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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-17146

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the support provided by each of Scotland's enterprise agencies to the snowsports sector in each of the last six years.

The following table details the support given from the enterprise agencies between 2017 and 2022 to the 5 mountain centres and Snow Factor (currently closed). Please note the drawn down figure can be lower than the overall allocation available from the enterprise agency. This does not include the £7 million in Covid-19 support provided by the Scottish Government.

Enterprise Agency	Calendar Year	Approved Amount	Drawn Down Amount
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2016-2017	163,925	£406,241
Scottish Enterprise	2016-2017	0	£189,894
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2017-2018	363,100	£371,600
Scottish Enterprise	2017-2018	0	0
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2018-2019	3,328,901	£822,126
Scottish Enterprise	2018-2019	138,600	£8,200
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2019-2020	6,692,638	£3,583,529
Scottish Enterprise	2019-2020	409,400	£162,480
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2020-2021	8,827,949	£6,445,558
Scottish Enterprise	2020-2021	0	£1,032,739
Highlands and Islands Enterprise	2021-2022	2,673,336.41	£3,918,288
Scottish Enterprise	2021-2022	0	£1,129,185

Question reference: S6W-17180

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to encouraging local authorities to issue public bonds to attract investment for net zero projects.

Local authorities are independent democratically elected bodies with their own powers and responsibilities. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to and outcomes for their local communities, including decisions on borrowing to attract investment for net zero projects. Any borrowing by local authorities, whether it’s through the public works loans board or through the issuance of bonds, is for local authorities to determine affordability themselves, subject to the conditions of their prudential borrowing regime.

Question reference: S6W-17193

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15995 by Christina McKelvie on 11 April 2023, how many times the working group has met since 29 June 2022.

Question reference: S6W-16785

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is, regarding any impact in Scotland, on the decision of the World Athletics Council to “exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from 31 March 2023”.

The Scottish Government and sport scotland believe that sport is for everyone. An ongoing priority for the Scottish Government is to support participation across all groups and tackle inequalities in participation. Sports are incredibly diverse, so Governing Bodies and Federations need to consider inclusion, fairness and safety to determine appropriate options for their sport.

Scottish Athletics are working with UK Athletics and the other home countries to develop a Transgender Eligibility Policy for athletics across the UK. At present, there are no transgender athletes competing at the elite/performance level within Scotland or as part of Scottish Athletics performance squads.

The World Athletics policy applies to any events that are registered as World Ranking Competitions, where the licence for the competition or event is granted by UK Athletics or a Home Country Athletics Federation. This includes the Scottish Athletics National Championships.

During the transitional phase across athletics in the UK, the World Athletics policy applies to all licensed events. In Scotland, the World Athletics Transgender Regulations and World Athletics Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification (Athletes With Differences of Sex Development) will not apply to local school events other than Home Country National School Championships and those events where athletes can qualify for Home Country National School Championships.

Question reference: S6W-17060

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has undertaken of any economic impact on Scotland of the UK joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, broken down by local authority area.

In our engagement with the UK Government on accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as with all developing trade agreements, the Scottish Government has consistently requested an assessment of the economic impacts on Scotland. We believe that before embarking on the negotiation of such agreements, the UK Government should be fully aware of their likely impacts across all parts of the UK.

As part of its Strategic Approach to accession to the CPTPP the UK Government produced a Scoping Assessment covering the UK-wide economic benefits expected as part of membership of the trade pact. This analysis suggested that CPTPP membership will result in a long-term increase of 0.08% in UK GDP.

While the UK Government’s Scoping Assessment does consider regional value added, and suggests an indicative change of £163 million in Scotland, or a 0.12% benefit in regional value added, this analysis is not disaggregated to local authority level. Nor is there any information on the expected impacts on employment or on expected changes to sectoral output at a Scotland-specific level. This limits our capacity to understand the potential impacts of this agreement in Scotland.

Data currently available does not allow the Scottish Government to undertake such an assessment itself, however in line with commitments in our Vision for Trade, we are working to gather evidence to better understand the impacts of trade across our society and economy. We recognise that trade has a net positive effect but that increased openness to trade can create “winners” and “losers”, including across particular local authorities and groups. In line with this commitment the Scottish Government has been building our evidence base on trade impacts and we are considering how to further improve the data available to us on this and the options we can take forward to address these differential impacts of trade.

Question reference: S6W-16790

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how its domestic abuse policies are informed by research from the Scottish Sentencing Council.

Several recently published research reports support our understanding of the experiences of those affected by domestic abuse, including 'The sentencing of offences involving domestic abuse’, a literature review published by the Scottish Sentencing Council in June 2022, which can be found at https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/media/2231/20220624-domestic-abuse-final-report-as-published.pdf .

These will play a key role as we further develop and assess our policy approach to tackling domestic abuse. Both the research into the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 which can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/domestic-abuse-scotland-act-2018-interim-reporting-requirement/ and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of ‘Constabulary for Scotland’s Thematic Review of Domestic Abuse which can be viewed at https://www.hmics.scot/publications/hmics-thematic-inspection-domestic-abuse-phase-1 found that challenges exist in preventing domestic abuse and protecting those who are vulnerable from its harmful effects.

We will continue to take relevant research and information into account as we work with partners to prevent and address domestic abuse.

Question reference: S6W-17059

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when ministers last met with their counterparts in the (a) Welsh and (b) UK Government to discuss any impact on Scotland of the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Trade Ministers from the Scottish, Welsh and UK Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive meet quarterly as the Inter Ministerial Group for Trade. The last meeting of this group took place on 9 January 2023, and was attended by the then Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, Ivan McKee MSP; Minister for Economy in the Welsh Government, Vaughan Gething MS; and the then UK Minister for Trade, Greg Hands MP. The UK Government provided an update on the CPTPP negotiations. Subsequent developments towards accession to CPTPP have been covered in official engagement and Ministerial correspondence.

Question reference: S6W-16792

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether any court closures will take place during the current parliamentary session.

There are no plans for any court closures during the current parliamentary session. The current court model provides appropriate access to justice for Scotland’s communities.

The management of the court estate is an operational matter for SCTS. SCTS have stated that there is no current evidence to support any further court closures following the most recent court closures in 2015.

Court locations can only be closed following the approval of the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-16125

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13799 by Kevin Stewart on 19 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on when further details will be available.

Question reference: S6W-16791

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the funding provided, or that is planned to be provided, to each victim organisation through the Victim Centred Approach Fund, in each financial year from 2021-22 to 2024-25.