- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, not including any other non-domestic rates relief schemes that it has in place, how much it has spent on non-domestic rates relief specifically for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in the financial year (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 to date.
Answer
The outturn cost to the Scottish Government of providing each relief, including Retail, hospitality, and leisure relief in 2020-2023, are available in Table 3 of Non-domestic rates income statistics, available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-income-statistics/.
At the December 2023 Budget, Islands and specified remote areas hospitality relief was forecast by the Scottish Fiscal Commission to cost £4 million in 2024-2025, available in Figure A.10 in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2023, at https://fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2023/. Updated forecasts for 2024-2025 will be released alongside the December 2024 Budget.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases in the children’s hearings system have been subject to delay due to a shortage of panel members or professionals since 2012.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as it relates to an operational matter for the children’s hearings system.
The member should contact the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, one of the statutory bodies of the hearings system, for this information.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 October 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many college and university course places have been developed to date to help address any skills shortages in the renewables industry workforce.
Answer
Our education and skills system is already adapting in response to the transition to net zero with colleges and universities acting as key anchor points for research, innovation, and training.
Due to the depth, breadth and variety of interrelated programmes of teaching for net zero skills run by both colleges and universities, it is not possible to provide an exact figure for courses specifically designed for and only catering to skills shortages in the renewables industry workforce at this stage.
A range of work is underway to help address need. For example, the Energy Skills Partnership, Built Environment - Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Innovation Centre and the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, all funded by the Scottish Funding Council, support colleges and universities in developing their capability, capacity and curriculum pathways for the transition to net zero.
SFC have been leading collaborative regional pathfinders, in both the North-East and the South of Scotland, which have identified a range of important best practices for institutions which will help improve the system and ensure provision is more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills needs.
A number of sector-based initiatives are also in place to inform system improvement. For example, the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) is taking forward crucial work that will help both industry and the public sector to identify and address future skills and workforce gaps.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04853 by Mairi Gougeon on 14 December 2021, how many of the Fixed Penalty Notices issued since 25 January 2019 remain unpaid, and, of those, how many have been (a) referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and (b) proceeded in the courts, and, of any that resulted in convictions, what the (i) nature of the offence, (ii) value of the original Fixed Penalty Notice and (iii) court disposal was.
Answer
Since 25 January 2019 until 13 October 2021, the period covered by S6W-03688 on 29 October 2021 and S6W-04853 on 14 December 2021, there have been 19 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) unpaid prior to referral to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, compared to 93 paid. This makes a payment rate over the period of 83%.
The breakdown is as follows:
(a) 8 of the 19 cases were referred to the COPFS for consideration of prosecution; 2 of the 8 cases resulted in the original FPNs being paid after agreement with the Procurator Fiscal, ultimately resulting in 17 unpaid FPNs in total and;
(b) 4 of the 8 cases resulted in convictions and fines with the breakdown as follows:
| | Offence | FPN Offered (£) | Court Disposal (£) |
1 | Breach of hobby fishermen regulations | 2000 | 500 |
2 | Non submission of statutory returns | 2000 | 3000 |
3 | Marine Protected Area incursion | 4000 | 2000 |
4 | Fishing gear offence | 3000 | 2075 |
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: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the national service specification for alcohol and drug services.
Answer
Development of the National Specification for substance use services is underway and we expect to publish in the first quarter of 2025
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what it considers is an appropriate amount of time for a decision to be made for applications under the right to buy Part (a) 3A of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and (b) 5 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016.
Answer
The Land Reform (Scotland) Acts of 2003 and 2016 detail the time that decisions on community right to buy applications should take. There is no end date set for these decisions. The Acts state that Ministers must not reach a decision on an application before the date which is 60 days after the last date on which the Part 3A/Part 5 community body may provide Scottish Ministers with a response to the comments on the application, provided by the owner and other parties.
In practice, the length of time each right to buy decision takes will depend on the complexity of the case, the timing and content of the comments received from all parties, and any legal issues that may be relevant to the case. It is important to ensure that, whatever decision is reached, that it is done so in a robust and fair manner to all parties.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether there is any monitoring of what Best Start Foods cards are used to purchase.
Answer
The Best Start Foods card is restricted to stores which sell the eligible foods and is blocked for use in other establishments. The eligible foods are printed on the back of the card.
In line with our principles of fairness, dignity and respect, we do not monitor what people buy with the card. However, the qualitative evidence from the evaluation of Best Start Foods, published on 29 July 2022, suggests that people use their Best Start Foods card mainly to buy cow’s milk, baby formula, fresh fruit and vegetables and that the card enabled mothers and children to eat more healthy foods.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the total budget allocated to child protection services has been in each year since 2012, including the current year to date.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Funding for child protection services is provided to local authorities by means of a block grant under the Local Government settlement.
It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on child protection services.
- Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it and COSLA have jointly considered the first year of implementation of the Verity House Agreement, in light of its commitment to do so.
Answer
The Scottish Government has today published the Verity House Agreement stocktake report. It is available at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836019817.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline any progress that it has made on establishing regional land use frameworks across Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government has supported four pilot regions in the development of bespoke Regional Land Use Frameworks (RLUFs). This work was taken forward through a co-development approach with a range of stakeholders. It tested a natural capital-led approach to identifying land use opportunities and priorities, whilst maintaining place-based principles to understand the potential for delivering mutual benefits to all land users.
This work covers the South of Scotland (Scottish borders and Dumfries and Galloway) The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Parks and the NorthWest 2045 region of the Highlands. More information on the individual RLUFs can be found at the links below:
We are now working with the RLUPS to consolidate this learning in order to refine our understanding of the role that RLUFs could play in supporting/delivering land use change and informing wider Scottish Government policy.
