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-42129

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 4 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6T-02727 by Jim Fairlie on 4 November 2025, when it will publish further details of the awards made under the Future Farming Investment Scheme.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-42039 and S6W-42047 on 1 December 2025.

Regarding the allocation of funding to island based businesses, priority status alone did not guarantee funding; investments also had to demonstrate strong alignment with scheme objectives and deliver measurable outcomes. Delivering on the scheme objectives was the most important element of scoring and this approach was designed with stakeholders, including the NFUS.

Many applicants from priority groups applied for standard items of agricultural equipment, mainly for general livestock management, which, while not deemed ineligible, when assessed against other capital investments did not demonstrate strong delivery against the scheme’s objectives. Examples included cattle clippers, sheep shearing machines, footbaths, water troughs, creep feeders, self-locking feed barriers, and feed storage bins.

Although these items are useful for routine livestock management, they were assessed as providing limited measurable benefit in terms of improving environmental performance, resource efficiency, or climate outcomes. For smaller businesses, these capital investments can represent meaningful improvements, however within a competitive assessment framework they did not score as highly as proposals that delivered more substantial benefits in line with the schemes purpose and objectives.

Many people will be disappointed if they were not successful, but there are many others who were and will share in £21 million that will make a real difference to their business. The following table provides a summary of items grant offers were issued for, demonstrating positive investment in the sector and supply chains to deliver on environmental performance, resource efficiency, and climate outcomes.

Category	Number of Investments Supported	Total Grant Value (£)
Livestock Handling and Weighing Equipment	915	£ 5,694,830.39
Precision Farming Equipment	284	£ 2,530,230.36
Soil Health Equipment	145	£ 1,695,552.90
Slurry Handling and Spreading Equipment	108	£ 1,410,649.63
Water Efficiency Equipment	177	£ 1,477,182.74
Efficient Feeding of Livestock Equipment	84	£ 1,178,298.11
Livestock Comfort Equipment	165	£ 1,535,480.88
Sustainable Grassland Improvement Equipment	189	£ 1,293,011.92
Livestock Feeding and Feed Handling Equipment	353	£ 1,299,048.96
Biodiversity and Habitat Enhancement	293	£ 800,281.81
Livestock Health Monitoring Equipment	76	£ 589,051.32
Crop Management - Moisture and Temperature Monitoring	114	£ 590,782.22
Environmental Management - Livestock Grazing Control	58	£ 475,468.00
Grazing Management Equipment	207	£ 405,462.87
Livestock Improved Ventilation Equipment	48	£ 320,395.37
Livestock EID Equipment	305	£ 281,858.42
Efficient Dairy Farming Equipment	19	£ 153,504.50
Livestock Standard Management and Care Equipment	113	£ 127,337.91
Energy Efficiency Equipment - Grassland Management	52	£ 107,511.18
Livestock Management Remote Monitoring Equipment - Cameras	56	£ 61,162.45
Livestock Management Remote Monitoring Equipment - Drones	23	£ 58,651.68
Energy Efficiency Equipment - Lighting	28	£ 33,790.67
Efficient Livestock Health Treatment Equipment	32	£ 26,403.00
Environment Monitoring Equipment	9	£ 16,294.98
Livestock Improved Welfare Equipment	28	£ 12,564.20
Wildlife Monitoring Equipment	3	£ 1,800.00

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

Question reference: S6W-42282

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the 15% increase in thefts from shops, as reported in the latest Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics, and what its position is on future funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce.

Question reference: S6W-42215

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, on what date in 2026 it will launch its new app to “help people access personalised public services more easily”.

Question reference: S6W-42216

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release, Harnessing data and technology to revolutionise public services, on 20 November 2025, when its planned digital public services app will introduce a digital proof of age.

Question reference: S6W-41856

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-05134 by Angela Constance on 12 November 2025, what work has been done to establish a cross-sector coalition aimed at protecting children from online violence and abuse.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people in Scotland are safe and supported in their online lives. We recognise the significant risks posed by harmful online content and the importance of robust regulation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and exposure to inappropriate material.

We also recognise that real progress can only be achieved through partnership working, bringing together the knowledge, skills and expertise required to prevent and reduce the effects of online harm, informed by lived experience.

To help prevent violence, including online, and reduce its harm, the Scottish Government supports the work of multiple cross sector partnerships with justice, education, health and across communities. This includes the work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence and Youthlink Scotland, who have collaborated to create a Quit Fighting for Likes campaign to support front line practitioners working with young people, to encourage conversations about their online experiences, including discussions on the impact of filming and sharing harmful violent content online.

In 2024, the Scottish Government established the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group - gov.scot, which comprises of operational partners, including Police Scotland, and other expert stakeholders from the statutory, third-sector, academic and service delivery organisations, to review current actions and agree where additional focus is needed to better protect children from abuse and exploitation, including online-enabled harm. This group’s overarching priority is prevention and will work together to identify priorities and actions to more effectively prevent, disrupt and provide support to victims of child sexual abuse and their families, including those facing online harms.

In January 2025, I announced the establishment of an Online Safety Taskforce to strengthen our approach to keeping children safe online, providing oversight and direction to work being undertaken across Scottish Government, and identifying what more can be done to protect children and young people. A responsibility that I and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety as Ministerial leads take very seriously.

The Taskforce is currently considering how engagement on the government’s overarching approach to online harm can be enhanced further to support a more joined up dialogue with stakeholders including the third sector and those with lived experience.

Question reference: S6W-41857

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 27 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of removing peak ferry fares on routes that it supports through public service contracts, including the Northern Isles Ferry Services.

Question reference: S6W-41811

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) legal and (b) illegal sewage discharges there have been in Argyll coastal waters in each of the last five years, and what estimate it has made of the expected number of such discharges by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-41814

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has been reported that not all sewage discharge points in Argyll and Bute are monitored.

Question reference: S6W-41812

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) schools and (b) (i) hospital and (ii) other buildings were damaged during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, also broken down by what assessment it has made of how much it will cost to repair these, and what additional resources it has provided to assist with this.

Question reference: S6W-41820

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 25 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of drug misuse or possession have been recorded within Scottish prisons in each of the last five years.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service does not record instances of drug misuse. Included in the following table are incidents of Drug Possession:

Year	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Number of incidents of Drug Possession*	90	430	279	445	324

*The figures represent recorded instances of illegal/unauthorised drugs this may include non-prescribed medications.