- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21689 by Lorna Slater on 3 October 2023, whether (a) Palladium, (b) Lombard Odier or (c) Hampden and Co Bank is contracted by (i) Forestry and Land Scotland, (ii) Scottish Water, (iii) Cairngorms National Park and (iv) Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park to provide support in delivering peatland restoration works or in mobilising private finance into nature; what payments have been made to any of those parties in the (A) last financial year and (B) current financial year to date; what the (aa) value and (ab) duration is of any extant contracts, and what procurement process was followed to secure any such contractual arrangements that are in place.
Answer
No payments have been made to Lombard, Hampdens or Palladium from Forestry and Land Scotland or Scottish Water over the last two years. Both Cairngorms National Park Authority and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority have made payments to Palladium during this period.
Your question regarding what contracts are in place, their value, duration and procurement processes is on operational matters so I have asked the Chief Executives of the National Park Authorities to write to you addressing these points .
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what consultations have taken place to determine the parameters of a public interest test for land reform.
Answer
The consultation paper Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation sought views on several proposals for inclusion in a new Land Reform Bill. It included proposals for a Public Interest Test on certain land transfers, and set out the criteria for the type of landholdings that would be in scope for such a test. The consultation opened on 4 July 2022 and closed on 30 October 2022, asking a total of 51 questions. It also invited respondents to give us views on other ideas and proposals. Our proposals for the Public Interest Test were set out in Parts 4 and 7.
The consultation sought to gather views from a range of stakeholders and from members of the public across Scotland. As part of this we also undertook five in-person engagement events across Scotland with a further event taking place online.
Further information about the analysis of responses to the consultation, and the responses themselves, may be found here: Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space
The proposals for the Public Interest Test were developed in the light of a series of reports on the scale and concentration of land ownership in Scotland published by the Scottish Land Commission, which led to their discussion paper, Legislative proposals to address the impact of Scotland’s concentration of land ownership (February 2021).
Since the consultation we have commissioned analysis of the responses to it: these included a range of views and suggestions for the parameters of the Test. We have considered these responses carefully as we develop our proposals. We have also engaged, and will continue to engage, with a range of internal and external stakeholders over the Test, along with the other measures proposed for the Bill.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what models and approaches have been considered for delivering a public interest test for land reform.
Answer
The models and approaches that could be considered for delivering a public interest test for land reform were originally set out by the Scottish Land Commission in their discussion paper, Legislative proposals to address the impact of Scotland’s concentration of land ownership (published February 2021).
Based on the Scottish Land Commission’s recommendations, we put forward our proposals for a Public Interest Test on land transfers in our consultation document, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation (published July 2022).
The consultation opened on 4 July 2022 and closed on 30 October 2022, asking a total of 51 questions. It also invited respondents to give us views on other ideas and proposals. Our proposals for the criteria which would determine the types of landholdings that would be in scope for the Public Interest Test, and how the Test would be applied, were set out in Parts 4 and 7.
Since the consultation we have commissioned analysis of the responses to it. The responses included a range of views on models for/approaches to a Public Interest Test. We have considered these carefully as we take forward development of our proposals. We have also engaged, and will continue to engage, with a range of internal and external stakeholders over the Test, along with the other measures proposed for the Bill.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the refreshed Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan that it committed to publishing in its Programme for Government 2023-24, whether the (a) Far North, (b) Highland, (c) Kyle of Lochalsh, (d) West Highland and (e) Inverness-Aberdeen train line will be included in the refreshed plan.
Answer
As with the current Rail services Decarbonisation Action Plan, the refreshed plan will consider the decarbonisation of all rail routes in Scotland.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with its enterprise agencies regarding how to support innovation by small businesses, including in relation to the use of alternative fuels such as hydrotreated vegetable oil.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2023
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22383 by Michael Matheson on 3 November 2023, in relation to the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, what specific steps are (a) being taken and (b) planned to (i) improve rural primary care staff recruitment and (ii) skills development of remote and rural staff.
Answer
The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, for the first time, will combine rural specific workforce and service development, with research and evaluation into one National Centre.
The Centre’s initial focus is identifying and promoting approaches that improve rural and island primary care recruitment of staff including: increasing skills of remote and rural GPs and other practitioners to ensure there is the workforce capacity to deliver care close to home, develop further support networks and career development opportunities for rural practitioners and to support development of skilled mixed workforce teams.
Work has already begun on two key pieces of work, improved support and training for remote and rural dispensing practices and developing supervisory training hubs.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the cost is of the Highland Council's current backlog of outstanding road repairs, and what the cost was at the end of (a) 2022-23, (b) 2021-22, (c) 2020-21 and (d) 2019-20.
Answer
This is a matter for individual local authorities. The information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the full implementation costs were of joining the National Dashcam Safety Portal.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22833 on 23 November 2023. 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 .
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the cost associated with the National Dashcam Safety Portal pilot would have been (a) expected to have been paid from Police Scotland's existing budget and (a) provided by the Scottish Government.
Answer
In August 2021, Police Scotland submitted a bid to the Road Safety Framework Fund and received a grant offer of £300,000 for a National Dashcam Safety Portal (NDSP) pilot.
£21,732 of this funding was utilised to undertake initial scoping work on options and Transport Scotland retained the rest of the funding and used it to deliver other road safety measures aimed at reducing casualties on Scotland’s roads. The Scottish Government remained committed to delivering the initiative alongside Police Scotland, and ensured that the budget was available the following financial year.
However, as part of the scoping work, Police Scotland has now concluded that a stand-alone portal is neither the optimum nor best value route to create the capability for digital media to be submitted by members of the public. The Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) Programme, currently in pilot in Dundee, will make it easy for a member of the public to submit digital evidence as part of an investigation following a report to the police. DESC will enable development of further capabilities where scope to further improve the service to the public is identified.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 21 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the cost associated with the Digital Evidence Sharing Capability will be (a) expected to be paid from Police Scotland's existing budget and (b) provided by the Scottish Government.
Answer
The implementation cost of DESC is funded by Scottish Government. There is no cost expected to be paid from Police Scotland or other justice partners existing budget.
When DESC is fully implemented the lifetime management costs of DESC are expected to be met from justice partners, including Police Scotland. The efficiency benefits delivered by DESC are projected to offset these costs.
