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Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council officials undertake regular engagement relating to hydrogen in Aberdeen. This has involved discussions relating to the city’s bus fleet, including in the context of the Energy Transition Fund grant to the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub project over the period 2021-22 to 2024-25. Decisions on hydrogen supply to the fleet are a matter for the Council. The Scottish Government has not engaged in any direct discussions with hydrogen suppliers for that fleet.

CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) expect around 80 deliveries of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to be required per year to supply MV Glen Sannox. Delivery of LNG will come by road from the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent. The country of origin can vary depending on the global market. In terms of supply security, this is a matter for CFL as the operator; the Scottish Government has no involvement in these contracts.

The Scottish Government has not made any estimates or assumptions around the level of fuel consumption by MV Glen Sannox as this is a matter for CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) as the operator.

CFL have confirmed, however, that total marine diesel consumption is estimated to reach around 1,800m3 per year. The vessel is expected to consume around 1,700 metric tonnes of LNG per year. The proportion of annual propulsion by LNG is expected to be around 70%, but this is under constant review.

The Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme (GFPS) as proposed by the council, is exceptional in terms of scale and financial cost and requires careful consideration to ensure that it delivers for the local community.

The Scottish Government must weigh up any investment decision both in terms of the impact to the individual project, but also to the impact any individual project has on its ability to invest in other areas. As such, in 2023, Ministers and Falkirk Council agreed that the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme would be removed from consideration as part of the existing national funding agreement with local authorities for flood protection schemes because its size had a distorting effect on the affordability of the overall programme.

A Task Force approach has instead been used to examine how to take forward improved and affordable flood resilience for Falkirk and Grangemouth residents and local communities.

The next steps in the process for the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme are to be undertaken by the local authority.

Should Falkirk Council confirm the scheme in its current form and wish to access further Scottish Government funding, it will be necessary to demonstrate that the scheme, in whole or phased elements, is value for money, and assessed against other flood protection schemes across Scotland.

As set out in the answer to S6W-37296 on 13 May 2025, given the legitimate concerns from the local community a decision on the licence application was unable to be made ahead of the beaver kit dependency period.

This period offered an opportunity for further engagement to be undertaken to fully explore these concerns. NatureScot will publicise their decision on the licence once it has been determined.

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

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS seeks to be as open and transparent as possible, while also upholding our statutory obligation to protect the personal information of those in our care.

This information requested is not information held by the Scottish Prison Service.

As set out in answer to question S6W-37425, which was answered on 2 May 2025, due to the short amount of time left in this parliamentary session, there is insufficient time for a Misogyny Bill to be finalised and introduced. Therefore, the Scottish Government has decided not to proceed with this Bill in this parliamentary session.

However, in order to allow for the protected characteristic of ‘sex’ to be added to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 so that women and girls have the same protections as other groups protected by that Act, we will lay before the Scottish Parliament in September a proposed draft of an SSI under the powers within the Act. This will allow for views to be offered on the approach taken before a finalised SSI is then subsequently laid which will, if agreed, result in new protections for women and girls being introduced.

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

The maintenance of the valuation roll, including the collection of evidence, valuation of properties, and decisions on the removal of properties, are the responsibility of the independent Scottish Assessors, in accordance with the legislative framework established by the Scottish Government.

Table 1 shows the number of self-catering properties removed from the non-domestic rates valuation roll since 2020-2021, by the financial year from which the decision was made effective. The Scottish Government does not have information relating to how many operators were the ratepayers for these subjects.

Decisions to remove a property from the valuation roll are generally retrospective, and the financial year from which a property is retrospectively removed from the valuation roll may precede the year in which this decision is made.

This table may also include some properties which were later reinstated to the valuation roll, and may count them more than once, for example if a property was removed, re-added, and removed again.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 1: Self-catering properties removed from the valuation roll, by year for which the deletion was effective

The Scottish Government has published a range of fire safety guidance applicable to a wide range of premises types, including existing high rise domestic and existing non-residential buildings. Given the complex nature of individual buildings of a height over 60m, specialist fire safety advice should be sought by the duty holder/s if required, including a robust fire risk assessment carried out by a competent assessor who will focus on the nature, use and specific circumstances pertaining to that particular building, as this will vary from one premises to another.