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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-21484

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to encourage partners in the college sector’s collective bargaining process to implement the recommendations of the report, Lessons Learned – resetting national collective bargaining in the colleges sector.

Question reference: S6W-21562

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to public petition PE2046, and whether it will consider enabling birth certificates to be issued in respect of any baby stillborn after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Question reference: S6W-21532

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many fines (a) it and (b) its agencies have issued to (i) publicly-owned and (ii) privately-owned water companies in each of the last five years, also broken down by the total value of fines issued in each year.

We are unaware of any fines issued by the Scottish Government to Scottish Water in the last five years; there are no privately-owned water companies in Scotland.

Following referral by relevant agencies to the Procurator Fiscal, fines issued in the period are set out below:

Referral by Scottish Environment Protection Agency:

2019 - £600

2020 - £19 000

2021 - £6 700

Referral by Health & Safety Executive:

2020 - £140 000

Additionally, there has been one enforcement undertaking of £53 800 accepted by SEPA in 2021 and a direct penalty of £10,000 to Scottish Road Works Commissioner in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-21620

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when its proposed Scottish Languages Bill, announced in its Programme for Government 2023-24, will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-21495

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it will reintroduce free COVID-19 lateral flow testing for (a) health and social care staff and (b) the general public.

Targeted testing is in place to support clinical decision making and surveillance. We are working closely with Public Health Scotland, our clinical advisors and the other UK nations to routinely review our position and the clinical advice on COVID-19 in light of new variants. Evidence to date does not support a return to widespread community testing however we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Question reference: S6W-21616

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current distribution of fees is from Crown Estate Scotland's finfish tenants.

Question reference: S6W-21550

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) ministers have and (b) the Women's Health Champion has had any meetings regarding pre-eclampsia in 2023.

Ministers have not attended any meetings to specifically discuss pre-eclampsia in 2023.

The Women’s Health Champion Professor Anna Glasier has met with a variety of organisations and experts across various sectors to drive forward improvements in women’s health. This has involved discussions relating to the actions within the Women’s Health Plan on heart health including where relevant pre-eclampsia in the context of the reproductive life course.

More information about the work of the Women’s Health Champion can be found in the Women’s Health Champion quarterly blogs .

Question reference: S6W-21521

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what frameworks are in place to ascertain any (a) benefits and (b) consequences of having beavers throughout Scotland's landscape.

Scotland' Beaver Strategy , published in September 2022, aims to assess the biological, environmental, economic and social implications of beavers. This includes the benefits that beavers can bring alongside mitigating any impacts on other species, habitats, physical processes, land use and wider ecosystem services. We aim to use this knowledge to inform decision making.

NatureScot also operates the Scottish Beaver Mitigation Scheme and keep records of where they have been asked for advice or support with mitigating beaver activity.

Question reference: S6W-21585

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-00207 and S6W-00208 by Ivan McKee on 27 October 2021, whether it will publish (a) a list of any companies that it has written to due to their appearing on the UN Human Rights Office list, (b) a summary of each response, and (c) details of any further actions that it or its agencies have taken as a result.

In December 2021 the Scottish Government wrote to Public Bodies in Scotland to ask that they consider the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) list of companies involved in listed activities in illegal Israeli settlements, as part of their Human Rights Due Diligence processes. We also asked Public Bodies to report any existing relationships with companies on the list.

In June 2022, the then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise wrote to the companies that had been identified, asking what action they had taken or were planning to take to cease those listed activities. The Minister wrote to those companies again in March 2023 to advise them that we would write to Public Bodies again, following the publication of any revised list.

The Scottish Government’s response to FOI 202200334471 , issued on 9 February 2023, sets out the letters written to the companies in June 2022 and the responses received at that point. The Scottish Government has no plans to publish any further correspondence, pending the publication of a revised list.

Question reference: S6W-21689

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what contractual relationships it or NatureScot has with (a) Palladium, (b) Lombard Odier and (c) Hampden Bank in support of mobilising private finance into nature; what payments have been made to any of those parties in the (i) last financial year and (ii) current financial year to date; what the (A) value and (B) duration is of any extant contracts, and what procurement process was followed to secure any such contractual arrangements that are in place.