Parliamentary questions
Maurice Golden
1,697 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
9 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of (a) its and (b) each of its agencies' vehicle fleet is comprised of zero-emission vehicles, also broken down by what information it has for other public bodies.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Government hold central records for its own and Crown Office Procurator Fiscals Service fleets. The proportion of zero-emission vehicles currently operated is provided in the following table. Organisation Zero-emission vehicles (%) Scottish Go…
9 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether existing air quality monitoring sites have been verified as best placed for including monitoring of non-exhaust emissions (NEE), and if monitoring of NEE currently takes place.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish air quality monitoring network consists of around 100 central government and local authority operated sites across the country. Monitoring sites are generally located at known pollution hotspots where there is relevant public exposure, and also a…
9 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00671 by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021, whether it accepts in full the findings of the 2019 report, Non-Exhaust Emissions from Road Traffic.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Government accepts in full the Air Quality Expert Group's (AQEG) conclusions and recommendations in this report. The AQEG report concludes that the most effective approaches for reducing NEE are to reduce the overall volume of traffic, lower spee…
9 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what impact its policies to encourage fewer car journeys have had on car mileage figures in each of the last five years.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Transport Statistics report an increase in car use from 35,362 to 36,747 million vehicle kilometres driven in Scotland between 2016 and 2019. We do not yet have these figures for 2020, which will have been impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions. T…
5 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the suspension of parking charges at each of the three hospitals where PFI parking contracts are in place.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: I refer the member to the answer to the answer to question ? S6W-01088 on 30 August 2021 . 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/cha…
5 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much money it estimates has been saved by (a) patients, (b) visitors and (c) staff as a result of the suspension of car park charges at each of the three hospitals where PFI contracts are in place.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Since the suspension of charges, the costs of parking and therefore total savings for all users are estimated to be in the region of £8.1m. Beyond this, there is no means to robustly track the composition of those individuals who are using these car parks an…
5 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the PFI operators for each of the three hospitals where PFI contracts are in place to discuss long-term parking arrangements.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The PFI contracts in place for car parking are held between each of the NHS Boards, NHS Lothian, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and NHS Tayside, and the PFI providers. Therefore discussions with the PFI providers are led by NHS Boards, not the Scottish Governmen…
3 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether cattery and kennel businesses are classified within the tourism, hospitality and leisure sector and, if they are not so classified, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.
Answer · Kate Forbes: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01036 on 13 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/2…
3 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35747 by Kate Forbes on 17 March 2021, how many cattery and kennel businesses have (a) applied for and (b) secured local authority discretionary funding support.
Answer · Kate Forbes: The use of the local authority discretionary funding was entirely at the discretion of local authorities and we do not currently hold data on applications by or allocations to individual type of business. The Scottish Government regularly publishes statistic…
3 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates providing targeted support to cattery and kennel businesses would cost.
Answer · Kate Forbes: The Scottish Government does not hold any specific data on the number of kennel and cattery businesses operating in Scotland and so is unable to provide an estimate of how much it would cost to target additional support at this sector.
3 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of cattery and kennel businesses to discuss support and restart measures.
Answer · Kate Forbes: The last year has been extremely difficult for many of Scotland’s businesses and we have engaged widely with businesses and representative organisations throughout this crisis to ensure we understood all the impacts and how best to support businesses. It has…
2 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on including ex-service personnel as a priority group for housing allocation under the Reasonable Preference Allocations Priority provision set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014.
Answer · Shona Robison: We recognise the importance of good, safe, secure and warm homes for people’s wellbeing and our vision is that everyone should have a home that meets their needs. Priority for social housing in Scotland is based on housing need and an assessment of an applic…
2 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendation in the Scottish Veteran’s Commissioner report, Housing: Making a Home in Civilian Society, that the Housing Options Scotland project, Military Matters, should be upgraded to the status of a permanent service and that any uncertainty regarding th…
Answer · Shona Robison: Housing Options Scotland receives funding from the Scottish Government to provide housing advice and advocacy services to older and disabled people in Scotland. This includes support for the Military Matters project aimed specifically to help veterans and whi…
2 Jul 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that (a) local authority and (b) other frontline housing staff are aware of the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant and are supported to better identify the challenges that ex-service personnel might face.
Answer · Keith Brown: During 2020 the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, MOD and veterans organisations, promoted and distributed Armed Forces and veterans awareness training to all local authorities in Scotland via the network of Armed Forces Champions. T…
25 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that the views of small independent brewers are taken into account by the gateway review into the implementation date for its deposit return scheme.
Answer · Michael Matheson: Scottish Government officials met with representatives of the independent brewing sector on 2 July 2021. We will consider their views alongside the findings of the Gateway Review into Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.
25 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00666 by Mairi McAllan on 24 June 2021, what its response is to the statement in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020, in the section on microplastics in surface water, that “a baseline does not yet exist for microplastics so a trend analysis is not po…
Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. There have been nearly 400 locations sampled between 2013 and 2020. There is currently an insufficient data series to determine if a t…
18 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00371 by Michael Matheson on 17 June 2021, how much of the fund has already been allocated to projects, and what proportion of the fund will be made available in each subsequent year.
Answer · Michael Matheson: To date, over 75 expressions of interest have been submitted by local authorities. Zero Waste Scotland is currently working with local authorities to develop detailed bids. These will be reviewed in line with the fund’s governance arrangements before a decisi…
15 Jun 2021 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the growth of jobs that will support a greener economy.
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out a feasibility study on building a new plastic recycling plant.
Answer · Michael Matheson: As set out in our Programme for Government in 2020, we are working with local authorities, the deposit return scheme administrator and potential investors to explore options that will unlock reprocessing investments and to ensure that we manage more of our ow…
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the plastic that was collected for recycling in each of the last five years was subsequently recycled.
Answer · Michael Matheson: We do not hold the data centrally to accurately report the proportion of plastics collected for recycling that are recycled. Data on the materials processed at Materials Recovery Facilities, from sampling undertaken by SEPA, is available here: Recyclate qua…
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it gave to the potentially higher rates of microplastic waste from electric vehicles, when setting a date from which the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Government has made a commitment to phase out the need for new petrol or diesel light commercial vehicles in public bodies by 2025; the need for any new petrol or diesel vehicles in public sector fleets by 2030; and the need for new petrol or die…
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has conducted into the potential increase in microplastic waste from electric vehicles.
Answer · Graeme Dey: While the Scottish Government continues to monitor research into issues relating to zero emission vehicles, we have not conducted specific analysis in the potential increase in microplastic waste from electric vehicles.
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with (a) the UK Government, and (b) tyre manufacturers on setting tyre abrasion standards, ahead of the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles.
Answer · Graeme Dey: To date the Scottish Government has had no discussions with either the UK Government or tyre manufacturers on setting tyre abrasion standards.
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Marine Scotland on the provision of a dedicated research vessel to monitor marine plastic pollution.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: No discussions have taken place about having a dedicated vessel to monitor marine plastic pollution as this is already carried out by multi-purpose research vessels.
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to marine plastic pollution monitoring projects since 2016.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: Marine Scotland has spent £115,176 since 2016 on monitoring and supporting science of seabed marine plastics, floating surface microplastics and also beach litter citizen science data collected by the Marine Conservation Society volunteers. These costs do not…
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to remove plastic pollution from Scottish waters.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government is taking action across the board to reduce marine litter including via preventative as well as removal initiatives, legislation and policies under our Marine Litter Strategy. Preventative measures to reduce plastic pollution sources…
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to establish a baseline for marine plastic pollution monitoring.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: Marine Scotland currently monitors marine plastic pollution in three programmes which have been used to establish baselines for seabed litter, floating microplastics and beach litter. These were published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 and can be found …
13 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to undertaking a public awareness campaign on maintaining tyre pressure, as a way to improve road safety and reduce microplastic pollution.
Answer · Graeme Dey: The Scottish Government has published a new Road Safety Framework to 2030 (RSF2030). The Framework sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and an ambitious long term goal where no one is seriously injured o…
1 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34080 by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 December 2020, whether a decision has been taken on the distribution of the £70 million recycling fund.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government has worked in partnership with COSLA and Zero Waste Scotland to develop arrangements for the fund. More information on the aims, scope and distribution of the fund is available at: https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/local-authoritie…
1 Jun 2021 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34419 by Ben Macpherson on 3 February 2021, whether its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog training Aids has been published.
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Work on finalising the review had been on hold due to other animal welfare priorities arising from the Covid pandemic but this is now almost completed and the report is expected to be published this month.