- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when its consultation on alcohol marketing will be published.
Answer
As announced in A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22 , published on 7 September 2021, the Scottish Government will consult on potential alcohol advertising restrictions during 2022, to protect children and young people. All methods of alcohol advertising and promotion will be considered in developing proposals for the public consultation, including alcohol industry sponsorship of sports.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether its consultation on alcohol marketing will include proposals to curb alcohol industry sponsorship of sports.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03745 on 26 October 2021. 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: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide funding to enable Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels and other volunteer groups to continue their work and deliver practical control measures to ensure red squirrels flourish in the future and, if so, how much will be made available.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02664 on 17 September 2021. 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: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group will report.
Answer
The Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group, chaired by the Baroness Helena Kennedy, is on track to produce its final report to Scottish Government by early February 2022, meeting the one year recommendation set by the Justice Committee.
The Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice is working independently to consider how the Scottish criminal justice system can better deal with misogyny, and if the group recommends a specific criminal offence of misogynistic harassment the Scottish Government will carefully consider its advice.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Minister for Transport on 23 September 2021 that there is a plan in place to provide 30,000 electric vehicle charge points by 2030, which is “evolving”, whether it will publish this plan, and by what date the fully-completed final plan will be published.
Answer
Transport Scotland, recently published a joint report with Scottish Futures Trust setting out the opportunities to grow Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network and the conditions that will be needed to facilitate this over the next few years. The report makes reference to Climate Change Committee data which indicated that the UK as a whole may require 280,000 public charge points by 2030, implying the need for 30,000 in Scotland which in turn equates to approximately 4000 each year. Importantly, the report also highlighted that the number of charge points required will be influenced by a range of factors including development of battery and charging technologies and that significant commercial investment through public and private partnerships would likely be needed to develop the network as demand grows.
The Scottish Government has invested over £45m in developing the ChargePlace Scotland network, which now has over 1900 charge points, and is continuing to support network growth. Transport Scotland is working closely with Scottish Futures Trust to consider the most appropriate structures and approach to growing and developing charging infrastructure in Scotland.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £250,000 provided to the Humanitarian Emergency Fund in relation to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has been spent to date.
Answer
On 2 September 2021, the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture announced that £250,000 would be made available from the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF) to provide critical help for the people of Afghanistan.
Given the volatile operating environment on the ground in Afghanistan, our NGO partners have been unable, as of 19 October, to operate safely to deliver much needed humanitarian assistance. However, we are in close contact with our partners and as soon as assurances over the safety of their staff in Afghanistan are forthcoming, disbursement will commence.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle the health, social and environmental impacts of food.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises that the food we produce and consume has wide-ranging impacts in many areas of life. Our ambition is for Scotland to be a Good Food Nation where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day. We have already been working across government on an extensive programme of measures to deliver on this ambition. This work will now be supported and underpinned in law by the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, introduced on 7 October 2021.
The Bill will provide an over-arching framework for clear, consistent and coherent future Scottish food policy. It places duties on Scottish Ministers and certain public authorities to produce plans of their policies in relation to food and set out what they will do to make those plans real. These plans will also have to set out the main outcomes to be achieved in relation to food-related issues, the policies needed to do this and the measures we will use to assess progress. We want these plans to deliver outcomes which support our nation’s social and economic wellbeing, the environment, people’s health and economic development.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what guarantees it can provide that dependent deer calves will be killed along with their mothers during Forestry and Land Scotland’s out-of-season deer culls.
Answer
Forestry and Land Scotland’s (FLS), deer culling operatives are qualified and trained, are registered ‘Fit and Competent’, have Deer Stalking Certificates 1&2 and hold ‘Trained Hunter’ status.
FLS’s culling activities are robustly supervised and monitored and all operatives are briefed that, if there is any possibility of orphaning a dependant calf that a shot must not be taken, all dependant calves must be culled before the mother.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the World Health Organization (WHO) publication, Global Air Quality Guidelines, on 22 September 2021, and what plans it has to set new targets to meet the new air pollution levels set out by WHO.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes, and is in the process of carefully considering, the recommendations set out in this important publication. The case for making any changes to air quality targets in Scotland to reflect the new guidelines will be assessed and taken forward during implementation of the Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 strategy.
- Asked by: Dr Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
-
Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what support is available to townships that are trying to improve the condition of their primary road to a point where it can be adopted by the local authority.
Answer
The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads, including the improvement of private roads to adoptable standards, on local authorities. Townships should approach their local authority roads department in the first instance for advice on road adoption standards in their area.