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: S6O-01214

Asked by: Jim Fairlie, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what steps it is taking to ensure the availability of Scottish produce on the menu in the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6O-01249

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body when it last reviewed the requirements for members to access legal services funded through the Members Expenses Scheme in order to ascertain whether the current criteria are fit for purpose.

Question reference: S6O-01248

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, as an employer located in the zone, how it will help to meet the objectives of the Edinburgh Low Emission Zone.

Question reference: S6O-01213

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what efforts it is making to assist those who work in the nuclear energy sector to transition to suitable alternative employment.

The decommissioning of nuclear sites requires the retention of a highly skilled workforce over many years and their transferable skills could be utilised by the renewables sector as part of our transition to net zero.

Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan will be published in Autumn 2022 and will provide a road map for the future of Scotland’s energy system. The development process will include engagement, offering the opportunity for those within or associated with the nuclear energy industry to contribute to this dialogue.

In December 2020 the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland published the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) setting out the actions required to ensure Scotland’s labour market is able to effectively support the transition to net zero.

Question reference: S6W-08721

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much revenue it estimates (a) it and (b) Crown Estate Scotland will receive from ScotWind leases in each of the next 10 years.

The ScotWind lease option awards process has yet to be completed and the final figure raised through option agreements is still to be confirmed. Revenues received by Crown Estate Scotland from awards made to date amount to £699m.Crown Estate Scotland may raise further lease option revenues through the ScotWind clearing process, which is currently underway.

When projects enter a lease, they become operational and commence lease payments. Projects are currently at a very early stage and potential lease payment figures will become clearer as projects are further refined and progressed through the development phase. Payments to Crown Estate Scotland under lease agreements will be received by Crown Estate Scotland and transferred to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-08608

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost was of building any imitation funnels and painting false windows on the MV Glen Sannox for the launch event in November 2017.

Question reference: S6W-08607

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost was of the event to launch the MV Glen Sannox at Ferguson Marine in November 2017.

Question reference: S6W-08777

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing statutory powers to apply a public interest to all landholdings above an agreed scale.

We are committed to bringing forward a new Land Reform Bill in this parliamentary session. We will undertake a wide-ranging consultation this year on proposals for the Bill, which will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically iniquitous patterns of land ownership - including by tackling problematic scale and concentration of ownership. The Bill will aim to ensure that the public interest is considered on transfers of particularly large scale land holdings.

Question reference: S6W-08781

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work has been done to map out land ownership since the publication of the 2019 report, The effects associated with concentrated and large-scale land ownership in Scotland: a research review by the Scottish Land Commission.

Documenting land ownership in Scotland is a key aim of the Land Register of Scotland which is held and maintained by The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (ROS) and is accessible online free of charge. Registers of Scotland (RoS) RoS are continually working to record land ownership and improve land mass coverage of records on the Land Register. Full completion of the Land Register is dependent on landowners submitting applications, however, RoS have made significant progress over the last year in their approach to making data held within the General Register of Sasines rather than the Land Register more accessible. As a result they can now link Sasine property search sheets to a map for the first time, making it visually more helpful and accessible. This is also a way of showing indicative ownership extents of Sasines titles which will help fill in current gaps in the Land Register.

Question reference: S6W-08674

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 9 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05590 by Clare Haughey on 28 January 2022, what its position is on the issue of historical forced adoption in light of the responses received to its questionnaire that has now closed.