- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 28 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether new shareholders of ScotWind projects will be asked to submit assurances that they have not been convicted of unlawful activity, including corruption, bribery and human trafficking, as required during the initial leasing process.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39428 on 28 July 2025. 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.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it has collected from local authorities on the number of streets assessed for compliance with the pavement parking ban, and how many enforcement officers each local authority has allocated to enforce the ban since December 2023.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold central data on the number of streets assessed or enforcement officers allocated. Local authorities are responsible for deciding their enforcement approach based on local priorities.
The latest Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) Report 2023–2024, published in December 2024, includes data on Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued, including those for pavement parking. The report is available at:
Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) Report 2023-2024
Transport Scotland continues to engage with COSLA and SCOTS to support effective enforcement.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on how reducing the number of firefighters from 45 to 25 and the number of fire appliances from two to one and withdrawing the rope rescue unit at Lochgelly Fire Station would improve fire cover.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39288 on 25 July 2025. 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.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to
question S6W-37919 by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025, whether it will
provide an update on the roll-out of the digital dermatology
pathway to (a) GPs and (b) NHS boards, including how many GP
practices are currently participating in the system.
Answer
All Territorial Boards can now provide their GPs with access to the new Digital Dermatology Pathway. Supplier data suggests that as of 18 July, 627 GP practices (71%) across 13 Territorial Boards have access to the pathway, of which 423 have used this to capture images as part of a referral to secondary care. The remaining Territorial Board has an existing pathway in place.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of any increased fire or major incident risk to communities in and around the Mossmorran petrochemical plant, three Forth bridges, M9 and Rosyth Dockyard in the event that 20 firefighters, a fire appliance and the rope rescue unit are removed from Lochgelly Fire Station.
Answer
The analysis of risk and provision of fire and rescue resources is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). The Scottish Government supports SFRS as it carefully considers how to adapt to changing risks to remain an effective and efficient service across the whole of Scotland, with firefighters in the right place at the right time. SFRS is conducting a public consultation on possible service changes, including Lochgelly fire station but until that consultation closes and the results are analysed, no decisions have been taken.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether publicly owned companies should operate a presumption against outsourcing of business functions that are capable of being undertaken in-house.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring publicly owned companies deliver services that are high-quality, provide best value, support fair work and contribute to inclusive economic growth. This includes an expectation in favour of in-house delivery where functions can be undertaken effectively within the organisation and where this is demonstrably in the public interest.
However, any decision whether to outsource or utilise in-house functions is for individual, publicly owned companies to make in line with their legal duties, operational requirements and a full assessment of any impacts, including quality of service, value for money and public benefits before such a decision to outsource is made.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether reducing the number of firefighters from 45 to 25 and the number of fire appliances from two to one and withdrawing the rope rescue unit at Lochgelly Fire Station would improve fire response times or increase any risk to lives, property and businesses.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39288 on 25 July 2025. 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.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33389 by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025, whether it will provide an update on when the Scottish Ambulance Service will publish its business case for the new pre-hospital service to cover the east and south east of Scotland, to replace Medic One.
Answer
The current project plan is on track to have this business case completed by summer 2025. Once completed it will be reviewed through the appropriate governance processes.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly limited access to the Islands Business Resilience Fund to eight islands, and whether it will consider extending this fund to businesses in all of Scotland's island communities.
Answer
The Scottish Government has worked closely with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to develop and refine the eligibility criteria for the Islands Business Resilience Fund (IBRF) and identify how this targeted funding can reach those businesses which meet the criteria and have been impacted by reductions in ferry services.
HIE carried out detailed analysis of data and statistics provided by Transport Scotland and CalMac relating to ferry disruption. Based on this, the islands of South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran were identified as eligible for the Fund, as they each had experienced more than 15% ferry cancellations over the last three operating seasons, with limited alternatives. For comparison, the average disruption to ferry services, across the CalMac network was around 6-7%.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals were (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted for selling counterfeit goods in the financial year 2024-25.
Answer
A search has been performed of the COPFS database for charges received by COPFS under a) the Trade Marks Act 1994, and b) a key word search for counterfeit or fake goods on charges under the Scottish Government Classification of "Fraud”.
During the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 there was a total of 27 charges marked for court action relating to individuals. Of these 27 charges, four resulted in a conviction with 19 charges ongoing. No further action was taken in two charges and a further two charges resulted in the individual not being convicted.
Information is also provided for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024 and all information is broken down as follows:
Outcome | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Convicted | 50 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
Not Convicted | 57 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Ongoing | 6 | 0 | 22 | 31 | 19 |
No Further Action | 1 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
Total | 114 | 19 | 36 | 45 | 27 |
The information is provided under the caveat that COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis, and the information within it is structured accordingly.
The numbers were arrived at following an interrogation of relevant charges however a manual review was not conducted to confirm accuracy.