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-08599

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any barriers that tenant crofters have in accessing Woodland Carbon Code funding, and, if so, what steps it is taking to address these issues.

The Scottish Government is taking steps to make it cost-effective for smaller projects to sell carbon credits under the Woodland Carbon Code, which will benefit crofters given crofts are generally much smaller units of land. It is recognised that the finance that could be available through the sale of carbon credits under the Code could make the difference between projects being viable or not viable. The Woodland Carbon Code Secretariat at Scottish Forestry has developed a ‘streamlined’ application process for small woodland creation projects (up to 5 hectares) which simplifies the prediction of carbon sequestration, reduces the requirement for regular plot surveys and has fewer requirements throughout the validation and verification process.

Projects can also be ‘grouped’ together by a project developer for validation and verification which further reduces cost. This removes some of the cost and administrative barriers for smaller projects. This could open the opportunity for crofters to form informal “co-operatives” where they wish to embark collectively on validating and verifying their projects, but any crofters wishing to do this would should contact Scottish Forestry or one of the WCC project developers for further guidance.

Scottish Forestry has also been working with both crofting and farming tenants through the Integrating Trees Network through a series of webinars allowing both crofters and tenant farmers to ask questions and find out more information about tree planting.

Question reference: S6O-01068

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the Just Transition will support Argyll and Bute's local economy through innovation in the renewables sector.

Question reference: S6F-01005

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 April 2022

To ask the First Minister what assurances the Scottish Government has had from the UK Government that the reported privatisation of Channel 4 will not negatively impact the development of the creative sector across Scotland and the growth of new Scottish talent.

Question reference: S6W-07235

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the current average level of transport spending per person in Scotland, and how this compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

The average public sector spending on transport in Scotland is estimated to have been £682 per person in 2019-20 compared to £487 in England and £398 in Wales. This is based on HM Treasury Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2021 and ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates for 2020.

In terms of personal spending on transport, average weekly household expenditure in Scotland on transport and vehicles in 2018-20 was £75.30. This compares to £84.00 in England and £78.10 in Wales. This is based on ONS data on household expenditure by country and region.

Question reference: S6W-06267

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Forestry Grant Scheme, how much woodland creation grant funding was provided for (a) conifer, (b) diverse conifer, (c) broadleaves, (d) native scots pine, (e) native upland birch, (f) native broadleaves, (g) native low density, (h) small or farm woodland and (i) Northern and Western Isles in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.

The Scottish Government has provided more than £124m to support woodland creation across Scotland over the last three years, delivering increasing levels of new planting towards the Scottish Government’s ambitious climate change and biodiversity targets. Table 1 shows how much funding has been provided in each of those years, broken down by the woodland creation type supported through the Forestry Grant Scheme, demonstrating our commitment to supporting a wide variety of forests and implementing the principle of “the right tree, in the right place, for the right reasons.”

FGS Woodland Creation Woodland Type	Value 2019-20 (£)	Value 2020-21 (£)	Value 2021-22 (£)
Conifer	18,046,767	21,128,526	23,786,429
Diverse Conifer	3,160,856	3,404,428	4,067,949
Broadleaves	2,452,692	2,253,688	3,032,404
Native Broadleaves	6,099,041	6,969,769	8,706,606
Native Scots Pine	2,349,413	2,514,959	2,758,930
Native Upland Birch	2,321,752	3,687,417	4,498,327
Small or Farm Woodlands	627,477	541,862	784,766
Native Broadleaves in Northern and Western Isles	157,273	149,196	176,398
Native Low Density	111,230	131,695	559,979

Table 1

Question reference: S6W-06266

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding native woodland planting, (a) how much grant funding was provided and (b) how many hectares were planted in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.

In the last three years the Scottish Government has provided more than £45 M of funding to support the planting of more than 13,200 hectares of native woodland. How much funding was committed, and how many hectares were planted in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is shown in the following table.

Year	Funding provided for Native WC Planting (£)	Native WC Planting Area (ha)
2019-20	12.3m	4,494
2020-21	14.8m	3,421
2021-22	18.2m	5,308 (estimate based upon contract commitments)

Question reference: S6O-00825

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how decisions are made regarding the location of dialysis units.

Question reference: S6O-00705

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, 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 it supports island communities with their connectivity to the mainland or other islands.

Question reference: S6O-00688

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans for a National Care Service.

Question reference: S6O-00617

Asked by: Jenni Minto, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 December 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve awareness of mental health.