Chamber and committees

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-20322

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19595 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2023, whether it will provide a breakdown of the types of cyber attack to which Social Security Scotland has been subjected.

It is not possible to give specific details of the types of cyber-attack Social Security Scotland has been subjected to. Doing so may provide information on the defences which protect the Agency’s systems. This information could then be leveraged in future attacks.

The vast majority of the cyber events monitored consist of attackers scanning Internet-facing benefit systems to discover potential weaknesses in the defences. Should any be identified, this can lead to further activity from the attacker to leverage this weakness. To date, the security defences have prevented all attacks from succeeding.

Question reference: S6W-20181

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19328 by Richard Lochhead on 3 July 2023, whether every home and business in Scotland will have access to superfast broadband by March 2028, and, if this is not the case, whether the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) will continue beyond the completion of the R100 contracts and by what date it expects to meet its goal of 100% superfast broadband coverage across all of Scotland.

Through a combination of the R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme and the commercial broadband market – including the emergence of technologies such as Low Earth Orbit satellite - every home and business across Scotland can access superfast broadband speeds of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps). The R100 contracts are continuing to deliver future-proofed, full fibre connections – capable of gigabit speeds; more than 30 times faster than our original superfast target.

Question reference: S6W-20309

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with any private sector organisations to discuss peatlands restoration.

The Scottish Government regularly discusses peatland restoration with private sector organisations mainly through the Peatland ACTION partnership.

For example, as part of our Peatland ACTION programme NatureScot works with land management representative organisations like Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), National Farmers Union, Scotland (NFUS) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to communicate the benefits of peatland restoration and financial support available to their members. Peatland ACTION delivery partners have also engaged with many Land Agents, Solicitors and Accountants/Green Finance specialists through demonstration days and attendance at national and local events.

The network of Peatland ACTION officers work with a range of private landowners and land managers to help them consider restoration projects. Peatland Action have also provided training and support for private sector companies who are contracted to design and deliver restoration on the ground including, but not limited to, a regular contractors forum where emerging opportunities and issues are considered and resolved collectively.

Question reference: S6W-20090

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the letter from the Chair of the Just Transition Commission to the then Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition and the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, entitled Further Advice on the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which was published on 17 April 2023, and when it will publish a response to the Commission.

In response to the Just Transition Commission’s letter providing further advice on the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) published on 17 April 2023, the Scottish Government issued a reply on 9 May 2023. This can be found online: Just Transition: letter to Just Transition Commission 9 May 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We are currently awaiting independent analysis of the large volume of responses received from the public consultation held on the draft ESJTP. We are fully considering stakeholder views including those of the Just Transition Commission and will engage with them further as we finalise the ESJTP.

Question reference: S6W-20091

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not responded to the letter from the Chair of the Just Transition Commission to the then Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition and the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, entitled Further Advice on the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which was published on 17 April 2023, in light of its aim to respond within 12 weeks from the date of the publication, as stated in the Memorandum of Understanding, which was published on 24 March 2023.

In response to the Just Transition Commission’s letter providing further advice on the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan published on 17 April 2023, the Scottish Government issued a reply on the 9 May 2023. The letter acknowledged the Commission’s extensive recommendations and committed to a more detailed response to these, alongside consideration of responses to the formal consultation.

The reply adhered to the 12-week timeframe as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding and can now be found online here: Just Transition: letter to Just Transition Commission 9 May 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-20310

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with representatives of any private investment funds to discuss peatlands restoration.

Question reference: S6W-20143

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition on 29 June 2023, regarding Highly Protected Marine Areas, whether there will be any delay to the deadline of March 2024 for the delivery of fisheries management measures in existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), as set out in the Bute House Agreement.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering fisheries management measures for existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) where such measures are not already in place, as well as key coastal biodiversity locations outside of these sites. As outlined in the Parliamentary Statement of 29 June 2023, due to the complexity of the of the inshore area and the number of sites, the fisheries management measures will not be delivered before March 2024. The Scottish Government will consult on the proposals for offshore areas after summer recess and on proposals for inshore areas in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-20142

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what total marine area, in km2, of the continental shelf area adjacent to Scotland, as designated in the Continental Shelf (Designation of Areas) Order 2013, is covered by one or more designations including a (a) Special Area of Conservation, (b) Special Protection Area, (c) Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area, (d) Ramsar site for wetlands of international importance and (e) Site of Special Scientific Interest.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18168 on 6 May 2023 for details of the total area, in square kilometres, of the Marine Protected Area network designated in the Scottish continental shelf area adjacent to Scotland.

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-20138

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many illicit (a) e-cigarettes and (b) vapes have been seized in Scotland in the past three years, broken down by year and local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-20025

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools were in good or satisfactory condition, from 2016-17 to date, (a) in total and (b) broken down by local authority.

The total number of publicly funded schools reported as in good or satisfactory condition in the School estates annual survey from 2016 to 2022 is shown in the table below. Figures from the 2023 survey are not yet available.

The number of schools by condition rating for each local authority is reported separately for Primary, Secondary and Special schools in Tables 4.2 to 4.4 in the annual school estate statistics supplementary data tables https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-estate-statistics-2022/documents/ .

Table 1: Schools in good or satisfactory condition by local authority and year

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
All authorities	2,119	2,165	2,166	2,200	2,238	2,239	2,239
Aberdeen City	61	63	61	61	61	60	60
Aberdeenshire	168	169	169	168	169	169	168
Angus	56	58	59	58	59	59	59
Argyll and Bute	91	90	91	92	92	90	88
City of Edinburgh	109	110	99	98	110	115	116
Clackmannanshire	24	24	23	22	24	24	22
Dumfries and Galloway	104	102	101	104	108	106	108
Dundee City	32	33	35	39	39	39	36
East Ayrshire	56	57	55	53	54	53	52
East Dunbartonshire	43	44	44	41	41	41	41
East Lothian	39	31	31	33	33	32	35
East Renfrewshire	25	25	27	28	28	28	28
Falkirk	58	58	59	60	57	57	59
Fife	134	137	143	145	152	152	153
Glasgow City	149	167	172	188	191	191	191
Highland	122	126	118	122	122	125	131
Inverclyde	28	28	28	28	27	28	28
Midlothian	31	31	32	33	34	35	32
Moray	11	16	16	24	24	30	29
Na h-Eileanan Siar	27	23	23	24	24	24	23
North Ayrshire	63	63	61	61	61	61	58
North Lanarkshire	123	131	131	124	129	122	124
Orkney Islands	24	25	24	24	24	24	26
Perth and Kinross	71	70	72	74	74	74	74
Renfrewshire	59	62	61	61	61	56	57
Scottish Borders	44	45	46	47	49	50	50
Shetland Islands	34	32	35	35	35	35	35
South Ayrshire	29	31	32	37	39	42	42
South Lanarkshire	148	148	149	148	149	149	147
Stirling	48	49	47	47	47	46	46
West Dunbartonshire	28	34	38	37	37	38	39
West Lothian	80	83	84	84	84	84	82