- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17995 by Neil Gray on 30 May 2023, for what reason it remains committed to returning the airport to private ownership, in light of it having "performed well in a highly competitive aviation market and is now a profitable business".
Answer
Scottish Ministers' stated objective since purchasing Glasgow Prestwick Airport in 2013 has been to return the business to the private sector when the time and circumstances are right for the business and for the Scottish Government as shareholder.
That means we must be confident that any sale would not only represent value for the taxpayer but would put the business on a firm footing going forward and secure wider economic benefit to build on the foundations we have put in place.
Any purchase offer from a private operator will be evaluated against these objectives and will only proceed if they are met.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many fires have been recorded on ScotRail trains that were caused by, or believed to have been caused by, lithium-ion powered micro devices such as e-scooters, in each year since 2019.
Answer
This is a matter for ScotRail. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reported withdrawal of fire appliances at Maryhill, Govan and Cowcaddens in Glasgow, Kingsway East in Dundee, Greenock, Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Methil, Perth and Hamilton will have on incident response times within those communities.
Answer
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service decision to temporarily remove these appliances was made following detailed modelling using historic incident data and a robust assessment of the risks present in the communities those fire stations cover. Withdrawal of the second or third appliances from these stations has been assessed as being the least impactful in terms of response times. SFRS will continue to respond to every incident with the appropriate level of resources including specialist resources where required.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-18313 by Maree Todd on 6 June 2023, whether it has any plans to attempt to determine how many nursing homes or social care settings may be fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not have any plans to determine the number of social care settings that may be affected. Local authorities have responsibility for provision of social care services and therefore the contracts with relevant providers. Building safety is a matter for the owner of the building.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals own land holdings of over 500 hectares.
Answer
This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that that on 13 June 2023, out of the 2025 registered titles with a footprint area over 500 ha, 801 are owned exclusively by one or more natural persons.
A further 15 titles are leased exclusively by one or more natural persons and 2 are mixed tenure titles registered under the Land Registration (Scotland) 1979 Act.
These figures exclude titles where a natural person may be acting in a special capacity (e.g. as a trustee or partner), as well as titles with a complex proprietorship structure consisting of a mix of natural and non-natural persons acting in various capacities.
Of the 616 areas of unregistered land over 500 ha, which have been linked to a Sasines Search Sheet in the RoS Unlocking Sasines dataset, an estimated 245 are owned exclusively by one or more natural persons.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it next plans to publish the statistical
publication Learning Disability Statistics Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is engaged in ongoing discussions with Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities (SCLD) on how the Learning Disability Statistics Scotland (LDSS) report can be improved to provide the most precise picture of people with learning disabilities across Scotland. This includes consideration of publication timescales.
We understand the importance of reliable evidence and data about people with learning disabilities and are committed to improving the evidence base through our autism and learning/intellectual disability transformation plan 'Towards Transformation'.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many land holdings in Scotland are over 500 hectares in size, and what total area of land is covered by land holdings of over 500 hectares.
Answer
This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that that on 13 June 2023, there were 2,025 Registered titles in the Land Register of Scotland where the total footprint of the title exceeds 500 ha. Together, these titles comprise a combined footprint of 2,813,263 ha.
A further 256 draft titles which are currently undergoing registration for the first time look set to also exceed this threshold once registration is complete. The expected combined footprint for these titles will be around 448,361 ha, which may include rights which overlap with already registered titles.
The figures above include outright ownership as well as long-term leases.
A further 616 unregistered areas of land, each with homogenous ownership and an indicative extent over 500 ha, have been linked to a Sasines Search Sheet in the RoS Unlocking Sasines dataset. These unregistered areas comprise an indicative extent of 1,739,070 ha, with no overlapping rights present.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to land holdings of over 500 hectares in size, how many have been transferred in each of the last 20 years, broken down by those that were by (a) sale, (b) inheritance and (c) other means.
Answer
This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland. She advises me that that transfers are divided between transfers for the monetary full market value of the property and transfers for discounted/non-monetary/other considerations. Separating transfers due to inheritance would require manual inspection of the deeds for each transaction. Figures are current on 13 June 2023.
Year | FMV transfers (a) | Other transfers (b+c) | Total |
2003 | 46 | 0 | 46 |
2004 | 40 | 0 | 40 |
2005 | 47 | 1 | 48 |
2006 | 57 | 0 | 57 |
2007 | 53 | 1 | 54 |
2008 | 40 | 0 | 40 |
2009 | 42 | 1 | 43 |
2010 | 44 | 0 | 44 |
2011 | 48 | 0 | 48 |
2012 | 46 | 0 | 46 |
2013 | 34 | 3 | 37 |
2014 | 33 | 2 | 35 |
2015 | 86 | 122 | 208 |
2016 | 114 | 172 | 286 |
2017 | 106 | 233 | 339 |
2018 | 52 | 231 | 283 |
2019 | 72 | 307 | 379 |
2020 | 85 | 294 | 379 |
2021 | 105 | 352 | 457 |
2022 | 123 | 287 | 410 |
2023 | 36 | 105 | 141 |
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has expanded capability to deliver self-management resources, advice and guidance through improvements to NHS inform to allow focused support for mental health.
Answer
A series of improvements have been implemented to NHS inform allowing for more dynamic, mobile-first content structures. These improvements allowed the Digital Mental Health Programme to test a range of content layouts to incorporate more video, imagery and interactive guides within the existing content templates. This work will also have wider benefits including a reduction in costs and time savings as content for NHS inform is maintained and developed.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 19 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has begun, or plans to begin, any testing for the drug, xylazine, in light of the first death from the drug having been reported in the UK in May 2023.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of this drug, to date there have been two detections in Scotland that we have been made aware of through the Welsh WEDINOS programme.
Public Health Scotland, through their Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) programme, are continuing to monitor this situation. Currently xylazine is not routinely screened for in police or post-mortem toxicology throughout the UK, but we will keep this under review and future decisions around adding this to toxicology screening in Scotland would be made by the RADAR pathology and toxicology network.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD, the UK Government’s drug advisory body) New Psychoactive Substance committee are also monitoring the availability of this substance and are conducting an evidence review which will also inform action in Scotland. Public Health Scotland continue to lead on the ongoing development of RADAR which provides essential and real-time data on drug trends and harms to ensure a quick response to what is happening on the ground, including providing vital public health alerts, such as they issued around nitazenes in January 2023.