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-08345

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economics of electric arc furnaces in Scotland.

As noted in the reply to question S6W-08344, we commissioned independent research into the steel sector in Scotland: this included consideration of the scope for electric arc furnaces in Scotland. We would encourage any company interested in developing an electric arc furnace to seek advice and support from their local Enterprise Agency. These are large-scale ambitions that need large-scale solutions and will require significant private sector investment.

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-08344

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economics of processing Scotland’s scrap steel domestically.

Question reference: S6O-01072

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the education secretary has had with the circular economy minister regarding progress to enhance education and skills for a circular economy.

Question reference: S6W-07784

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of including glass in its Deposit Return Scheme, in light of other parts of the UK not including it.

Including glass in our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will bring significant environmental and economic benefits. The inclusion of glass will save over 1.2 megatonnes CO 2 equivalent over 25 years. DRS will also reduce the amount of harmful glass litter in our environment.

Our DRS is designed to stand alone and our business case did not include any assumptions about the level of ambition of schemes in other UK nations. We will, of course, work with the other UK administrations to ensure that our schemes are interoperable, without jeopardising the ambition of our own scheme.

Question reference: S6W-07785

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to excluding glass containers from its Deposit Return Scheme, in light of the reported announcement that glass will not be included in the schemes in England and Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S6O-01040

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the culture minister has had with the minister for zero carbon buildings regarding work to install energy efficiency measures in cultural and heritage buildings.

Question reference: S6W-07648

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its 2024 timescale for introducing a Natural Environment Bill provides sufficient prominence to the declared nature emergency, and whether it will bring this timescale forward.

We recognise the need for urgent action to address our twin nature and climate crises. That is why we are not waiting until the introduction of the Natural Environment Bill to take action. We have already committed to invest £65 in our Nature Restoration Fund over the course of this Parliament and £250 restoring our peatland over this decade. We will soon be consulting on our new Biodiversity Strategy where we will set out our ambitious vision for a nature rich Scotland. We remain committed to introducing a Natural Environment Bill in year 3 which will include nature targets to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises.

Question reference: S6W-07644

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 26 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether its high-level ambitions on nature, set out in its Programme for Government, Statement of Intent on Biodiversity, National Strategy for Economic Transformation and Draft National Planning Framework 4, that aim to tackle the nature and climate crises holistically, will be supported with new funding and delivery mechanisms in the Resource Spending Review.

We recognise that the high-level ambitions we have to tackle the twin nature and climate crises need to be supported with adequate funding. This is why we have already committed to invest an additional £500 million in the natural economy over the course of this Parliament. This includes £250 million on peatland restoration over the current decade, £65 Million on the new Nature Restoration Fund over the course of this Parliament, and £100 million to increase forestry planting,

‎ £30 million to expand Scotland's national forests, and £20 million to increase nursery stocks. The Resource Spending Review will reflect these priorities.

Question reference: S6W-07645

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how its Programme for Government commitment on delivering local nature networks will be delivered and resourced; what timeframes are associated with these, and how they will be coordinated with the National Planning Framework, new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, Regional Land Use Partnerships and other inter-related policy areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation and improvement of Nature Networks across Scotland.

Nature Networks will be developed and delivered through local partnerships, and will support ecological connectivity within and between National Parks, Protected Areas, and other biodiversity-rich areas through the creation of habitat corridors and ‘stepping stones’. To be effective, Nature Networks will require development and management over the long term. We are therefore working with NatureScot and other delivery partners to develop a co-design and delivery process.

Nature Networks will be a crucial mechanism to deliver the vision set out in our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and will form a key plank of the associated Delivery Plan. Our approach will take into account the wider policy framework at national, regional and local levels. Regional Land Use Partnerships are being piloted across five areas of Scotland to test inclusive approaches that facilitate collaboration at a regional level. They are looking to take a natural capital approach to maximising the contribution that our land makes in addressing the twin nature and climate crises. In developing our approach to nature networks we are considering how RLUPs can form a part of delivery. Nature networks have been embedded within the draft NPF4, to ensure that nature has the space to adapt to Scotland’s changing climate through linking areas which are important for biodiversity in urban, peri-urban and rural settings.

Question reference: S6O-01018

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of dog theft there have been in the last five years.