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-32793

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 20 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) NatureScot and (b) other relevant stakeholders about varying licence conditions for bird ringing, in relation to schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, to require prior landowner notification.

The Scottish Government has discussed the proposed new condition to schedule 1 licences with NatureScot on a number of occasions. The new condition will require prior notification to landowners, where reasonably practical, of all visits to nests, or other sites, potentially involving disturbance of schedule 1 birds.

NatureScot, as the licensing body, have discussed the additional licensing condition with a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Raptor Study Group, RSPB, British Ornithology Trust and the Scottish Gamekeeper’s Association.

In addition to this, I have met with some of the above stakeholders to discuss their concerns about the issue.

Question reference: S6W-32795

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on applying a cap to fishing activity in inshore waters, of up to three nautical miles, that will limit activity to current levels and set a ceiling from which activities that disrupt the seabed can be reduced.

In 2024 the Scottish Government launched the Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement Programme to develop a more agile, responsive and regional management framework. Our vision is that this framework will enable us to tailor a wider range of fisheries management tools to the changing needs of our marine environment and fishers, based on the best available scientific data.

This is a transformational project for inshore fisheries in Scotland, supporting delivery of locally appropriate management solutions. As such, the Scottish Government is not currently progressing proposals for a national cap on fishing activity in our inshore waters.

Question reference: S6W-32798

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it provides to prevent the closure of public libraries.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), which provides leadership and advice to Scottish Ministers, local authorities, and the wider libraries sector.

In 2024-2025 we have provided the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) with £665K from the Culture Budget, as recognition of the importance of our public libraries, and to support the excellent services they provide. In the 2025-26 budget the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) have been allocated £935K from the culture budget.

Public library policy is devolved to local authorities, they have a statutory duty to ensure there is adequate provision of library services for their residents.

The Scottish Government provided block grant funding of over £14 billion to Local Authorities in 2024-25, a real terms increase of 2.5 per cent. The 2025-26 Scottish Budget, published on 4 December 2024 provides local government in Scotland with record funding of over £15 billion, an increase of over £1 billion or a real terms increase of 4.7% compared to 2024-25.

Any decision around public libraries and other local services must be considered extremely carefully. We strongly encourage local authorities to work in partnership with communities to explore ways of delivering services, based on need.

Question reference: S6W-32860

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what licence conditions requiring prior landowner notification are applied in relation to each species under schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

At present the only existing licence condition applied by NatureScot for Schedule 1 species is for disturbance of any such species where the work is to be undertaken on a National Nature Reserve (NNR). This condition requires prior land owner notification before the work is carried out. No work authorised by this licence may be undertaken on a NNR without the prior permission of the NatureScot NNR Manager.

NatureScot intend to introduce a new condition to schedule 1 disturbance licences that will require prior land owner notification on all land for the forthcoming monitoring season.

Question reference: S6O-04226

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase access to thrombectomies in the Fife region, in light of the reported 1.9% increase in investment in the National Thrombectomy Service.

Question reference: S6W-32797

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to prevent so-called "ghost fishing".

“Ghost fishing” results from abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear and has a negative impact on our environment. Some loss is unavoidable because of weather, snagging or gear failure, and fishers make every effort to retrieve this gear where possible. Marine litter resulting from fishing gear is a shared global problem and we will continue our work in Scotland set out in our Marine Litter Strategy, and internationally through the Oslo Paris Convention (OSPAR) and the Global Ghost Gear Initiative to help tackle it.

Marine Directorate Coastal Offices currently operate a mechanism for reporting gear loss with an aim of helping fishers work together to recover and identify lost gear. Additionally, in 2020 we introduced The Gear Marking (Scotland) Order, which makes it a legal requirement for a fishing vessel to deploy buoys made for that purpose displaying their name and registration number. This builds on the Best Practice Guidance for Marking Static Fishing Gear we published in 2018 and gives the best possible chance for fishers to be reunited with displaced gear. We are also encouraging the industry to develop voluntary codes of conduct to reduce instances of gear conflict, and our national network of Regional Inshore Fisheries Groups are the correct medium for such proposals to be developed.

Throughout 2025 we will promote improved gear design to help reduce the risk of loss and resulting environmental impact using the European standard for circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment, published in November 2024. The standard will also support our work with industry to improve the collection and recycling of end-of-life fishing gear when it is brought ashore. We will use the learning from our extensive research over the last 3 years to develop policy options that could help our fleets with their waste management and support the growth of our circular economy. Fishers' professional training modules will continue to educate on the issue of plastic pollution and environmental impact. We will also continue to fund KIMO’s Fishing for Litter programme which is now active in 32 Scottish harbours, enabling the landing of passively caught waste including fishing gear, as well as encouraging responsible waste management.

The intentional disposal of gear at sea remains an offence covered by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) regulations which are enforced by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). We will continue to report information regarding intentional dumping from any fishing vessel through our intelligence system to the MCA.

Question reference: S6W-32534

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what level of carbon emissions a power generator can produce and still be considered "low-carbon".

Low Carbon electricity generation is defined for Scottish Government energy statistics reporting as electricity generated by renewable, nuclear or pumped hydro storage (PHS) technologies.

Most generation technologies are classified as low carbon by their type and there is no carbon threshold used to determine this classification.

Although nuclear power is designated as low carbon we do not support the building of new nuclear fission plants in Scotland under current technologies. Nuclear has high costs and provides poor value for money. It brings serious waste and environmental risks, and has long lead in times.

Question reference: S6W-32535

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the open letter signed by 30 climate organisations calling on it to order SSE and Equinor to resubmit an “honest assessment” of the full environmental impact of the proposed power station at Peterhead.

Question reference: S6W-32260

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost will be to deliver each local authority's 20mph speed limit implementation plan.

Question reference: S6W-32058

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation it has had with local authorities regarding the ScotRail proposal to reduce the opening hours of a number of station ticket offices, in light of the specific requirement for face-to-face sales of local authority concessionary fares.