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-32745

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many 16-years and over are registered as being opted-in to the system for organ and tissue donation after death.

Question reference: S6W-32752

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many existing croft houses have been brought back into use through the Croft House Grant Scheme for each year since 2016, broken down by local authority area.

The information as requested is not available.

The house improvement option enables crofters to make both minor and significant improvements to their croft house. In 2023, we introduced energy efficiency measures, allowing crofters to apply for 80% grants of up to £38k, to improve the energy performance of their property and contribute to energy cost savings.

Area *	Croft House Grant Funding Awarded for House Improvements since 2016 (£)
Argyll	239,281.54
Barra	143,442.68
Caithness	78,416.36
Harris	72,473.60
Inverness	34,717,60
Lewis	622,726.37
North Uist	68,473.20
Ross-shire	84,022.80
Shetland	263,077.61
Skye	440,124.36
South Uist	232,556.44
Sutherland	379,751.92

*Figures are broken down by the Rural Payments and Inspections Division by area not by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-32726

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to enable Creative Scotland to allocate more funding to projects in the Highlands and Islands region.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £34m to the culture sector next financial year. This includes an additional £20 million for Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding programme. This will enable Creative Scotland to roll-out its multi-year funding programme from April 2025 – ensuring that the highest ever number of artists and organisations across Scotland including in the Highlands and Islands region receive regular funding. The Culture Collective programme will also be restarted which will benefit Scottish communities, community organisations, individual artists and freelancers.

Question reference: S6W-32725

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to enable the five National Performing Companie to increase the number of events that they host in the Highlands and Islands region.

The Scottish Government has committed a further £700k to the National Performing Companies this financial year and will provide an additional £1m as part of the £34m increase to culture sector funding next financial year. This will take them to the highest level of funding since 2010-11. This will enable the National Performing Companies to maintain and develop their productions across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-32722

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many productions organised by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra have taken place in (a) the Highlands and Islands region and (b) nationally in each year since 2021.

Since January 2021 the Scottish Chamber Orchestra has undertaken the following number of engagements in Scotland and in the Highlands and Islands:

Financial Year	No of total engagements across Scotland	No of engagements in Highlands and Islands	Details of engagements in Highlands and Islands
2021-2022	72	1	Inverness Family Concert
2022-2023	101	17	Elgin, Inverness*2, Drumnadrochit, Ballachulish, Kingussie, Findhorn and residency Shetland -10 engagements involving children from toddlers to secondary school pupils.
2023-2024	98	5	Kinlochleven, Findhorn, Fort Augustus, Elgin, Oban
2024-2025	103	7	Inverness*4, Thurso, Findhorn, Kinlochleven

Question reference: S6W-32720

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many productions organised by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra have taken place in (a) the Highlands and Islands region and (b) nationally in each year since 2021.

Since April 2021 the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has undertaken the following number of productions in Scotland and in the Highlands and Islands region:

Financial year	No of productions in Scotland	No of productions within Highlands and Islands	Details of engagements in Highlands and Islands
2021-2022	71	0	Inverness concert cancelled due to Omicron (Jan 2022)
2022-2023	105	1	Viennese Gala - Inverness
2023-2024	106	1	Viennese Gala - Inverness
2024-2025	88	2	Viennese Gala – Inverness, 09-01-2025 When Fish Began to Crawl – Inverness 28-01-2025

Question reference: S6W-32717

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21099 by Jenni Minto on 19 September 2023, how many of its pharmacist pre-registration training places were (a) available and (b) filled on 31 December (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022, (v) 2023 and (vi) 2024.

Question reference: S6W-32716

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many community pharmacies there were in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Grampian, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland and (e) Western Isles areas on 31 December (i) 2021, (ii) 2022, (iii) 2023 and (iv) 2024.

Question reference: S6W-33134

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 January 2025

A breakdown of successful and unsuccessful applications for the last four financial years has been provided in the following table as requested:

	Approved Applicants	Not Approved Applicants
2021	42	149
2022	23	49
2023	22	53
2024	17	45

Information on approved applications for the Regional Food Fund is published on the Scotland Food & Drink website and can be found at the following link: Regional Food Fund | Scotland Food & Drink.

Question reference: S6O-04221

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans for future agricultural support.

Date	Posts Available	Posts Filled
31 December 2019	200	200
31 December 2020	215	215
31 December 2021	235	214
31 December 2022	235	223
31 December 2023	235	216
31 December 2024	220	213

NHS Board	(i) 2021	(ii) 2022	(Iii) 2023	(iv) 2024
(a) Highland	132	132	131	130
(b) Grampian	83	85	83	81
(c) Orkney	4	4	4	4
(d) Shetland	5	5	5	5
(e) Western Isles	3	3	3	3