- 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: 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: 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.
- 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 businesses were fined 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 were no charges where a Fiscal Fine was offered by COPFS and accepted in relation to either individuals or companies.
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.
- 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: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 July 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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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: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30627 by Ivan McKee on 24 October 2024, what the total value is of Green Freeports non-domestic rates relief that has been granted to date.
Answer
No Green Freeport relief had been granted by October 2024, when mid-year estimates of non-domestic rates income for 2024-2025 were collected. This is the latest available data.
Provisional outturn data for 2024-2025 will be published later in the summer as part of the Non-domestic rates income statistics series, and I will write to the member as soon as this is published.
- 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: 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: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can display the Wellbeing Economy Monitor in a more prominent and easy-to-find location on the Scottish Government website, in order that ministers, officials and interested parties can access it easily when setting targets or charting the success of policy interventions.
Answer
The Wellbeing Economy Monitor will be published on the Scottish Government webpages and can be found using the site search facility when searching for the terms “Wellbeing Economy Monitor” or “Wellbeing Economy”. We intend to bring together the Wellbeing Economy material as a collection on our webpages including previously published monitors which should add to its prominence.