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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-35010

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted an analysis of any potential efficiency savings in the judicial system from the establishment of a dedicated environmental court, and, if not, whether it has any plans to do so.

The Scottish Government made a written statement to Parliament on 19 November 2024 on the effectiveness of environmental governance arrangements, following an earlier report and consultation. As stated in those documents, the Scottish Government does not see any strong argument for a change in the balance of parliamentary, administrative and judicial roles in decision making on environmental matters, or for the creation of a specialist court. Therefore, there are no plans to conduct any additional analysis of any potential efficiency savings in the judicial system from the creation of an environment court.

Question reference: S6W-35011

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any government-initiated programmes and initiatives focused on improving environmental outcomes since 2016 that it considers have been unsuccessful in achieving their stated outcomes, and what the original estimated costs and benefits were, based on an anticipated successful outcome, in each case.

Individual Scottish Government strategies and policies are periodically reviewed, taking account of progress towards objectives. Strategies and policies with environmental goals can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at https://www.gov.scot/environment-and-climate-change/.There are many sources of monitoring data on environmental outcomes in Scotland, an overview can be found at https://data.gov.scot/environment/.Environmental Standards Scotland is an independent body that promotes the effectiveness of environmental law through its work, and information on its investigations and monitoring can found on its website https://environmentalstandards.scot/our-work/.

Question reference: S6W-35213

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next raise the matter of the use of electric shock collars on dogs with the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has been asked to look at aversive devices training devices and is expected to report in the near future. A Review of electric shock collars is also underway as part of the wider review of the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020, due to report by 1 April 2025.

The Scottish Government will carefully consider the recommendations from SAWC and the Review before deciding how to proceed.

Question reference: S6W-34899

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its buildings have had (a) renewable energy generation equipment, such as solar panels, installed and (b) investment in renewable energy generation projects in each of the last 10 years, and what proportion of overall energy use in these building this covers.

(a) 6 owned buildings on the core Scottish Government estate have solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, 2 buildings have biomass boilers, 1 building has an air source heat pump.

(b) Investment in renewable energy generation projects in owned core Scottish Government buildings in the last 10 years is:-

2024-25 - £0

2023-24 - £0

2022-23 - £929,705.00 1 building Air Source Heat, 1 building - Solar PV

2021-22 - £24,894 1 building - Solar PV

2020-21 - £18,000 1 building - Solar PV

2019-20 - £0

2018-19 - £728,000 3 buildings - Solar PV

2017-18 - £200,000 1 building - Biomass Boiler

2016-17 - £166,604 1 building - Biomass Boiler

2015-16 - £0

Biomass and air source heat systems provide 100% of the hot water demand for each building. Solar PV provides approximately 5% of each buildings annual electricity consumption.

Question reference: S6O-04361

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the way the justice system handles crimes involving animals.

Question reference: S6W-34355

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many funding packages, whether loans or grants, have been provided by the Scottish National Investment Bank to supply chain businesses involved in supporting ScotWind projects.

The Scottish National Investment Bank is operationally independent of the Scottish Government, it invests on a purely commercial basis and does not distribute grants of any kind.

Full details of the Bank’s portfolio can be found on its website and this provides a breakdown of the Bank’s investments by primary mission and also provides further details on each investment such as listing any co-investors and a summary of what the investment will achieve:

Scottish National Investment Bank Investment Portfolio

Question reference: S6W-33375

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will authorise a review of fire safety procedures at waste management facilities.

Following the fire at the WEEE Solutions site in Linwood in June 2024, I asked my officials to consider the safety of these sites and battery energy storage (BESS) sites. In particular, this was to examine whether existing safety provisions and regulations are sufficiently robust, whilst also considering compliance and enforcement aspects. This concluded that the current legislative and regulatory framework is sufficiently robust, recognising however that it is complex and requires interagency cooperation to be effective.

The investigation into the cause of the recent fire at Friarton is still underway and I will decide once the findings are known whether to take any reviews forward. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Health and Safety Executive and SEPA will continue to engage with the site and my officials liaise with them on any issues of safety at BESS sites.

It would not be appropriate to commit to a review of fire safety procedures at waste management facilities until HSE, SEPA and SFRS have had time to look at the particular case and can give informed information to governments if required.

Question reference: S6W-33376

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the findings were of the investigation into the fire at Shore Recycling in Perth on 28 February 2023, and which recommendations from that investigation were taken forward.

Question reference: S6W-33225

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32129 by Shona Robison on 8 January 2025, whether it will confirm whether it records, in an easily accessible format, the (a) amount of public money spent on court cases that it is a party to, as opposed to general government legal costs, and (b) number of court cases that it has been a party to, and, if so, how the public can access any such information.

A) The Scottish Government does not record the information you have requested in an easily accessible format. The costs for each case are recorded in the individual case files or across multiple sources of information. As set out in the answer to question S6W-31821 on 9 December 2024 the costs to provide this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The requester asked for information spanning 18 years.

B) The Scottish Government does not record the information you have requested in an easily accessible format. To retrieve this information, it could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

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.

Question reference: S6W-33224

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32391 by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025, what plans it has to conduct any of the analytical methods outlined, and how it will ensure accurate monitoring of potential continued supply and usage of the single-use plastic items prohibited for supply under the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.