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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.

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Question reference: S6W-29996

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29523 by Alasdair Allan on 16 September 2024, how it accurately monitors the total installed solar capacity, of all types, approved by local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-29998

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the area of (a) prime and (b) other agriculture land that is currently used for renewable energy projects, also broken down by the type of renewable energy project.

Question reference: S6W-29997

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29352 by Gillian Martin on 17 September 2024, what approaches have been made to (a) academia and (b) the private sector to explore the potential for new recovery solutions.

Question reference: S6O-03776

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns over its reported plans to downgrade the neonatal intensive care unit at Ninewells Hospital.

Question reference: S6W-29701

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any new measures put in place to respond to storm damage in Angus and across the North East as a result of lessons learned from severe storm damage in 2023.

The primary responsibility for flood resilience rests with the individual property owner, and then it is for Local Authorities to develop Local Flood Risk Management Plans. Effective mechanisms to support response and recovery during and after extreme weather events are already in place, including regional resilience partnerships, and through the Scottish Flood Forum. Various lessons learned exercises were carried out by the responsible authorities following the responses to different storm events last year.

Later this year, the Scottish Government will publish a Flood Resilience Strategy which will aim to set Scotland on a long-term course towards a sustainable level of flood resilience in the face of increasing flood risks associated with climate change.

Question reference: S6W-29352

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being implemented to support the recovery of (a) potassium, (b) nitrogen, (c) sulphur, (d) phosphorus, (e) magnesium, (f) calcium and (g) any other nutrients from waste water.

Recovering these nutrients from wastewater is expensive and the income generated from the sale of recovered resources does not cover the costs of recovery – as a result it is not widely done by Scottish Water. For this reason, in our recent consultation on water, wastewater and drainage policy, we sought views on whether resource recovery is something that Scottish Water should be undertaking, and to what extent they should be able to use the money it receives from customer charges to do this. The consultation responses show broad support for our proposals and there was a recognition to support a circular economy through resource recovery. We will consider how this activity can be progressed further as part of our on-going development of policy in Water, Wastewater and Drainage services.

Question reference: S6W-29915

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much new incineration capacity has become operational since June 2022.

Question reference: S6W-29910

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29351 by Gillian Martin on 12 September 2024, what measures (a) it has taken to expand the provision of reuse options at household waste recycling centres and (b) will be taken forward as part of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 to expand the provision of such options.

Question reference: S6W-29916

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards developing an indicative declining cap on residual waste treatment capacity, as outlined in the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-29523

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 16 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of new solar developments approved in the last five years have been (a) ground and (b) non-ground mounted.

Solar energy developments with a capacity over 50MW are considered by Scottish Ministers under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. All solar developments approved by Scottish Ministers in the last five years have been ground mounted.

Solar energy developments with a capacity of 50MW or less require planning permission from the relevant planning authority. The Scottish Government does not hold information on planning applications determined by planning authorities for ground mounted or grounded solar panels. However, this information could be obtained from individual planning authorities.

Householders and businesses also have certain permitted development rights (PDR) for the installation of solar panels on their properties. Provided that the relevant conditions are complied with, these PDR allow for the installation of solar panels without the requirement for a planning application. In doing so, they save the time and expense associated with applying for planning permission. Accordingly, data is not available on those developments carried out under PDR.