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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-17174

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average award per property has been for funding awarded from the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, since the fund was established.

Question reference: S6W-17555

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how the additional £10 million funding for the Fuel Insecurity Fund will be allocated.

As the First Minister recently announced, the Fuel Insecurity Fund’s budget for 2023/24 has increased from £20 million to £30 million. The Fund has been allocated as follows:

£9 million to enable Advice Direct Scotland to administer Home Heating Support Fund grants to those struggling with the rapid increase in gas, electricity and oil prices;
£8.5 million for the Fuel Bank Foundation to rapidly support more than 85,000 households, including those with prepayment meters and at risk of imminent self-disconnection;
£7.25 million to enable the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to provide more than 55,000 households across Scotland with advice, support with bills and energy-saving items;
£5 million for one-to-one mentoring for households to be provided by a new funding partner, The Wise Group, as part of a longer-term approach to tackling poverty and its causes;£250,000 for Energy Action Scotland to support both an uplift to their core staff costs and opportunity for expanded roles to aid our longer-term approach to tackling fuel poverty.

Question reference: S6W-17045

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it advertised its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) Instagram, and if so, whether it will provide details of engagement figures for each platform.

As well as a press release and supporting social media on the consultation opening on 12 December 2023, ?the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate frequently promoted the consultation, stakeholder information sessions and the extension of the consultation on its Twitter (@marinescotland) and LinkedIn channels, which have a combined following of more than 12.5K stakeholders. Please note that @marinescotland does not have an Instagram account.

A total of 15 posts were shared by @marinescotland which reached almost 80,000 people and achieved a good engagement rate of 2.7% (anything between 1-5% is considered good by social media marketing experts, according to Hootsuite). This equated to a total of 2,147 engagements (interactions) with the social media posts such as clicking on the link to the consultation, sharing, ‘liking’ and commenting on the posts.

It is important to note that the actual engagement with the online consultation will be much higher as this just reflects the social media promotion. For example, while 565 people clicked onto the consultation directly from these 15 social media posts, others will have visited the consultation directly from elsewhere, such as from stakeholder engagement activity and seeing press coverage.

Evaluation summary

A breakdown of the @marinescotland social media is included below, including the engagement rate calculation for transparency:

15 December – ‘ consultation now open ’ – 113 link clicks, 13,566 opportunities to see, 332 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 43 clicks, 1,576 OTS, 58 reactions)7 February – stakeholder information sessions – 63 link clicks, 4,096 opportunities to see, 202 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 76 clicks, 1,637 OTS, 34 reactions)

9 February – still spaces left to attend stakeholder information sessions – 18 link clicks, 3,727 opportunities to see, 51 engagements

7 March – closes on 20 March – 22 link clicks, 1,890 opportunities to see, 67 engagements

10 March – you have until Monday to respond – 9,968 opportunities to see, 274 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 5 clicks, 122 OTS, 2 reactions)

16 March – consultation extended by one month – 82 link clicks, 22,420 opportunities to see, 264 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 20 clicks, 790 OTS, 24 reactions)

29 March – stakeholder information sessions – 29 link clicks, 3,388 opportunities to see, 99 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 28 clicks, 882 OTS, 6 reactions)

31 March – stakeholder information sessions – 6 link clicks, 1,402 opportunities to see , 20 engagements

11 April – consultation closes in one week – 37 link clicks, 13,046 opportunities to see, 139 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 23 clicks, 922 OTS, 9 reactions)

Accurate as of 17 April:
LinkedIn followers – 3,245

Twitter followers – 9,325

Total followers – 12570

Total number of posts – 15

Opportunities to see (OTS) – Twitter – 73,503; LinkedIn – 5,929 = 79,432

Clicks – Twitter – 370 and LinkedIn – 195 = 565

Engagements – Twitter – 1448 and LinkedIn – 133 = 1581

Total engagements (clicks + engagements) – 2,146 ?

Engagement rate (total engagements / OTS x 100) – 2.7%

Question reference: S6W-17066

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what basis it determined that the £25 million investment for the north east, which was announced on 4 April 2023, was the amount that should be allocated from the existing Just Transition Fund for that purpose; whether it will provide its (a) written analysis and (b) evidential basis for that decision; and what preparatory work had been done to ensure sufficient detail and planning to enable the announcement to be made on 4 April 2023.

The £25 million which has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24, is part of the ten year, £500 million Just Transition Fund. It will be invested on a commercial basis in line with the Bank's Investment Strategy.

Officials and the former Minister for Just Transition engaged with a range of stakeholders from the region, including Enterprise Agencies, to inform the decision to allocate funding to the Bank.

Question reference: S6W-17046

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas, what external organisations it met in advance of the consultation launch, and on what date each meeting took place.

During this initial phase of policy development on Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), in 2022, the Scottish Government met with a range of stakeholders including -

British Trout Association (BTA) – 17 March
Coastal Communities Network (CCN) – 22 March
Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) - 23 November
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) – 24 March
Crown Estate Scotland (CES)–28 March
Oceana – 13 May
Royal Yachting Association (RYA) – 5 May
Salmon Scotland – 17 March and 6 April
Scottish Environment LINK–18 March, 14 July and 2 December
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – 8 March
Scottish Renewables – 13 May
Scottish Sea Farms Ltd–23 May
Scottish Seaweed Industry Association (SSIA) – 25 April

Please also refer to the answer under S6W-16733 on 15 May 2023 for a list of meetings with the fishing industry where HPMAs were discussed. 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

Question reference: S6W-17065

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the £25 million investment from the Just Transition Fund for the north east, which was announced on 4 April 2023, including which organisations will receive the funding, when the funding be delivered and what criteria will be used to determine who receives the funding.

The £25 million funding will be allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24 to invest in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy, and in support of a Just Transition to net zero in the region. The funding will be invested by the Bank on a commercial basis, to leverage further private investment towards accelerating a just energy transition across the North East and Moray.

The Bank has a proven track record having committed £415.1 million across 27 investments, alongside over £680 million of third party capital since 2020. Utilising the Bank’s commercial investment expertise and experience represents a key opportunity to unlock third party finance at the scale required to realise our ambition for a just transition in the region.

Question reference: S6W-17680

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered introducing a compensation scheme for (a) residents and (b) businesses who are impacted by (i) short-notice and (ii) long-notice, ferry cancellations.

I recognise the impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities and I am committed to investing in our ferry services. Indeed, my focus currently is on building resilience within the network.

I have noted the calls for compensation however, any such scheme would need to be carefully considered. It would require stark choices around how such a scheme would be prioritised for funding, over efforts to provide that network resilience.

Question reference: S6W-17570

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have indicated directly to the Scottish Government that they have not joined the Deposit Return Scheme due to the UK Government's position on the scheme.

Question reference: S6W-17538

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to update the High Risk Medicines Framework.

Question reference: S6W-17486

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on paying compensation to any businesses affected by the most recent delay to the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.