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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-34079

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to address the reported challenge, identified in the True North survey, of public scepticism over the effectiveness of the Clean Power 2030 target within the stated timeframe.

Question reference: S6W-34527

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines "Fairer Funding".

The Scottish Government recognises that the third sector needs stability and certainty in order to thrive and to help the Government to deliver on its policy agenda. The Programme for Government 2024 commits the Government to continuing to invest in the third sector across the Scottish Government, making improvements to grant making.

We have listened to the views of the Sector and have committed to progress Fairer Funding within the bounds of affordability. In the first instance this includes implementing a multi-year funding pilot and improving the timeliness of grant notifications. Subsequently we will go on to evaluate the impact of the Pilot and make further improvements to the grant making process, including consideration of reporting requirements and grant conditions in order to ensure grants make the greatest impact possible for beneficiaries.

Question reference: S6W-34318

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33251 by Ivan McKee on 23 January 2025, how much revenue has been raised from non-domestic rates levied on properties with pylon infrastructure in each of the last three years; whether any other levies are applied to pylons based on their height or size, and, if so, how much revenue was raised in 2024 from each of these levies.

The estimated non-domestic rates revenue from energy transmission infrastructure from 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 is presented in Table 1. This includes overhead transmission lines and pylons, underground lines, and sub-stations, operating at or above 132kV. We are unable to separately estimate the amounts related to pylon infrastructure only.

There are no Scottish Government levies charged on the basis of pylon height or size. We are not aware of any other levies charged on this basis.

Table 1: Estimated non-domestic rates income from electricity transmission infrastructure

Financial year	Non-domestic rates income (£)
2022-2023	81,744,000
2023-2024	112,398,000
2024-2025	114,595,000

Source: Designated electricity transmission entries on the Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2022, 1 October 2023, 1 October 2024.

Question reference: S6W-34360

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any impact in Scotland, what its position is on the finding of the UK Government consultation, Review of the ban on the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings, that hotels, hostels and boarding houses presented an “equivalent, or greater, sleeping risk” and as such should be captured within a ban on combustible façade material.

Question reference: S6W-34359

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will (a) publish the phase 1 research and (b) commit to publishing the phase 2 research carried out by the Building Research Establishment in support of the consultation document, Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed review of fire safety topics including Cameron House Hotel recommendations: Fire safety risks in traditional buildings used as hotels, review of current provision on fire suppression, combustible cladding and other issues.

Question reference: S6W-34141

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions for speeding on trunk roads led to a (a) conviction and (b) acquittal in each year since 2018, broken down by (i) trunk road and (ii) court location.

(a)The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2022-23.

Number of people convicted for speeding offences on trunk roads, where main crime, in Scottish Courts, by court location (LA), 2018-19 to 2022-23.

	2018-19	2022-23
	West Lothian	East Ayrshire	Highland	Perth & Kinross	West Lothian
TRUNK ROADS (S) TEMP RESTRICT TRAFFIC & OVERTAKING 30,40,50MPH (S) ORDER 1992	-	-	1	-	-
TRUNK ROADS (S) TEMP RESTRICT TRAFFIC & OVERTAKING 30,40,50MPH (S) ORDER 1994	1	-	-	-	1
TRUNK ROADS IN SCOT (TEMP PROHIBITIONS & TEMP SPEED RESTRICTIONS) ORDER 1996	-	1	-	1	-

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Some speeding offences that occurred on trunk roads may have been prosecuted under more general speeding offence charges.

Please note: data for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are affected by the pandemic, subsequent court closures, reduced court capacity due to physical distancing measures and delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, and may not be considered indicative of long term trends.

(b) There were no cases resulting in acquittal not guilty or acquittal not proven verdict under the legislation related to speeding on trunk roads (where main crime), between 2018-19 and 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-34136

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many penalties were issued for drink or drug driving offences on each trunk road, in each year since 2018.

Question reference: S6W-34528

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards the ambition to achieve Fairer Funding for the voluntary sector by 2026, and how progress towards this ambition will be scrutinised.

The Scottish Government recognises that the third sector needs stability and certainty in order to thrive and to help the Government to deliver on its policy agenda. We have listened to the views of the Sector and have committed to progress Fairer Funding within the bounds of affordability. This includes implementing a multi-year funding pilot totalling over £120 million for 2025-26 and 2026-27, making improvements to the grant making process, providing more timely notifications, rationalising reporting requirements, improving grant conditions and securing better grant management data. In conjunction with third sector umbrella bodies and grantee organisations, officials are developing a system for evaluating the effectiveness of the Fairer Funding pilot with a view to identifying learning and making continuous improvement.

Question reference: S6W-34215

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants are employed by Food Standards Scotland at its headquarters in Aberdeen, broken down by grade and role.

Total number 288
Head Office 158
Field 130
Grade	Head Office Job title	No. in post	Field Job Title	No. in post
A3	2		1
	IT modern apprentice	1	Feed Administrator	1
	Admin assistant	1
A4	5		5
	Admin Officer	2	Trainee MHI	5
	Finance assistant	3
B1	20		67
	Audit assurance support officer	1	Approvals Executive	1
	BMPU coordinator	1	Meat Hygiene Inspector	63
	Comms Executive	1	Operational Support Officer	1
	Enforcement Support Officer	1	Operations Technical Administrator	2
	Executive Officer	1
	Finance Business Partner	2
	HR Coordinator	1
	Incidents Officer	1
	Intelligence Officer	1
	Intelligence Researcher	1
	Nutrition Advisor	1
	Office and Admin Coordinator	1
	PA to DCEO	1
	Policy Advisor	2
	Procurement Officer	1
	SFELC secratariat & LA training	1
	Social Media Executive	1
	Stakeholder Database Manager	1
B2	55		41
	Engagement Policy Advisor & Co-ordinator	1	Feed Officer	3
	Project Support Officer	1	Feed Operations Coordinator	6
	Records Management Support Officer	1	Field Veterinary Coordinator	1
	Intelligence Development Officer	1	Official Veterinarian	30
	Meat Charging Officer	1	SLA & Contracts Coordinator	1
	Scientific Advisor	5
	Lead Incident Officer	1
	Marketing Manager	2
	Public Health Nutrition Advisor	4
	IT Project Support Specialist	1
	Policy Advisor	12
	Learning & Development Advisor	1
	Lead Investigator	3
	Intelligence Development Officer	2
	Lead Incidents Officer	1
	Learning & Development Business Partner	1
	Resilience Manager	1
	Facilities and Admin Manager	1
	Communications Manager - Press & Media	1
	Intelligence Analyst	2
	Events Manager	1
	Enforcement Delivery Project Manager	2
	Application Developer	1
	HR Business Partner	1
	Private Secretary to CEO	1
	Incident Support Officer	1
	Board Secretary	1
	Business Planning and Reporting Officer	1
	Data Manager	1
	Senior Finance Business Partner	1
	Assistant Financal Accountant	1
B3	43		12
	Information Systems Delivery Manager	1	Field Veterinary Manager	1
	Analyst	1	Operations Manager	3
	BMPU Manager	1	Senior Feed officer	2
	Digital Delivery Manager	1	Vet advisor	3
	Finance Manager	1	Vet Auditor	2
	Financial Accountant	1	SLA & Contracts Manager	1
	Head of Marketing & Publications	1
	Head of Private Office	1
	HR Manager	1
	HSE Manager	1
	Incidents Manager	1
	Intelligence Manager	1
	Regulatory Strategy Workstream Manager	1
	Senior Assurance Auditor	4
	Senior Business Analyst	1
	Senior Enforcement Manager	5
	Senior Intelligence Analyst	1
	Senior Investigator	1
	Senior Policy Advisor	8
	Senior Public Health Nutrition Advisor	2
	Senior Scientific Advisor	4
	SFCIU Support Manager	1
	Sustainability Workstream Manager	1
	Team Leader - Food Borne Illness Control	1
	Work Stream Manager - Digitalisation and Technology	1
C1	23		3
	Data Scientist/Statistician	1	Head of Field Operations	1
	Head of Communications & Stakeholder Engagement	1	Head Veterinarian	1
	Head of Content and Digital	1	Lead Feed Officer	1
	Head of Corporate Support	1
	Head of Crime Operations	1
	Head of Digital Transformation	1
	Head of Domestic Assurance	1
	Head of Enforcement Delivery	1
	Head of Engagement & Public Affairs	1
	Head of Finance & Procurement	1
	Head of Food and Feed Safety Policy	1
	Head of Food Protection, Science and Surveillance (FPSS)	1
	Head of Incidents	1
	Head of International Assurance & Inward Missions	1
	Head of Labelling Standards & Regulated Products	1
	Head of Public Health Nutrition	1
	Head of Risk Assessment	1
	Head of Strategic Food and Trade Policy International Trade	1
	Head of Strategic UK Frameworks & Inter-Government Partnerships	1
	Project Manager - SAFER	3
	Social Researcher	1
C2	8		1
	Head of Audit Assurance	1	Head of Operational Delivery	1
	Head of Science Division	1
	Head of Corporate Services	1
	Head of Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit	1
	Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs	1
	Head of LA Delivery	1
	Chief Nutritionist	1
	Head of Communications and Marketing	1
SCS	2
	CE	1
	Deputy CE	1

Question reference: S6W-34155

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many reported assaults on nurses have resulted in (a) charges being brought and (b) prosecutions, in each year since 2018, broken down by NHS board.