- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Answer expected on 6 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been released from prison (a) from short-term sentences and (b) on remand in each of the last five years.
Answer
Answer expected on 6 March 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted an analysis of any potential economic impact on Scottish businesses of the disparity in transmission impact assessment thresholds between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain.
Answer
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on Scotland's net zero targets of maintaining the current 200-kilowatt threshold for transmission impact assessments.
Answer
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) the National Energy System Operator, (b) ScottishPower Energy Networks, (c) Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and (d) the UK Government regarding the disparity in transmission impact assessment thresholds between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain.
Answer
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
-
Current Status:
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what powers it has to influence grid management in Scotland, and whether it has assessed the possibility of using any such powers to align Scottish transmission impact assessment thresholds with those in England and Wales.
Answer
Answer expected on 4 March 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 22 January 2024, Early learning and childcare (ELC): provision for 1 and 2 year olds in Scotland, whether it will provide an update on progress with the implementation of this commitment, and by what date this will be fully implemented.
Answer
Keeping children in Scotland out of poverty is the First Minister’s and this government’s top priority and we recognise how important both early learning and school age childcare are in supporting families. That is why we continue prioritise our investment of around £1 billion per year in delivering funded ELC to all eligible children. And as a result, families across Scotland have been benefitting from the provision of 1140 hours of high quality ELC since 2021. We also committed in the 2024 Programme for Government to work with local authorities to maximise the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds.
We are now working with local authorities and the Improvement Service on a National Improvement Project which will take focussed action in five local authorities as well as seek out and promote good practice to increase uptake for eligible two year olds across all local authority areas.
We are also progressing our early adopter community (EAC) work in six local authorities, backed by £16 million between 2024-25 and 2025-26. The EACs are expanding access to affordable childcare for low-income families with children from the early years through to the end of primary school and evaluating the difference this can make.
This expansion includes continued investment in four EACs established in 2022 in Dundee, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow and Inverclyde, as well as further expansion into new communities in Fife and Shetland.
Ultimately, it will help us to understand what it takes to design and deliver local childcare systems that support those families most at risk of living in poverty.
We have undertaken two key pieces of research, which were published last year. The first was work to map current ELC provision for younger children in Scotland and the second a literature review undertaken by Public Health Scotland. The purpose of this work was to help us understand and identify what models of ELC are best for younger children.
The evidence suggests that attending high quality formal childcare can have benefits for children’s cognitive development. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds were found to benefit most from early access to formal childcare. However, the evidence of benefits for social, emotional and behavioural outcomes is more limited and mixed. The findings from this research supports taking a considered approach to policy development so that we understand what is right for families with children under three.
We will continue to build on this early insights work by piloting new approaches via funding from the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to test models of holistic family support, learning from our EACs and reviewing current evidence.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving our existing funded ELC offer and to taking the time needed to deliver a childcare expansion that is both fair and affordable, giving children the best possible start in life and supporting parents and carers to work, train and take up education opportunities.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a specific timeline for the launch of the delayed cruise ship levy consultation.
Answer
The Scottish Government plans to launch a formal public consultation on a potential local authority cruise ship levy in Scotland in February this year.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of which actions in the Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan 2024-2030 are specifically targeted to restore and manage species-rich grasslands.
Answer
The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) notes that “Scotland’s uplands (above the limits of enclosed farmland) comprise a range of habitats including … species-rich grasslands” and that there has been a substantial long term decline in species-rich grasslands. The SBS Delivery Plan is intended to drive the restoration and improvement of habitats across Scotland, many of which are not mentioned explicitly.
Objective 1 of the Delivery Plan: Accelerate Restoration and Regeneration includes as a Priority Action: Introduce a programme of ecosystem restoration. There are five species-rich grassland habitats on the current Scottish Biodiversity List, and action 20.1 - revision of the Scottish Biodiversity List - is also therefore relevant. Other actions relevant to species-rich grasslands, include:
Ref: | Action |
2.5 | Develop upland-specific, best practice guidance on measures for upland restoration to regenerate peatlands, increase nature woodland cover, manage grazing, protect certain target species and priority habitats and increase habitat heterogeneity |
2.9 | Marine & coastal ecosystem restoration – machair and other grasslands |
5.3 | Explore how best to support optimal herbivore densities to enhance biodiversity outcomes in the uplands. |
11 | Actions to implement Nature Networks |
21.1 | Species on the Edge – great yellow and moss carder bumblebees, marsh fritillary, Scottish primrose, etc.. |
21.3 | Species with identifiable human pressures (especially specialists and arctic alpines) |
21.4 | Genetic diversity mapping – as Scotland is on the edge of the range of habitats it is likely to host unique genetic variants and the potential for useful traits in wild relatives of utilised species. |
21.6 | Better biodiversity data – will help with understanding the condition of species-rich grassland In areas outside designated sites. |
21.7 | Publish Plant biodiversity strategy - grasslands are specifically mentioned |
28 | Public Awareness and engagement to improve public awareness of climate-biodiversity issues and our connectedness to nature |
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the culture secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding how it delivers support for community ownership of heritage assets.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2025
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
-
Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms are in place to allow the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate evidence provided to it during a previously reviewed case.
Answer
The powers of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to review alleged miscarriages of justice are provided for in the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (1995 Act).
There is no limitation within the 1995 Act on the SCCRC investigating evidence provided to it during a previously reviewed case with any decision to investigate evidence provided to it during a previously reviewed case being an independent matter for the SCCRC.