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-34308

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of postcode areas that would be eligible for house building through funding from the Rural Housing Fund.

Question reference: S6W-34307

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of postcode areas that would be eligible for house building through funding from the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.

The Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund operates in categories 4, 5 and 6 of the six-fold urban rural classification. We do not publish a list of postcode areas and applicants can check if a proposed project is located within an eligible area by using the National Records of Scotland’s Scottish Postcode Directory (SPD) at Geography products - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

National Records of Scotland publishes an updated SPD every six months and an update is planned for publication in March 2025.

Question reference: S6W-34774

Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with supporting farmers and crofters to deliver its Vision for Agriculture.

Today the First Minister will outline a £20m package of support to assist in implementing transformational change required to deliver its Vision for Scottish Agriculture. This will provide:

capital funding to support investment in equipment and measures aimed at driving efficiency and supporting nature and climate friendly farming;
innovative food and drink investment; and,
funding for Lidar surveys.

Proposals for the Agricultural Transformation Programme continue to be developed, 70% funding has already been confirmed for Tiers 1 and 2 of the future farming support framework. Within the two tiers, 70% of funding will be devoted to Tier 1 and 30% to Tier 2.

Question reference: S6W-34138

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of trends in road traffic offences on each trunk road, with a particular focus on the A90 and its section north of Dundee.

Data on recorded road traffic offences is contained in the annual Scottish Government "Recorded Crime in Scotland" publication. Information on road traffic offences in the 2023-24 publication is at:

Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24 - gov.scot

This publication includes data for 2023-24 as well as data relating to the last ten years. Data is provided at Scotland level as well as being broken down by local authority area. No information is provided broken down by trunk road.

Question reference: S6W-34033

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33096 by Ivan McKee on 21 January 2025, what the cost of maintaining the fleet was in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34022

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which national flags it owns.

Question reference: S6W-33930

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were prosecuted on the suspicion of committing an offence listed in the (a) Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 and (b) Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007, in each year since 2021, broken down by offence.

The latest available information on convictions is for the financial year 2022-23.

(a)Number of people prosecuted under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation)(Scotland) Act 2003, where main crime, 2021-22 to 2022-23.

	2021-22	2022-23
Total prosecuted	1	4

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: data for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are affected by the pandemic, subsequent court closures, reduced court capacity due to physical distancing measures and delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, and may not be considered indicative of long term trends.

(b)There were no prosecutions under the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007, where main crime, between 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-33931

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were prosecuted on the suspicion of committing an offence listed in the Freshwater Fish Conservative (Prohibition on Fishing for Eels) (Scotland) Regulations 2008 in each year since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-34023

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost to maintain the national flags that it owns in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-33952

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many VisitScotland development managers were in post each December since 2018, and where each was located.

The following table captures current roles and locations and indicates whether the role has been in place since 2018:

Job Title	Contracted work base (current role-holder)	Role in place since 2018
Destination Development Director - Central/North-East – Including Tay Cities	Perth	Yes
Destination Development Director – Highlands & Islands	Inverness	Yes
Destination Development Director – South	Glasgow	Yes
Regional Director - Argyll & the Isles	Oban	Yes
Regional Director - Glasgow City	Glasgow	Yes
Regional Director - Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire & Moray Speyside	Aberdeen	Yes
Regional Director - Edinburgh & Lothians	Perth	Yes
Regional Director - Ayrshire & Forth Valley	Glasgow	Yes
Island Manager – Shetland	Lerwick	Yes
Island Manager - Orkney	Kirkwall	Yes
Island Manager – Outer Hebrides	Stornoway	Yes

Over time exact job titles and responsibilities have evolved. VisitScotland’s system does not allow point in time reporting required to share information for each December since 2018.

Year	Total maintenance cost
2019-20	£171,492
2020-21	£134,749
2021-22	£186,317
2022-23	£162,212
2023-24	£162,349