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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-18267

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on how many of the domestic electric vehicle chargers funded through the Energy Saving Trust's domestic chargepoint funding scheme are (a) currently reported as faulty and (b) no longer in use.

Question reference: S6W-18266

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the domestic electric vehicle chargers funded through the Energy Saving Trust's domestic chargepoint funding scheme have been installed (a) on islands and (b) in (i) rural and (ii) remote areas, in each year for which data is available.

The Scottish Government provide annual funding to Energy Saving Trust (EST) who are an independent organisation working to address the climate emergency. EST then deliver the EV infrastructure fund on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

EST publish stats on their website which cover the number of chargepoints installed in Local Authority areas across Scotland and the total amount of funding paid per financial year, the link can be found here - Domestic chargepoint funding - Energy Saving Trust .

The specific information you have requested can be found in the following tables:

Domestic Chargepoints funded in Island locations based on postcode data:

Financial Year	Number
2013-2014	5
2014-2015	11
2015-2016	20
2016-2017	3
2017-2018	10
2018-2019	27
2019-2020	23
2020-2021	30
2021-2022	129
2022-2023	70
2023-2024 (as off 20 May 2023)	2

Domestic Chargepoints funded in rural-remote locations based on categories 5,6,7 and 8 of the Urban Rural Classification.

Financial Year	Classification 5	Classification 6	Classification 7	Classification 8	Total
2013-2014	0	24	4	5	33
2014-2015	1	28	10	10	49
2015-2016	8	83	19	26	136
2016-2017	3	117	12	10	142
2017-2018	6	249	42	22	319
2018-2019	8	300	52	38	398
2019-2020	11	433	85	45	574
2020-2021	11	708	131	70	920
2021-2022	49	1621	274	193	2137
2022-2023	17	465	114	93	689
2023-2024 (as of 30 May 2023)	0	17	2	2	21

Question reference: S6W-18617

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many seal licences have been granted for "imperative reasons of overriding public interest, including those of a social or economic nature", and how many seals have been killed or taken by licence holders of this type, in each year for which data is available.

Question reference: S6W-18095

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to increase competition in the tenancy deposit scheme market, in light of there being currently only three companies, with one of them reportedly having almost 70% of the market share.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 . The schemes submitted revised procedures in October 2019 and were reapproved in November 2019.

Should any additional companies wish to operate a tenancy deposit scheme in Scotland they would be required to apply to Scottish Ministers for approval demonstrating they can meet the requirement of the Regulations before they can operate.

Question reference: S6W-18298

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many payments from the Tenant Grant Fund have been used to fully pay off rent arrears, in each month that the fund has been available.

Local authorities were responsible for the administration of the Tenant Grant Fund given their knowledge of local need. Each local authority provided the Scottish Government with quarterly returns showing spend against their funding allocation. Data on full versus partial mitigation of arrears was not provided routinely by all local authorities.

The quarterly information collected was published on the Scottish Government website here: Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and is summarised below.

Quarters	Number of grants
Q4	297
Q3	254
Q2	403
Q1	656
Until 31 Mar 2022	5,015

Question reference: S6W-18093

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it gives to customers of the tenancy deposits schemes if they have an issue, dispute or complaint with one of the tenancy schemes that do not offer an independent dispute resolution procedure.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes were introduced to deal with the problem of landlords and letting agents who unfairly withheld deposits from tenants. In Scotland a custodial scheme is operated by 3 schemes approved by Scottish Ministers.

Tenants benefit from having deposits safeguarded by an independent third party. Section 33 and 34 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 sets out the requirements for all approved schemes to provide a free and independent dispute resolution service, so that the deposit can be returned quickly and fairly.

Scottish Government cannot intervene with individual deposit disputes and cannot intervene in decisions made by the independent adjudicator in relation to a tenancy deposit case.

Question reference: S6W-18228

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many restoration orders to restore damaged natural features in certain protected areas have been handed down by courts in each year for which data is available.

Restoration orders can be issued as an additional disposal to people convicted of charges under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 Sections 19(1), 19(3), 27(1) or 36(2). As of 31 December 2022, no restoration orders have been issued as a disposal in a criminal court.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 and the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard: Q3 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-18247

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many land management orders have been made by the Scottish Ministers in each year since 2019.

The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 specifies that before NatureScot can apply to Scottish Ministers for a Land Management Order, they must first have sought to agree a Management Agreement with the respective land manager. It is for this reason that Land Management Orders are only used as a last resort. Since 2019, 58 Management Agreements have been put in place to restore natural features on protected areas and no Land Management Orders have been used.

Question reference: S6W-18090

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many victims’ requests to silently observe a parole hearing had been refused at the time that the author of the publication, Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme, wrote that seven victims had been allowed to observe these hearings.

We cannot specify the precise number of victim observations which took place at any one given time during the development of the independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme because the number of requests will have varied throughout the drafting process.

The Parole Board for Scotland has provided the following information on the number of victim requests to observe parole hearings to 30 May 2023 – both approved and denied. It should be noted the first period coincides with the Board’s wish to consider and protect the safety of all parole hearing participants as they emerged from Covid restrictions, therefore no applications were approved during this time.

Dates	Requests received	Requests approved	Requests denied
08-03-21 – 11-03-22	38	0	38
12-03-22 – 16-02-23	57	47	10*
17-02-23 – 30-05-23	11	11	0

*Reasons for refusal

The following reasons were given for refusing an application to observe a hearing:

6 out of the 10 were because of the sensitive nature of the information to be discussed at the Tribunal;
1 where the case was considered under Rule 20 or the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 (i.e. an oral hearing arising from a Part III case, where there is no entitlement to observe);
1 where the prisoner did not have a solicitor;
1 where the Panel thought written reps more suitable; and
1 where the panel concluded a summary of the decision would be sufficient

Question reference: S6O-02362

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to tourism and other businesses within island communities to mitigate the impact of any connectivity issues affecting them.