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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-38368

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37499 by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025, for what reason (a) the Sanofy VidPrevtyn COVID-19 vaccine has reportedly been withdrawn from the 2025 COVID-19 vaccination programme and (b) a vaccine for people allergic to trometamol has reportedly not been made available.

Question reference: S6W-37404

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with the National Fire Chiefs Council regarding reports of fires at battery energy storage system sites in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04778

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed the impact of its budget settlement for Aberdeenshire Council in 2025-26 on the local authority’s ability to deliver local services.

Question reference: S6O-04756

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the children's minister last met with Aberdeenshire Council to discuss nursery closures.

Question reference: S6W-37499

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what COVID-19 vaccines are available for those who are immunocompromised and have a respiratory illness, in light of reports that VidPrevtyn, manufactured by Sanofi Paseur, is no longer available.

All those aged 6 months and over, who are immunosuppressed, are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine this spring, along with all those aged 75 and over, and residents in care homes for older adults.

Those who are immunosuppressed cannot receive what are called live attenuated vaccines, but none of the four COVID-19 mRNA vaccine products in use during the spring 2025 programme (Moderna Spikevax JN.1, Pfizer Comirnaty JN.1 Adult, Paediatric and Infant formulations) are live attenuated vaccines and therefore immunosuppressed individuals can safely receive all four of them. Leaflets about the COVID-19 vaccines offered during spring 2025 are available on NHS inform.

Question reference: S6W-36939

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Electricity Act 1989, whether statutory consultees on section 36 and section 37 planning applications should receive a copy of any (a) gate check and (b) other reports submitted by the applicant.

As part of the process to determine applications made under Section 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, consultees are asked by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) to provide comment on the contents of gate checks. The purpose of a gate check is to set out how comments made by consultees and Scottish Ministers in the scoping opinion are to be addressed by the applicant and taken forward in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, should an application be submitted. Application documents, including EIA reports, are publicly available on the ECU portal: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx

Question reference: S6W-36940

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Electricity Act 1989, what information it has on how many respondents to section 36 planning applications were not contacted by its Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) in advance of a public inquiry, when they should have been, in each of the last five years, broken down by inquiry.

The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) are not aware that this has been a recurring issue other than for one recent specific case, where Energy Consents Unit (ECU) hadn’t initially passed all representee contact details to them from the outset. Steps were taken to ensure no parties were prejudiced and all who wanted to take part in the process were given the opportunity to do so.

Question reference: S6W-37596

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide resources to support local authorities to develop a renewable energy mapping tool, enabling residents to understand the cumulative impact of proposed renewable projects across their local authority.

We have taken forward a package of changes to planning fees to better resource the system, however it is a matter for local authorities to determine how their financial resources are allocated based on their priorities. Planning authorities are nevertheless required by legislation to keep a public register of live and determined planning applications for development in their areas, and we welcome where certain planning authorities and developers have already developed renewable energy mapping tools as a complement to this.

Question reference: S6W-37466

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that the year 2023-24 is dealt with as a transitional year for licensed self-catering operators when supplying annual data to the assessor.

The requirement to provide evidence of letting to assessors to ensure compliance with the thresholds for self-catering holiday accommodation to be included in the valuation roll was introduced from April 2022 to counter a known tax avoidance tactic for second homes.

Assessors undertake annual audits to ensure that self-catering accommodation entered on the valuation roll meets the statutory requirements to be classed as non-domestic property. To provide clarity to self-catering accommodation providers on these requirements, and to provide greater certainty regarding the consequences of failure to meet the requirements, a statutory deadline to respond to requests for evidence was introduced from 1 April 2024. If evidence is not provided to the Assessor by the deadline, or if it is insufficient to establish if the requirements have been met, the Assessor must remove the property from the valuation roll under the current statutory framework.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to alter the rules for self-catering properties, however we do keep all policies under review and routinely engage with stakeholders on any issues with the operation of the system and associated legislation.

Question reference: S6W-37310

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10461 by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022, whether it will provide an update on the support it is giving to the development of the VLA15 vaccine for Lyme disease.

As noted in the response to S6W-10461, Scottish Enterprise has provided support to the Valneva facility in Livingston although the Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15 is not directly supported by Scottish funding.

The introduction of any new national vaccine programme in Scotland is based on the independent expert advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). If VLA15, were to be authorised for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and recommended for use by the JCVI, then the Scottish Government would consider the introduction of any such programme.

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