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: S6F-03526

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet.

Question reference: S6F-03520

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2024

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S6W-30973

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which community radio stations it has asked to run public information adverts in each of the last five years, broken down by the amount received by each community radio station from the Scottish Government.

Below is a list of the community radio stations that the Scottish Government has run public information advertisements on over the last five years, alongside the total annual spend for each year. Spend per individual community station is classed as commercially sensitive and as such we are unable to provide this level of detail.

April 2020 - March 2021 - Total spend: £214,731

Argyll Radio
Awaz FM
Caithness FM
Cuillin FM/Skye
Heartland FM
Isles FM
K107FM
Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
Nevis Radio
Oban FM
Panjab Radio
Pulse 98.4
Radio Ramadan
Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2021 - March 2022 – Total spend: £405,912

Alive FM
Argyll Radio
Awaz FM
Caithness FM
Cuillin FM/Skye
Heartland FM
Isles FM
K107FM
Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
Mearns FM
Nevis Radio
Oban FM
Panjab Radio
Pulse 98.4
Radio Ramadan
Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2022- March 2023 – Total spend: £74,008

Argyll Radio
Awaz FM
Caithness FM
Cuillin FM/Skye
Heartland FM
Isles FM
Jambo Radio
Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
Nevis Radio
Oban FM
Panjab Radio
Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company
Waves Radio 101.2FM

April 2023 - March 2024 – Total spend: £69,029

Argyll Radio
Awaz FM
Caithness FM
Cuillin FM/Skye
Heartland FM
Isles FM
Jambo Radio
K107FM
Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
Nevis Radio
Oban FM
Panjab Radio
Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

April 2024 – October 2024 spend to date Total spend: £14,438

Argyll Radio
Awaz FM
Caithness FM
Cuillin FM/Skye
Heartland FM
Isles FM
Jambo Radio
Lochbroom/ Two Lochs
Nevis Radio
Oban FM
Panjab Radio
Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

Question reference: S6W-30970

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that bodies delivering public services record incidents of violence against staff, including with a breakdown by sex.

It is the responsibility of individual public bodies to ensure they have procedures in place for the recording of violent incidents and policies for staff welfare. The Scottish Government would strongly encourage staff to report all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour through their local reporting systems. If it is a serious incident, we expect employers to fully support staff in escalating issues to Police Scotland as quickly as possible.

It is important for public bodies to capture data on protected characteristics when staff report instances of violence. This kind of data will help inform targeted interventions on a national and local level.

Question reference: S6W-30981

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what new measures it plans to take to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy that is fully community-owned, as part of meeting its ambition to reach 2GW of community- and locally-owned energy by 2030.

The Scottish Government is more than halfway towards achieving our ambition for 2GW of community and locally owned energy by 2030, with an estimated 1,028 MW of community and local renewable energy capacity operational in Scotland at the end of December 2023. We are taking action to continue to help ensure people and communities benefit from the energy transition, including support for community and locally owned energy.

In 2024-5, the Scottish Government’s Community Energy Generation Growth Fund awarded up to £1.5 million in grants to community groups across Scotland to develop their own renewable energy projects. We are also taking action to increase ownership opportunities. Through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) we provide online guidance, resources, and support to access funding and contractors to enable communities to engage with shared ownership opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-30983

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its timeline for developing a framework to support shared ownership of renewables, as proposed within the onshore wind sector deal, and whether there will be opportunities for the community sector to meaningfully engage with this process.

We are committed to working with the community sector and other stakeholders to ensure the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland. This includes shared ownership, which has a vital role to play in a just transition by giving communities the chance to make an investment in a commercially owned renewable energy project.

Through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) we provide online guidance, resources, and support to access funding and contractors to enable communities to engage with shared ownership opportunities. Building on the progress we have made to date, the Scottish Government is progressing work on the commitment in the Onshore Wind Sector Deal to develop a framework of practical approaches to support and encourage community shared ownership models, to assist communities, and developers and funders to engage in shared ownership opportunities. There will be opportunities for the community sector to engage with this process as work progresses.

Question reference: S6W-30969

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that bodies delivering public services are protecting employees from violence.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of reducing violence against employees of bodies delivering public services. In addition to work undertaken by public bodies themselves, we are currently working on a range of targeted initiatives including:

Invested over £4 million in the delivery and implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework, including supporting the Mentors in Violence Prevention school-based programme.
Published a joint action plan with COSLA to tackle violence towards staff in educational establishments.
Co-chairing Your Safety Matters (YSM) External Partners Group (EPG).
Promoting the Equally Safe at Work (ESAW) employer accreditation programme.

Question reference: S6W-30820

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners in HMP Barlinnie have tested positive for drugs use in each year from 2022.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Scottish Prison Service conducts Mandatory Drug Tests (MDTs) via urine testing, for two primary reasons, progression as part of the risk assessment process, and when an individual is suspected of taking an illicit substance, through suspicion testing.

MDT urine testing can only detect certain substances, and many new synthetic substances such as Psychoactive Substances (PS) are undetectable via this testing method.

The application of The Management of an Offender at Risk (MORS) policy, is applied when an individual is suspected to be under the influence of or have an unknown substance secreted on their person. This policy is in place to care and support individual’s during this time and is not used or considered as a positive test.

Most MDTs carried out in HMP Barlinnie since 2022 were conducted for progression reasons:

Year	No of individuals testing positive
2022	9
2023	32
2024 (up to and including 25 October)	5

Question reference: S6W-30828

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the minutes of meetings of the Digital Economy Skills Group since 2023.

Question reference: S6W-30578

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 11 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it met the offshore wind developer, Flotation Energy, prior to April 2023, and how many times it has met since then.

As part of normal practice in processing any marine licence or section 36 consent application, officials from the Marine Directorate Licensing Operations Team will meet with applicants and as such, have met with Flotation Energy on multiple occasions for the projects they are developing, both before and after April 2023. Meeting arrangements between MD-LOT and applicants are set out on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marine-licensing-and-consenting-offshore-renewable-energy-projects/pages/meeting-arrangements-with-md-lot/

Offshore Wind Directorate officials have also met with Flotation Energy multiple times, including at conferences and as part of regular stakeholder engagement, to discuss opportunities and challenges of their projects and the wider offshore wind sector.

Ministers meet developers as part of regular engagement with the renewables sector. For example, the Deputy First Minister met Flotation Energy in September 2024 to discuss supply chain opportunities, the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy attended an Offshore Energies UK Roundtable in January 2024, at which the Flotation Energy CEO was present and the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy met with the Flotation CEO in March 2023 to discuss Flotation Energy’s plans for offshore wind developments in Scotland.