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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-34488

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its partial island communities impact assessment (ICIA) for the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill did not recommend carrying out a full ICIA on the basis that the measures in the Bill were "not likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities", in light of the assessment also noting that "the geographical remoteness of islands can generate a number of particular challenges".

The Visitor Levy is a discretionary power for local authorities to use. In doing so, a local authority will have to comply with its duties under the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018. Additionally, Local authorities have the power to charge different rates and exemptions for different geographical areas .Each local authority has a responsibility to publish assessment of the impacts of introducing a Visitor Levy, and they have a statutory requirement to consult with local communities, businesses, and the public, prior to the introduction of a Visitor Levy.

Question reference: S6W-34368

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 19 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to promote Reusable Nappy Week.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of promoting reusable nappies during Reusable Nappy Week. Content will be posted across Parent Club’s social media channels and will highlight the benefits of reusable nappies and answer common questions people have about them.

Social media posts will also direct users to the Parent Club website which has recently been reviewed with up-to-date content on ‘How to use reusable nappies’. This is available at: https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/how-use-reusable-nappies.

Question reference: S6W-34526

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 what proportion of voluntary sector grants are (a) currently and (b) expected to be multi-year as a result of its Fairer Funding commitment.

The Fairer Funding pilot consists of grants to the third sector in Scotland totalling £61.7 million in 2025-26 and £63.2 million in 2026-27. The challenging financial position means that the total volume of multi-year funding agreements is balanced against other priorities and our ability to take a measured financial risk within each portfolio area. However, the sums involved are substantial and have been welcomed by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and by the third sector organisations involved. The Pilot is an important first step to move forward with multi-year funding.

Work is underway to improve our visibility of grants issued by the Scottish Government to the third sector. The previous electronic accounting system did not reliably classify whether or not grant spend is allocated to the third sector. This therefore means that collating grant information remains a manual exercise across all portfolios whilst the reporting framework associated with the new system (Oracle Cloud) is fully developed. Oracle Cloud was adopted in October 2024 and is being used to make payments made to grant recipients. However, for effective analysis, a data set of an entire financial year or more is likely to be required to produce meaningful insights.

Question reference: S6W-34395

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government who the members are of the Wildlife and Species Forum; on what date the Forum will next meet, and how many meetings are scheduled for the next 12 months.

Membership of the Strategic Wildlife and Species Land Managers Forum (SWSLM Forum) is made up of representatives from the main public and private organisations that have a role in managing wildlife. However the constitution of the group may change on a meeting-by-meeting basis to reflect the subjects on the agenda. The initial membership of the SWSLM Forum consists of the following organisations:

Scottish Government
British Association for Shooting and Conservation
National Farmers Union Scotland
National Trust for Scotland
NatureScot
Royal Society for the Protection for Birds
Scottish Gamekeepers Association
Scottish Land and Estates
Scottish Countryside Alliance
Scottish Wildlife Trust
Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

The next meeting of the SWSLM Forum is scheduled to take place on Thursday 3 April 2025. The intention is that the Forum will then meet every three months.

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-34241

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 employed by Food Standards Scotland in Aberdeen are on secondment, and what their roles are.

Role	Secondment type'
Senior Feed Offier	outward loan
Lead Feed Officer	TP (internal)
Project Manager	TP (internal)
Head of Private Office	TP (internal)
Head of Field Operations	TP (internal)
Operations Manager - Area 1	TP (internal)
Field Operations Co-ordinator	TP (internal)
Head of Digital Transformation	TP (internal)
Business Planning and Reporting Officer	TP (internal)
Operations Technical Administrator	TP (internal)
Finance Manager	TP (internal)
Field Operations Co-ordinator	TP (internal)
Field Operations Co-ordinator	TP (internal)
Operations Manager - Area 3	TP (internal)
BMPU Manager	TP (internal)
Enforcement Delivery Officer	TP (internal)

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-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.