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-32016

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the 2024 report to the Parliament on the Marine Protected Area network, in line with its requirements under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Question reference: S6W-32015

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any progress that it has made against the actions set out in the document, Delivering Scotland's Blue Economy Approach.

Delivering Scotland's Blue Economy Approach committed to mainstreaming blue economy thinking across the Marine Directorate and our wider work. To highlight some examples of this, it is evidenced in our approach to marine funding channels where we look to maximise private investment and since 2021, the Marine Fund Scotland has awarded £55 million in grants, enabling £120 million of investment, progressing blue economy outcomes. The Marine and Science Innovation Strategy embeds the Blue Economy Vision, furthering our evidence base, and blue economy outcomes are steering the development of Scotland's new National Marine Plan, influencing stakeholder engagement and how its monitoring and evaluating framework develops, helping to deliver our Vision.

Question reference: S6W-31917

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31416 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024, how many of the 30 remaining Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) graduates who chose not to take up GPST 1 posts (a) took up and (b) did not take up other roles in the NHS.

Further to the published answer to question S6W-31416 there were 35 students who had not taken up a GPST post in Scotland (including three still in foundation training).

The data below indicates the destination of these students:

Training post in NHS Scotland (excluding 10 GPST)	6
Clinical Fellow post in NHS Scotland	11
Post in NHS England	8
Total	25

The destination of the remaining seven is currently unknown.

Question reference: S6W-31918

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31416 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2024, within which NHS boards the remaining eight individuals that chose to take up GPST 1 posts are placed.

Question reference: S6O-04123

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its Marine Directorate monitors international fishing vessels.

Question reference: S6W-31895

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes that have been returned to use through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership in each year since 2010 were in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-31894

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many empty properties are currently in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Household estimates showing the total number of dwellings and long-term empty properties by the Scottish Government 8-fold rural classification are published on the National Records of Scotland website - [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Household and Dwelling Estimates by Urban Rural Classification (2011 Data Zone based) | National Records of Scotland. Data for council areas are available in the Data file for the publication Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2023 (total dwellings – table 2, long-term empty properties – table 6c). The latest data are for 2023.

Please note that the links take you to the archived version of the National Records of Scotland website. A new version of the website launched this month but is not yet fully populated with content from the previous website.

Question reference: S6W-31896

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties in the Highlands and Islands region are currently in areas classed as (a) large urban areas, (b) other urban areas, (c) accessible small towns, (d) remote small towns, (e) very remote small towns, (f) accessible rural areas, (g) remote rural areas and (h) very remote rural areas, as per the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, also broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-31759

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the MV Caledonian Isles was withdrawn from service, and when it is expected to return to service.

The MV Caledonian Isles entered dry dock for her annual overhaul at Dales, Greenock on 4 January 2024. The vessel moved to Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead on 11 February 2024 for additional steel works to be undertaken. She departed there on 14 September 2024 and was due to return to service on the on 23 September 2024. However, engineers identified metallic debris in the oil filter for the Port propulsion gearbox and she has remained off service. The vessel is currently at James Watt Dock Greenock undergoing further investigative works. As a precaution and to allow contingency measures to be put in place on affected routes CalMac have planned for the vessel being unavailable for the duration for the winter timetable period which ends on 27 March 2025.

CalMac anticipate having a more detailed estimate of the timing of the required work in the coming weeks.

Question reference: S6W-31760

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of repairs to the MV Caledonian Isles has been to date, broken down by year, and what the total anticipated costs are going forward.

The maintenance costs for MV Caledonian Isles for the past three years are included within the following table:

Contract Year	Period	£000's
CY 6	01-10-2021 - 30-09-2022	1,955
CY 7	01-10-2022 - 30-09-2023	1,977
CY 8	01-10-2023 - 30-09-2024	8,310	*
		12,242	*
* includes £6.8m of additional steelwork and gear box repair work.

The anticipated costs going forward for MV Caledonian Isles are included within the following table:

Contract year 9 costs	£000s
P7	596
P8	131
24-25 overhaul costs (deferred**)	1,071
Open POs	1,143
Total committed and incurred costs CY 9	2,941
*included in the above is £1.1m of additional costs.
**incurred in preparation of overhaul being completed in January/February 2025.

NHS Tayside	2 trainees
NHS Forth Valley	2 trainees
NHS Lothian	1 trainee
NHS Fife	1 trainee
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1 trainee
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1 trainee