjects in relation to how their personal data is stored, used and shared.

Question reference: S5W-15095

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what examples of digital identity management systems, in which citizens manage their own data, it has considered.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15093 on‎ 15 March 2018, a new online identity assurance programme of work has commenced, which is currently in its initial discovery phase. The discovery work is including consideration of the technical landscape for identity assurance and the range of delivery options, including systems in which citizens manage their own data. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at .

Question reference: S5W-15093

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what research on digital identity management it has considered.

The Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy contains the commitment to work with stakeholders, privacy interests and members of the public to develop a robust, secure and trustworthy mechanism by which an individual member of the public can demonstrate their identity online.

A new online identity assurance programme of work has commenced to deliver this commitment, which is currently in its initial discovery phase. The discovery work is including research to identify service user needs and the technical delivery options.

Question reference: S5O-01852

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how out-of-hours GP cover is being delivered across Dumfries and Galloway.

Question reference: S5W-14369

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether high-speed broadband providers should have the same wayleave rights as other utility providers.

There are significant differences in the legislation and regulation underpinning the telecoms sectors and those governing other utilities making it difficult to mirror activity across all, not least in that the Electronic Communications Code, the legislation that governs the relationship between telecoms operators and landowners, is a reserved matter.

A key driver for the reform of the Code was to make it easier to deploy telecoms infrastructure. We are, however, continuing to engage directly with telecoms suppliers to understand their handling of wayleaves and with the UK Government and Ofcom, to ensure any barriers to telecoms deployment in Scotland are understood and acted upon.

Question reference: S5W-14500

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many health and safety breaches were recorded in each Forestry Commission Scotland��region between January and March 2017, broken down by grade of incident, and whether those found responsible for such breaches must disclose this��when taking part in��future procurement exercises.

Both Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) treat all incidents and accidents very seriously and therefore the details in this response are not restricted to those required under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) cases.

An accident is an event that results in injury or ill health whilst a H&S incident can fall into a range of categories including:

Near miss –that has the potential to cause injury or ill health but did not;
Undesired circumstance – a set of conditions or circumstances that have the potential to cause injury or ill health;
Damage or loss to property, plant, materials or the environment; and
Dangerous occurrence: one of a number of specific, reportable adverse events, as defined in the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

In addition, health and safety breaches associated with the delivery of contracts are subject to a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating as part of FES’s and FCS’s management of contracts.

The following definitions are used for each category:

RED Condition: Unsafe acts or conditions that are immediately life-threatening or imminently damaging to the environment and place the contract in a RED condition for health and safety.

AMBER Condition: Unsafe acts or conditions that are potentially life- threatening not meeting an industry safety standard, or potentially damaging to the environment place a contract in an Amber condition for health and safety.

GREEN Condition: Safety Considerations, industry standards and environmental protection measures are good.

Currently, those responsible for health and safety breaches are not required to disclose this information in future procurement exercises. This is because FES and FCS are restricted on the information that they can assess within the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) that would lead to a bidder being excluded.

FES and FCS do seek information on the health and safety processes of bidders and an evaluation of these processes is undertaken. However unless a bidder has had a prior contract terminated in respect of a breach of terms and conditions (health and safety or otherwise), or if a health and safety breach has resulted in a criminal conviction; it would be very difficult for FES or FCS to exclude the bidder. Specifically, when assessing a bidder’s suitability, a bidder could not be ‘failed’ on the sole basis of it having received a prior health & safety enforcement notice.

Table 1: Number of Incidents and Accidents in Forest Enterprise Scotland between January and March 2017

��	Grampian	South Scotland	Argyll & Lochaber	Central	Highland
Total No of Recorded H&S Occurrences	12	25	17	60	27
Red Grade Contract H&S Breaches	1	4	2	2	2
Amber Grade Contract H&S Breaches	1	8	1	4	1
Member of Public Accident Injury sustained	�� 0	�� 0	�� 2	�� 5	�� 1
Staff Accident Injury Sustained	�� 1	�� 7	�� 0	�� 7	�� 2
Contractor Accident Injury sustained	�� 0	�� 1	�� 0	�� 0	�� 0

��Table 2: Number Health and Safety breaches in Forest Commission

��Conservancies between January and March 2017��

��	Central Scotland Conservancy	Perth & Argyll Conservancy
Total No of Recorded H&S Occurrences	2	0
Red Grade Contract H&S Breaches	0	0
Amber Grade Contract H&S Breaches	0	0
Member of Public accident Injury sustained	0	0
Staff Accident Injury sustained	1	1
Contractor Accident Injury sustained	0	0

Only two Conservancies have any date for this specific time period.

Question reference: S5W-14335

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that any barriers to private investment in broadband deployment are reduced, and how it is engaging with (a)��local authorities��and (b)��private sector providers with regard to this.

The legislation and regulation of telecommunications are reserved matters and as such, it is for the UK Government, with Ofcom, to ensure that barriers to private investment are understood and removed. We are continuing to engage directly with telecoms suppliers and local authorities on a regular basis to understand issues and with the UK Government and Ofcom, to ensure any barriers to telecoms deployment in Scotland are understood and acted upon. We are, nevertheless, using levers available to us where possible, such as planning and non-domestic business rates.

Question reference: S5W-14336

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to ensure that the R100 procurement process focuses on (a) intervening in the most hard-to-reach areas and (b)��working with the commercial market to incentivise deployment in urban and semi-urban areas.

We have committed £600m to the initial Reaching 100% procurement. This procurement is focused on our more rural areas, excluding urban premises and targeting investment where it is needed most. We also plan to make the delivery of new backhaul in rural locations a requirement of the North lot.

In parallel, we are working to create an environment that stimulates commercial investment in urban areas, negating the need for public sector intervention. Recent announcements by BT, Virgin Media and CityFibre suggest that this approach is working. We are keeping this under review and will be able to intervene before 2021 should that commercial investment in urban areas not materialise.

Question reference: S5W-14368

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether high-speed broadband should be considered to be a basic utility.