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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 MSPs 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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-06109

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide details of the most up-to-date vacancy rates for (a) retail and (b) hospitality units in (i) Aberdeen and (ii) Dundee city centre.

Question reference: S6W-06076

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what recent engagement it has had with HM Treasury on reducing VAT charges on (a) general building renovations and conversions and (b) listed building renovations and conversions.

The then Housing Minister, Mr Stewart, wrote to the UK Government in March 2021 to raise this issue, but the response received from HM Treasury suggested this would be prohibitively expensive to VAT receipts. Whilst cost is clearly a consideration, we believe this alone should not dictate policy decisions and that the changes suggested would help communities retain existing - often historic - buildings. This would also contribute towards our net-zero ambitions by reducing the emissions caused by demolition and new construction, which benefits from lower VAT rates.

Question reference: S6W-06071

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when NatureScot will publish a progress report on the implementation of each of the Deer Working Group recommendations that the Scottish Government accepted.

As set out in the answer to S6W-06070 on 25 February 2022, work to implement the recommendations of the Deer Working Group is underway. Part of this work involves considering the most appropriate method of reporting on progress and further details on this will be provided in due course.

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/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-06072

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to bring forward any new incentives for land managers in relation to deer management.

Work to improve the sustainability of Scotland’s deer management systems, including recommendations made by the Deer Working Group, will be taken forward under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

Priorities will be broadly split across four streams: legislation; regulation; incentives; and operational delivery. The work stream focusing on incentives will include proposals to mainstream deer management into existing schemes, and scope for any new schemes.

We will lay out further details of this work in due course.

Question reference: S6W-06066

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for new cull targets for deer populations.

As we set out in our 2021 Programme for Government we will: ‘modernise deer management, implementing the recommendations of the Deer Management Working Group.’

The Deer Working Group report includes recommendations relating to cull targets, including those for a cull approval system, and we are working with NatureScot, and other relevant agencies, to progress those recommendations under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme.

Question reference: S6W-06028

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Cal Mac Ferries regarding the Arran ferry timetable.

Question reference: S6W-05912

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what ScotRail contracts with Abellio will continue once its franchise has concluded.

Question reference: S6W-06667

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of police officer impersonation have been reported to Police Scotland in each year since 2013, broken down by police division.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of incidents reported to the police. Information is held on the number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, including those for personation of police. This is shown in the following table, by police division, from 2013-14 to 2020-21.

Table: Number of personation of police crimes in Scotland by police division, 2013-14 to 2020-21

Police Division	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire	2	0	1	0	4	0	3	0
Ayrshire	4	1	0	0	0	1	2	10
Dumfries and Galloway	2	0	1	1	1	2	1	1
Edinburgh City	7	37	10	14	9	9	8	8
Fife	10	1	5	5	4	5	3	3
Forth Valley	3	4	1	4	7	4	6	10
Greater Glasgow	19	7	11	21	27	17	11	18
Highland and Islands	0	0	4	1	2	1	3	1
Lanarkshire	6	2	8	8	3	1	9	9
North East	8	7	8	4	7	5	5	12
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	3	5	0	6	2	1	1	0
Tayside	0	4	2	2	3	1	1	0
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	3	4	5	2	3	4	5	9
Scotland	67	72	56	68	72	51	58	81

Source: Recorded crime in Scotland

Question reference: S6W-06449

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects all of the provisions of the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021 to be in force.

Question reference: S6W-06304

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will ensure that local authorities are resourced and supported to tackle the climate emergency.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-05390 on 25 January 2022, the Scottish Government regularly engages with local authorities and the wider public sector, including through COSLA and the Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN), where current opportunities and challenges within local authority climate action are frequently discussed. Scottish Government officials also engage with the Improvement Service on the capacity needs of local authorities in delivering net zero.

For further detail on local authorities and the climate emergency, I refer the member to the answers to questions: S6W-05387 on 11 January 2022; S6W-05388, S6W-05389 and S6W-05390 on 25 January 2022; S6W-05391 on 11 January 2022; S6W-05627 on 21 January 2022; S6W-05753 on 3 February 2022; and S6W-05754 and S6W-05755 on 7 February 2022.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website