- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding allocated from the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme went to growers based outside of Scotland in each year since it was established.
Answer
While Producer Organisations (POs) that currently receive aid through the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme funded by the Scottish Government do have a number of members that are not based in Scotland, the scheme does not fund individual growers. Aid is provided to recognised POs, based on an approved operational programme, which must have the support of all PO members. Funding offers a range of opportunities which are of collective value to the PO and its members. Currently there are also a number of Scottish growers which are members of POs in other UK nations.
Information related to funding allocated to POs in other UK nations is not held by the Scottish Government. This is a matter for the Rural Payments Agency.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement of additional funding for National Treatment Centre Highland on 10 April 2025, what proportion of the additional funding will be used to support ophthalmic procedures, and how many additional cataract operations it anticipates will be delivered as a result.
Answer
Approximately 61% of the additional funding for National Treatment Centre (NTC) Highland will be used to support ophthalmic procedures. NTC Highland have planned to deliver over 3,500 cataract procedures with this funding.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many sheep being moved to Scotland have so far been given a pre-movement test as a precaution for bluetongue virus.
Answer
We have requested sheep movement data from APHA, but it has not as yet been received.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly limited access to the Islands Business Resilience Fund to eight islands, and whether it will consider extending this fund to businesses in all of Scotland's island communities.
Answer
The Scottish Government has worked closely with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to develop and refine the eligibility criteria for the Islands Business Resilience Fund (IBRF) and identify how this targeted funding can reach those businesses which meet the criteria and have been impacted by reductions in ferry services.
HIE carried out detailed analysis of data and statistics provided by Transport Scotland and CalMac relating to ferry disruption. Based on this, the islands of South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran were identified as eligible for the Fund, as they each had experienced more than 15% ferry cancellations over the last three operating seasons, with limited alternatives. For comparison, the average disruption to ferry services, across the CalMac network was around 6-7%.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund have (a) been approved and (b) not been approved in each year since it was established, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund is distributed as part of the General Revenue Grant to island local authorities which decide where, and how, funding will be directed based on their local knowledge and understanding of the impacts of the cost crisis on their island populations.
There is no requirement for local authorities to use an application process to distribute monies, although some may choose to. The Scottish Government does not, therefore, hold this information.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated in total to the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund in each year since it was established.
Answer
To date, £4,400,000 has been allocated to the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund since it was established in 2022-23. This can be broken down as follows:
2022-2023
£1.4 million
2023-2024
£1 million
2024-2025
£1 million
2025-2026
£1 million
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been distributed to (a) public, (b) private, (c) third sector and (d) community organisations from the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund since it was established, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund (ICCEF) is distributed to island local authorities, which decide where funding will be directed based on their local knowledge and understanding of the impacts of the cost crisis on their island populations.
The six island local authorities have provided, where possible, a breakdown of how the monies have been distributed.
Several recipients could reasonably be classified as both third sector and community organisations. For the purposes of this question, local authorities have assigned each recipient to the category they consider most appropriate.
In this instance, the Scottish Government has assumed ‘private’ to mean private individuals and families
2022-23 | Public | Private | Third Sector | Community Organisations | Total allocation |
Argyll and Bute | £0 | £169,449 | £0 | £27,551 | £197,000 |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | £0 | £227,800 | £0 | £132,200 | £360,000 |
Highland | £0 | £115,000 | £0 | £32,000 | £147,000 |
North Ayrshire | £43,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 | £17,000 | £80,000 |
Orkney Islands | £0 | £0 | £305,000 | £0 | £305,000 |
Shetland Islands | £85,795 | £47,549 | £158,143 | £19,514 | £311,000 |
Total | £128,795 | £569,798 | £473,143 | £228,265 | £1,400,000 |
2023-24 | Public | Private | Third Sector | Community Organisations | Total allocation |
Argyll and Bute | £0 | £125,000 | £0 | £16,000 | £141,000 |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | £20,000 | £48,000 | £97,000 | £92,000 | £257,000 |
Highland | £0 | £105,000 | £0 | £0 | £105,000 |
North Ayrshire | £25,000 | £10,000 | £0 | £22,000 | £57,000 |
Orkney Islands | £46,000 | £9,600 | £104,400 | £58,000 | £218,000 |
Shetland Islands | £32,815 | £159,900 | £0 | £29,285 | £222,000 |
Total | £123,815 | £457,500 | £201,400 | £217,285 | £1,000,000 |
2024-25 | Public | Private | Third Sector | Community Organisations | Total allocation |
Argyll and Bute | £0 | £125,000 | £0 | £16,000 | £141,000 |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | £0 | £0 | £0 | £257,000 | £257,000 |
Highland* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | £105,000 |
North Ayrshire | £0 | £0 | £0 | £57,000 | £57,000 |
Orkney Islands | £62,529 | £0 | £105,471 | £50,000 | £218,000 |
Shetland Islands | £13,500 | £195,506 | £0 | £12,994 | £222,000 |
Total | £76,029 | £320,506 | £105,471 | £392,994 | £1,000,000 |
*Note: Information regarding the Highland Council’s 2024-25 distribution of funds has not been provided to date.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government was assessment it has made of any impact on cross-border trade of measures introduced to prevent the bluetongue virus entering Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government's Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC) have undertaken studies into the levels of cross border trade between Scotland and England, with input from the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers Scotland (IAAS) to determine an economic evaluation of that trade on a monthly basis. EPIC have also conducted a study to assess the impacts on Scottish livestock movements in response to the England-wide restriction zone, with consideration to the control strategy which includes the requirement for pre-movement testing. The findings of these reports have been shared with key industry stakeholders in Scotland, devolved administrations and Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) colleagues for further analysis and discussion.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding any potential threat of the bluetongue virus in Scotland, in light of the whole of England being made a bluetongue restricted zone on 1 July 2025.
Answer
Scottish Government have been in regular communication with both Defra and Welsh Government, including regular discussions between CVO’s since disease was identified as circulating in England in 2024, with meetings taking place at least twice a week since then. Scottish Government policy and veterinary colleagues have attended twice weekly bluetongue meetings, and weekly bluetongue vaccine task force meetings with the other devolved administrations and industry representatives. There are also twice weekly licensing and policy calls between all the administrations.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted a full carbon lifecycle assessment between domestically extracted onshore oil and gas and imported fossil fuels, especially in the context of reducing reliance on imports, and, if so, whether it will publish the results, in light of the publication of its Onshore conventional oil and gas: policy position on 19 June 2025.
Answer
We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position of no support for onshore conventional oil and gas in Scotland, in line with statutory requirements. The first step in this process was the launch of a call for evidence which ran from 21 June to 2 August 2022, which invited stakeholders’ views and expanded our evidence base in this policy area.
The call for evidence set onshore conventional oil and gas in its wider context of our statutory emissions targets and just transition and highlighted our work to date in relevant policy areas, including energy security, climate change, and just transition.
Having considered stakeholders’ views and the evidence received alongside wider Scottish Government energy and climate change policies, our preferred policy position of no support for onshore conventional oil and gas development in Scotland was confirmed in January 2023.
The policy position was subject to statutory and other assessments, including Strategic Environmental Assessment, before finalisation. This included in our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP), and our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). NPF4 is publicly available here: National Planning Framework 4 - gov.scot.The draft SEA of the draft ESJTP is publicly available here: strategic-environmental-assessment-draft-energy-strategy-transition-plan-environmental-report.pdf.
