- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered any impact of requiring specific MOT testing for licensed taxi (a) licensing, (b) testing and (c) retesting.
Answer
I refer the member to the answers given for S6W-35156 and S6W-35159 on 27 February 2025.
It is for independent licensing authorities to consider their own approaches on requirements for MOT testing, subject to meeting legal requirements.
Chapter 5 (vehicles) of the Scottish Government best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and private Hire Car (PHC) operators on the licensing of taxis and PHCs and their drivers, provides examples of best practice that independent licensing authorities may wish to consider in relation to MOT testing for taxis and PHCs: https://www.gov.scot/publications/taxi-private-hire-car-licensing-best-practice-licensing-authorities-taxi-private-hire-car-operators-3rd-edition/pages/7/
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
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to taxi licensing, testing and retesting, which local authorities currently use delegated powers for licensing committees.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35156 on 27 February 2025. 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.
The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. These are operational matters for individual licensing authorities.
More generally, the Scottish Government continues to engage directly with local licensing authority representatives through engagement with the Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR). Scottish Government participation at the SOLAR Licensing Group meetings provides a platform to discuss a variety of licensing policy issues, including the taxi and PHC licensing regime.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided to the Just Transition Commission to date.
Answer
The details of the budget we have provided to the Just Transition Commission to date is as follows:
Financial Year | Spend |
2022-2023 | £102,000 |
2023-2024 | £138,591 |
2024-2025 | £215,214* |
2025-2026 | |
*Final spend will be available end March 2025
The budget includes payment of a daily fee, which is set at Tier 2 by Public Sector Pay Policy as well as travel and subsistence, meeting costs and procurement of other services (such as research and website).
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to taxi licensing, testing and retesting, what information it has on what the average cost is to drivers or operators of (a) gaining a taxi licence, (b) testing and (c) retesting.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-35156 on 27 February 2025. 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
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32232 by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024, which states that fisheries management measures are not a national or regional planning matter, how it will ensure that the views of environmental, recreational and commercial representatives are adequately reflected in inshore fisheries management and governance.
Answer
Our Fisheries Management and Conservation group, including its subgroups, already includes representation covering environmental, recreational and commercial interests. In addition, we currently have an open Call for Evidence to inform the development of the Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement Programme. This asks a range of questions about our current and future framework for inshore fisheries management in Scotland, including on Governance and co-management. Responses to the Call for Evidence will help to inform the development of this framework.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the equivalent weight in (a)
pounds and (b) kilograms is of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the carcasses of the 138,534 deer
reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season yielded meat suitable for the human
food chain.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-33200 on 21 January 2025 and S6W-33202 on 17 January 2025 which set out the information we do hold on how the carcasses of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season were processed. 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.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors the number of redundancies among oil and gas contractors in Scotland, and, if so, how many redundancies were made in 2023-24, and, based on asset owners' decommissioning schedules, how many it estimates will be made in each year from 2024-25 to 2029-30.
Answer
There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of their redundancy figures, therefore we do not hold this information centrally. However, the Scottish Government engages regularly with the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions and monitors company announcements.
In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-04138 by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024, and its statement that the new hub for offshore wind "is not going to be a training hub as such", how much of the £150 million of public funding will be used to fund the cost of retraining offshore oil and gas workers to transition to the offshore wind sector.
Answer
Offshore wind offers a significant opportunity to create thousands of good jobs in Scotland, and the Scottish Government will drive forward skills development for the sector, including supporting the transition of workers from oil and gas.
We are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million for 2025-26, year two of our five-year commitment to invest up to £500 million in critical infrastructure and manufacturing and fabrication facilities to support the growth of the offshore wind sector. Our Offshore Wind Focus paper sets out the priorities for investment, underpinned by a strategic assessment of current market opportunities that will have a catalytic effect and maximise the economic value to Scotland.
In addition, we remain committed to our ten-year Just Transition Fund, which has allocated £75 million to date supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future. This involves a dedicated package of skills interventions, including £4.5 million over 5 years for the Energy Skills Transition Hub which aims to support 1,000 people into energy transition roles, £3.7 million for the development of the Energy Skills Passport (an initial version of which was launched by industry partners on 22 January) and £1 million for a National Energy Skills Accelerator pilot scheme to better understand future energy skills needs and deliver workforce training.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on passenger numbers in Scotland, what discussions it has had with National Rail regarding its current Railcard terms and conditions, including that tickets must be bought before boarding the train.
Answer
The terms and conditions of all GB-wide railcards are set by National Rail, part of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) under UK Government rail industry rules. There have been no recent specific discussions concerning changes to railcard terms. ScotRail has confirmed with officials at Transport Scotland that National Railcards can be used to buy tickets online, via the app, or at TVMs. Where ticket purchasing facilities are not available at a station, passengers can use their National Rail card when purchasing a ticket from a member of staff on-board of ScotRail trains.