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 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.

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Question reference: S6W-33879

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide details of what progress it has made to “strengthen rural childcare provisions through training more practitioners and developing pilot childcare programmes that suit specific needs of fishing communities”, as referenced in the June 2022 publication, Women in Scottish Fisheries: A literature review on experiences, challenges and opportunities for women working in the Scottish fishing industry.

The Scottish Government recognises that high quality, accessible and affordable early learning and childcare is vital in rural and island areas, including fishing communities, to support children’s outcomes and to enable parents or carers to train, work or study.

The Scottish Government continues to fully fund local authorities to deliver 1140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare to eligible children across Scotland, backed by around £1 billion funding each year. Local authorities have a duty to make this service available to all eligible children within their area and are responsible for local service delivery planning.

At a national level, several work programmes are underway to support childcare access in rural and island communities. This includes funding a new national childminder recruitment and retention programme, making grants available to local authorities via the Addressing Depopulation Fund(two of which contain a focus on addressing childcare issues) and investing £16 million over two years into our 6 early adopter communities, including those in rural and island locations.

The Scottish Government is also committed to strengthening the childcare workforce. As set out in the draft Scottish Budget we will provide an additional £9.7 million to local authorities in 2025-26 to support an increase in the pay of childcare workers in the private and third sector delivering funded ELC so that they can be paid at least the Real Living Wage of £12.60 from April 2025.

Question reference: S6W-33918

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33922

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Clyde Fishermen’s Association since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33917

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33943

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times since being appointed to the post the (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met Scottish Environment LINK where the fishing industry was part of discussions.

Question reference: S6W-33897

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its National Marine Plan 2.

Scotland’s first National Marine Plan (NMP) was adopted in 2015 and provides the guiding framework for sustainable management of marine activities and resources. In October 2022, Ministers announced the intention to update the NMP to better support our transition to net zero and tackling the nature and climate crisis through marine planning.

The timeline for the National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) is published in the statement of public participation. The draft NMP2 is scheduled for consultation in late 2025 with plan adoption anticipated in 2027.

Question reference: S6W-33920

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Anglo Scottish Fishermen’s Association since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33853

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many responses were received to the consultation, Fisheries management measures within Scottish Offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and how many respondents (a) supported and (b) opposed the proposed full site fisheries management measures for offshore MPAs.

In total, the consultation on fisheries management measures within Scottish offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) received 3,881 valid responses. The majority of these response came from campaigns from two organisations.

Of those who responded specifically to the question on full site management measures, 97% were in support and 3% were opposed.

The full consultation analysis report was published on 31 January and can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Question reference: S6W-33925

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions the current (a) Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and (b) Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity has met with the Mallaig & North West Fishermen’s Association Ltd since they were appointed to their role.

Question reference: S6W-33933

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were prosecuted on the suspicion of committing an offence listed in the Salmon (Fish Passes and Screens) (Scotland) Regulations 1994 in each year since 2021.

The Salmon (Fish Passes and Screens) (Scotland) Regulations 1994 were revoked in 2013. Therefore, there have been no prosecutions for offences under these regulations since 2021.

The Salmon (Fish Passes and Screens) (Scotland) Regulations 1994 were revoked in 2013 and regulation of activities affecting the water environment, including barriers to salmon migration, is now done under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. This framework allows for a broader suite of enforcement options compared with the Salmon (Fish Passes and Screens) (Scotland) Regulations 1994, which only allowed prosecutions.

Enforcement Actions by Type	Number of enforcement actions for offences under Regulation 44 of The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011
Enforcement Actions by Type	2024	2023	2022	2021	TOTAL
Final Warning Letter	6	6	6	5	23
Statutory Notice	1	0	1	0	2
Variable Monetary Penalty	6	7	4	1	18
Fixed Monetary Penalty	2	0	0	0	2
TOTAL	15	13	11	6	45