Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-39349

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-39073 by Jamie Hepburn on 14 July 2025, how many times it has consulted non-government organisations when answering written parliamentary questions in each year since May 2021, broken down by the (a) name of the organisation and (b) date that it contacted them.

Question reference: S6W-39611

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many individual scholarships for foreign nationals it has funded in (a) higher and (b) further education in each year since 2016, broken down by each individual's country of origin.

Question reference: S6W-39612

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to fund scholarships for foreign nationals in (a) higher and (b) further education in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-39347

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
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.

Question reference: S6W-39066

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-39346

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
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 assessment it has made regarding the additional funding allocated to support the introduction of combined cataract and trabecular bypass procedures.

In 2025-26 all ophthalmic procedures at National Treatment Centres (NTCs) will be cataract surgery. NTCs will not provide glaucoma treatments such as trabecular bypasses.

The treatment centres are focusing on delivering higher volume surgery in cataract only lists due to the volume of surgery required. If patients require cataract surgery and an additional procedure, surgery is likely to be undertaken in their Health Board of residence with an Ophthalmologist who specialises in the particular sub-specialty outwith cataracts i.e. Glaucoma.

Question reference: S6W-39233

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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.

Question reference: S6W-39287

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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.

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%.

Question reference: S6W-39062

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2025
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-39069

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken a full carbon lifecycle assessment comparing the environmental impact of domestically extracted coal with that of imported coal, particularly for small-scale and specialist users such as the heritage and manufacturing sectors, in light of the publication of its Coal extraction: policy position on 19 June 2025.

We have undertaken a full policy development process in order to reach a finalised position of no support for coal extraction 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 02 August 2022, which invited stakeholders’ views and expanded our evidence base in this policy area.

The call for evidence set coal extraction 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 coal extraction in Scotland was confirmed in October 2022.

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.

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