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-41554

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) onshore and (b) offshore wind turbines it anticipates will be decommissioned in each of the next five years.

Question reference: S6W-41487

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any funding awarded to organisations from the Community Energy Generation Growth Fund has ever had to be paid back, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.

The ‘Community Energy Generation Growth Fund’, administered through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), was first launched in 2024 and supports community groups to develop their own renewable energy projects, including wind and solar PV projects.

Since inception, no funding awarded through the ‘Community Energy Generation Growth Fund’ has been paid back. This is because CARES does not issue grant funding as an upfront lump sum. Instead, funds are only released upon receipt of a valid claim, backed by appropriate evidence. As a result, the scenario of having to recover funds from recipients has not arisen.

Question reference: S6W-41550

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many ministerial directions it has issued in each year since 2021, broken down by the reason for each being issued.

Since 2021 there have been two occasions where Accountable Officers for parts of the Scottish Administration have formally sought written authority (often referred to as ministerial direction). Both were regarding Fergusson Marine (Port Glasgow) and written authority was sought in relation to value for money.

The details of these, and all written authorities since devolution, are published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/collections/written-authorities-from-scottish-ministers/

Question reference: S6W-41553

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) onshore and (b) offshore wind turbines have been decommissioned in each year since 2021.

While the Scottish Government holds some information in relation to the decommissioning of wind turbines it does not hold or collate an overall dataset for onshore and offshore turbines.

It may be helpful to know, according to the UK Government’s Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) there are no Scottish onshore or offshore wind sites in the database recorded as decommissioned since 2021. However, the caveat to this data is that the entire site needs to be decommissioned for the development status to change to ‘decommissioned’ in the database.

Question reference: S6W-41485

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any funding awarded to organisations from the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme has ever had to be paid back, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.

Question reference: S6W-41486

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applications to the Community Energy Generation Growth Fund there have been in each year since 2024, broken down by local authority area.

The Community Energy Generation Growth Fund, administered through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), was first launched in 2024 and supports community groups to develop their own renewable energy projects, including wind and solar PV projects.

As of 30 October 2025, a total of 122 applications have been received to the fund since inception. Of this, 95 applications were approved for funding and 25 were not approved, and 2 were deferred for further consideration

A breakdown by local authority area is provided in the following table:

Local Authority Area	Approved	Not approved for funding
Aberdeen City	*	*
Aberdeenshire	6
Argyll and Bute	8	*
City of Edinburgh	6	*
Comhairle nan Eilean	9
Dumfries and Galloway	*
Dundee City Council	*
East Ayrshire	*	*
East Lothian	*
East Renfrewshire		*
Fife	*	*
Glasgow City	8	*
Highland	8	6
Midlothian	*	*
Moray	*
North Ayrshire	6	*
North Lanarkshire	*
Orkney Islands	*	*
Perth and Kinross	*	*
Renfrewshire	*
Scottish Borders	*
Shetland Islands	*
South Ayrshire	*
South Lanarkshire	*	*
Stirling	*	*
Various	*
West Dunbartonshire	*
West Lothian	*
Grand Total	95	25

Notes:

1.To preserve the anonymity of individual projects, all local authority awards totalling five or fewer have been redacted in accordance with disclosure control principles.[1]

2.An additional two applications were deferred, as detailed in the written response.

3.Where awards are listed as 'various', they were granted to organisations operating across multiple local authority areas.

[1] 4.5 Protect the confidentiality of individual and business information when producing statistics. Be transparent about the choices made in line with the producer’s published confidentiality policy and apply appropriate disclosure control methods before release
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/blog/guidance-type/short-guide/.

Anonymisation guidance applied is per Government Guidance:
Anonymisation and data confidentiality – Government Analysis Function

Question reference: S6W-41551

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 6 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many onshore wind turbines are (a) in active operation and (b) inactive across Scotland.

The Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) records the progress of renewable electricity projects over 150kW as they move through the planning system. According to this data there are currently 4216 onshore wind turbines in active operation across Scotland.

Please note that there was a minimum installed capacity threshold for inclusion into the REPD of 1MW until 2021, at which point it was lowered to 150kW. This means that projects below 1MW that were going through the planning system before 2021 may not be represented in the REPD database.

The Scottish Government does not hold or collate data on inactive wind turbines.

Question reference: S6W-41483

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applications to the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme there have been in each year since 2023, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-41507

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Hospital at Home service is currently available in each NHS board area in the Highlands and Islands region.

All NHS territorial boards in the Highlands and Islands region have been allocated funding as part of the additional £200m Operational Improvement Plan investment to deliver and expand their Hospital at Home services.

All territorial boards are currently providing a Hospital at Home service. Some of these services are more established while others are still developing. What matters most is that these services are proportionate to the population's needs and effectively connected to community support, enabling people to receive safe and timely care, in the most appropriate location.

Question reference: S6W-41331

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications in each local authority area are currently under review by the Energy Consents Unit.

Details of applications in each local authority area currently under review for consideration by the Energy Consents Unit are as follows:

Local Planning Authority	Section 36 applications (electricity generating station)
Aberdeenshire	3
Dumfries and Galloway	6
East Ayrshire	1
East Lothian	1
Highland	5
Midlothian	1
Moray	4
Scottish Borders	1
South Ayrshire	3
South Lanarkshire	3
Stirling	1

Local Planning Authority	Section 37 applications (overhead lines)
Angus	1
East Renfrewshire	1
Fife	1
Perth and Kinross	2