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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-15590

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the number of people resident in Scotland who have undergone forced marriages abroad in each year for which data is available.

The Scottish Government has not made any estimates of number of people resident in Scotland who have undergone forced marriages abroad in each year. Whilst we do have data on forced marriages, this data does not identify where the marriage itself took place. This is as the locus of the offence is where the violence, threats, coercion or deception took place and not the locus of the marriage itself, which could potentially be outside of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15619

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether adequate road traffic impact assessments are conducted prior to the construction of large developments, such as housing developments, commencing.

The adopted National Planning Framework (NPF4) (2023) is clear that transport assessments (TAs) are required for development proposals that will generate a significant increase in the number of person trips. These should consider transport requirements in line with the sustainable travel and investment hierarchies, which includes road traffic. Transport Scotland’s Transport Assessment guidance sets the scope for these assessments, which are reviewed by the relevant roads authority as part of the planning decision making process.

Where a proposed development affects the Trunk Road Network, Transport Scotland is a statutory consultee in the planning process. Transport Scotland will only recommend consent of a development where there is sufficient information provided within the TA to demonstrate that the development will not have a significant impact on the trunk road network.

Question reference: S6W-15569

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many community bodies have been supported to request an asset transfer under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 since its provisions came into force.

Community bodies receive support to request an asset transfer under Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 from a range of sources. The Scottish Government provides support for community bodies by funding the Community Ownership Support Service (COSS), who support community based groups in Scotland take a stake in or ownership of previously publicly owned land or buildings.

Since 2017 COSS have worked with 688 community bodies considering their options for taking on land or buildings including by asset transfer. COSS has supported 92 asset transfers and have a further 380 ongoing cases. They also provide advice to relevant authorities on all aspects of the asset transfer process and their adviser led service is free to access.

From the most recent annual data available since the Act came into force on 23 January 2017 to 31 March 2022, community bodies have made 352 asset transfer applications.

Question reference: S6W-15610

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will update its guidance on noise limits and amplitude modulation, as recommended in the WSP publication, A Review of Noise Guidance for Onshore Wind Turbines: Project Report, published in October 2022 on behalf of the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

We welcome the research conducted by WSP on behalf of the UK Government.

The Scottish Government contributed financially to the research project and will continue to work with the UK Government on next steps following the publication of the report.

Until such time as new guidance is produced, ETSU-R-97 should continue to be followed by applicants and used to assess and rate noise from wind energy developments.

Question reference: S6W-15593

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it tracks the efficiency of mental health spending in its NHS budget.

It is the responsibility of NHS Scotland to track mental health expenditure and ensure local budget decisions and use of the overall resources made available by the Scottish Government are used efficiently; effectively and deliver fit for purpose services in line with national and local priorities and the requirements of the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

Mental Health Directorate engages regularly with NHS Boards to discuss performance on key priorities.

Question reference: S6W-15592

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it (a) measures and (b) tracks expenditure from its mental health budget.

The Scottish Government’s mental health budget is delegated to the Directorate for Mental Health within DG Health and Social Care. The Directorate manages the budget in line with the scheme of delegation as set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM).

In line with the SPFM, the Directorate monitor the propriety, regularity and accuracy of financial transactions to ensure they are effective and efficient on a monthly basis via the DG Health and Social Care budget monitoring process. Progress is assessed on a regular basis and there is regular engagement with stakeholders in receipt of funding.

Question reference: S6W-15605

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the British Retail Consortium publication, Crime Survey 2023 Report, and its Scotland-specific findings.

The British Retail Consortium publication, Crime Survey 2023 Report, does not have a Scotland specific section, but does include references to the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 contained within it.

The report highlights the use of the new Act in dealing with incidents against retail workers in Scotland. The report also highlights the importance of retailer reporting of incidents and an effective response by the criminal justice system.

The Scottish Government considers those working in Scotland's retail sector do a valuable job and never more so during the recent challenging times of the pandemic. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse. The Scottish Government supported the Protection of Workers legislation, which was a Members’ bill, when it went through Parliament. We fully support independent law enforcement agencies having the powers they need to deal with attacks and threats made against retail workers.

Question reference: S6W-15591

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been (a) issued and (b) breached in each year since 2012.

Question reference: S6W-15568

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of online fraud have been reported to Police Scotland in each year since 1999.

In general, the data received from Police Scotland for producing the National Statistics on Recorded Crime, is a simple count of the number of crimes and offences which the police have recorded and cleared up. As such we are unable to separately identify back to 1999 which recorded crimes of fraud were committed online.

However we recently introduced a new chapter within the National Statistics, which estimates the volume of recorded cyber-crime in Scotland based on a sample of police records. Under this approach, the number of recorded frauds which involved the use of cyber technology in any way (including cyber-enabled or cyber-dependent crimes) was 2,690 in 2018-19 (the first year of available data) and 3,450 in 2019-20. It then increased significantly to 8,580 in 2020-21, before falling slightly to 8,010 in 2021-22. At least part of the increase in 2020-21 may be due to the significant impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and government instructions to limit social contact. For example in their ‘ Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021 ’ release, the Office for National Statistics noted that an increase in fraud and computer misuse offences could reflect perpetrators taking advantage of behavioural changes during the pandemic, such as increased online shopping.

Further information on the new chapter referenced above is available as part of Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022 in particular Table A11. Figures for 2022-23 will be published in June.

Question reference: S6T-01262

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people it estimates have not taken up the free bus pass.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Forced Marriage Protection Orders Granted	1	5	0	0
Forced Marriage Protection Orders Dismissed	1	0	0	1
Forced Marriage Protection Orders Breached	0	0	0	0