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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 381 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-38955

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many wrasse have been taken from Loch Sunart since the wrasse fishery was regulated.

ICES statistical rectangle is the finest spatial resolution data that the Scottish Government hold on the number of individual wrasse extracted from an area. ICES statistical rectangles are approximately 30 nautical miles by 30 nautical miles in size.

Loch Sunart is contained within ICES statistical rectangle 42E4 along with other areas of sea. Therefore, it is not possible to deduce the number of individual wrasse specifically taken from Loch Sunart.

Wild wrasse fishing activity is not currently authorised in Sunart Special Area of Conservation.

Question reference: S6W-39124

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to engage with community-led initiatives, such as the Kyles Coastal Community Group’s campaign for clean seas, to ensure that local knowledge and priorities are reflected in marine protection and wastewater management policies.

Question reference: S6W-39125

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve the monitoring and public reporting of sewage discharges into coastal waters, particularly in rural communities such as those around the Kyles of Bute and Loch Riddon, in light of reported concerns regarding the frequency and impact of untreated sewage entering the marine environment.

Question reference: S6W-39126

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 30 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider supporting a pilot scheme for decentralised, community-scale sewage treatment systems in rural areas, such as the Kyles of Bute, in light of reports that such systems may offer more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective solutions than traditional mains infrastructure.

Question reference: S6W-38917

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) regarding the reported proposed sale of Armadale Castle and estate by the Clan Donald Lands Trust, in light of reports regarding complaints submitted by beneficiaries and public interest in the potential impact on community access.

Question reference: S6W-38592

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what assessment has been made of the impact of the email quarantine system on the efficiency of staff management of MSP inboxes.

The Parliament email system receives approximately 700,000 email messages sent to Members every month, and like every modern organisation, the Parliament utilises automated tools to identify and manage unsolicited email messages including ransomware, phishing and spam emails.

With the automated tools we use we have a high degree of confidence that the email messages identified are spam emails or contain harmful content such as viruses or ransomware. These messages will then be blocked automatically and not delivered to Members mailboxes. Messages automatically identified as spam email, but with a lower level of confidence are delivered to the quarantine area where they can be viewed and released if appropriate.

The SPCB recognises that releasing quarantined email is challenging for their staff who have delegate access to a Members mailbox due to the way our email system works. We have raised our concerns with the supplier and our officials are investigating ways of best managing the issue.

Question reference: S6W-38965

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Wild Wrasse Fishery report that covers 2023.

Question reference: S6W-38945

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will mandate the reporting and publication of cleaner fish mortalities on salmon farms, in light of reports that Fish Health Inspectorate inspections indicate that these are already recorded by farms.

Question reference: S6W-38663

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 25 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Improving Public Access grants, which were suspended in 2022, are reportedly not going to be included in the Tier 3 rural payments scheme.

While Improving Public Access (IPA) is not currently included in Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) or Tier 3 of the Agricultural Reform Programme (ARP), the historical impact of the scheme is acknowledged, with over £12 million committed to 181 contracts between 2015 and 2022. No final decision has yet been taken regarding the future of IPA grants or their inclusion within the new Tier 3 of ARP. The design of the future rural support framework is still ongoing, and while the focus of Tier 3 will be on delivering the outcomes set out in the Vision for Agriculture, this does not preclude consideration of how access improvements might be supported through alternative mechanisms.

Question reference: S6W-38662

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37289 by Alasdair Allan on 13 May 2025, in which it stated that “the revised policy statement for the protection of natural features on Ramsar sites will be published on the Scottish Government web-site shortly”, whether it will set out specifically by when the statement will be published, in light of a month having passed since its previous answer.

The position outlined in the answer to S6W-37289 on 13 May 2025 remains that the revised policy statement for the protection of natural features on Ramsar sites will be published at the earliest opportunity.

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