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-04005

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the impact on agriculture in Scotland, what its response is to the removal of ring-fenced agricultural support funding for devolved nations by the UK Government.

Question reference: S6W-31033

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has revised its estimate of how many taxpayers fall into each Scottish income tax band since the publication of the 2024-25 Scottish Budget and, if so, whether it will publish this.

Scottish Government relies on estimates of the number of taxpayers by tax band using forecasts provided by the Scottish Fiscal Commission. The most recent estimate for 2024-25 was published in December 2023 and can be found here: Chapter 4 – Tax – Supplementary Figures. The Scottish Fiscal Commission will publish their five-year Economic and Fiscal forecasts alongside the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26 on 4 December which will include updated forecasts for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-31118

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support Aberdeen’s role as a global renewable energy hub.

The Scottish Government has committed up to £500 million strategic investment over five years, to leverage private investment in critical offshore wind infrastructure and supply chain.

Additional support for energy transition in Aberdeen and the North East region is also being provided through:

The Just Transition Fund, through which we have allocated up to £75 million across the North East region to support projects, including the Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund helping supply chain companies to transition and access new net zero and global business opportunities, and the Offshore Energy Skills Passport aiding the cross sector transferability of the offshore energy workforce.
The Energy Transition Fund, which is supporting four major projects in Aberdeen and the North East region. These include supporting development in Aberdeen of the Energy Transition Zone, providing the necessary facilities and investment opportunities to attract renewable energy manufacturing companies and the creation of the Global Underwater Hub, to provide sub sea supply chain companies with access to multiple sector markets worldwide.

Question reference: S6W-31123

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the Cowal and Rosneath Community Needs Assessment by Transport Scotland on 11 September 2024, and the completion of the associated consultation exercise on 9 October 2024, whether it will confirm the cost of providing the assessed excessive service level between Gourock and Dunoon.

The independent Cowal and Rosneath Community Needs Assessment concluded that there is evidence of over-provision on the Gourock-Dunoon passenger ferry service in terms of sailings per day and in terms of the length of the operating day in winter. The Assessment does not calculate the cost of the over-provision. There are several options considered to address the findings and the preferred approach and associated costs will be determined in due course.

Question reference: S6W-31032

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted any analysis of the impact of reducing Scottish income tax on economic growth and, if so, what the outcome was.

The Scottish Government analyses a range of impacts, including on the economy, when considering Income Tax policy options during the annual budget process. We also closely monitor the impacts of our existing policies on revenues, taxpayers, and the economy. Scottish Income Tax performance remains strong – Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK in both tax and earnings growth for both 2022-23 and 2023-24. Scottish Income Tax policy for 2025-26 will be announced during the annual Budget process.

Question reference: S6W-31034

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of public-sector workers that pay more in income tax than they would if they lived elsewhere in the UK.

Question reference: S6W-31122

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action has been taken to meet the commitment for Transport Scotland to explore freight issues in more detail by revisiting the Freight Fares Review, as set out in the Islands Connectivity Plan - Strategic Approach, published in January 2024.

The draft Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) Strategic Approach was published for public consultation from 1 February 2024 to 6 May 2024. The draft proposed that we would revisit the Freight Fares Review in the medium to longer term.

The purpose of the consultation was to gather feedback on our proposals and test our understanding of the priority issues facing island transport connectivity and ferry services in particular.

The outputs from the consultation and engagement will support the finalisation of the ICP which will set out our plans for taking forward ferry fares policy.

Question reference: S6W-31109

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that most local authorities are unable to deliver instrumental music tuition to all interested school pupils and are operating waiting lists for instrumental music tuition due to capacity issues, what urgent action it can take to resolve this.

The most recent Instrumental Music Services Survey 2023 Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) (published in December 2023) confirmed that the number of pupils accessing free instrumental music tuition was the highest on record since the survey began in 2012.

It is for individual councils to make decisions about their own provision. For those local authorities which do operate waiting lists, it is clearly important that they work to accommodate as many interested pupils as possible.

Question reference: S6W-31073

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25927 by Natalie Don on 14 March 2024, whether it will provide an updated table regarding how much Disclosure Scotland has spent on employing temporary staff, based on the latest information available.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland, to respond. His response is as follows:

The spend on employing temporary staff in the 9 month period of January to September 2024 was £7,504,000. The spend on employing temporary staff from 2012-2023 was provided in the answer to question S6W-25927 on 14 March 2024. 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.

To note, these figures relate to both agency staff and contractors.

Question reference: S6W-31084

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 20 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) consideration had been given to and (b) action it will take regarding Dogs Trust's calls to raise the minimum legal age for dogs travelling non-commercially into the UK to help tackle any illegal puppy smuggling.

The Scottish Government continues to support measures to raise the minimum legal age for dogs travelling non-commercially into the UK, having obtained legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament for this to be taken forward under the UK Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill before this was withdrawn by the UK Government in May 2023, and having agreed in principle to seek legislative consent for the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill before this fell due to the dissolution of the UK Parliament in May 2024.

The Scottish Government maintains that to ensure consistency of approach and the most effective outcomes, these measures would best be delivered by a UK Parliament bill. To this end, Scottish Government officials continue to engage with DEFRA on the possibility of legislation in the UK parliament to raise the minimum legal age of dogs travelling non-commercially into the UK, along with other animal welfare measures relating to the transport of pets.