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-00712

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to help increase the numbers of allotments and community garden spaces available in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6O-00698

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions, whether it will provide an update on when it anticipates the requirement to wear face coverings in places of worship will be lifted.

Question reference: S6O-00709

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it will support the fishing industry to grow to meet any increased capacity within the catching and processing sectors.

Question reference: S6O-00704

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives from the nuclear energy sector, and what was discussed.

Question reference: S6O-00701

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what oversight role it plans to take over the Clyde Metro project, in order to support its timely delivery.

Question reference: S6O-00699

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how measures in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill will support the Covid Recovery Strategy.

Question reference: S6O-00708

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent survey, which found that 65% of those asked preferred to see the national flag of Scotland on their food.

Question reference: S6W-05700

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05229 by Lorna Slater on 11 January 2022, on what date the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity took the decision to postpone the scheme, rather than the date on which the decision was communicated to the Parliament.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 17 November 2022 I gave an update on progress towards implementing Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. In that statement I said that officials and I were working hard with Circularity Scotland and the industry to agree a final timescale and clear milestones for delivery including interpreting the impact of the decision from the UK Government on VAT, which had only just been communicated to me. While carrying out that further work, the date was very much under continuous assessment as new information was received and views of stakeholders were taken on-board. The date was made firm when I announced this to Parliament on 14 December.

Question reference: S6W-05148

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to mitigate any risks to wildlife that may be caused by light pollution, as a result of the 2022 arts project, Green Spaces Dark Skies, which is part of the programme UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.

Unboxed is a festival of creativity and innovation with Green Spaces, Dark Skies one of the six cross-UK programmes funded directly by the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports and administered via Festival UK Ltd.

Details of all planned activity across these cross-UK programmes and the relevant contacts for further queries are available using the URL UNBOXED | Creativity in the UK (unboxed2022.uk) .

The organisers of the Green Spaces, Dark Skies programme across the UK (Walk the Plank) are responsible for delivery of their programme in all Four Nations and the Scottish Government understand that they have already been in contact with NatureScot (Scotland's nature agency), the relevant National Park Agencies, Historic Environment Scotland, the RSPB and relevant local partners in each community to ensure the work will be responsive to the sensitivities at the selected sites, including no adverse impact on wildlife and bio-diversity.

Question reference: S6W-05210

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in the light of funding constraints, whether flood prevention schemes will be subjected to more rigorous tests of viability than were applied in their approval or priority designation.

Every six years, when preparing Flood Risk Management Plans, SEPA assess measures for reducing flood risk against a range of criteria and consider the priority to be given to each measure. The availability of Scottish Government funding is not one of the criteria used to prioritise measures.

It is for individual local authorities to take forward the design and construction of schemes proposed in the Plans ensuring that the schemes meet the necessary statutory requirements for approval set out in Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. To support this work, the Scottish Government provides a minimum of £42million per annum through the General Capital Grant. An additional £150million has been committed over the next 5 years.