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: S5W-09594

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent Scottish Association of Marine Science report, which raises concerns over the unexpected impact on wild crustaceans of emamectin benzoate, whether it plans to phase out its use in salmon farming and, if so, by when.

Question reference: S5W-09597

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what records it keeps of the quantities of sea lice treatment chemicals used in well boats; where those records may be accessed by the public, as they can be for treatments applied in fish farm cages on the Scotland's Aquaculture database, and what assessment it has made of the impact of discharging these chemicals into the sea.

Marine Scotland - Licensing Operations Team (MS-LOT) licenses the discharge of chemotherapeutant from wellboats under the licensing provisions of Part 4 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. Licensees are required to provide details of discharge activities which have taken place, including chemical treatment quantities, and Marine Scotland holds such records. Data on quantities of used chemotherapeutant discharged from wellboats under the authority of a marine licence is included in the chemical treatment information provided on Scotland’s Environment and Scotland’s Aquaculture website. However, it does not differentiate between treatment methods.

In order for a wellboat licence to be issued, a fish farm must possess a Controlled Activities Regulation (CAR) consent from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The permitted discharge volume in marine licences is the same as that in the CAR consent which controls the amount of medicines that can be discharged at an individual fish farm. The Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) and ‘allowable zone of effects’ approach, adopted by SEPA in the regulation of chemotherapeutant discharge, should protect all organisms outside the ‘allowable zone of effects’, defined as the mixing zone around the cages for bath treatment chemotherapeutants. Marine Scotland operates a system of discharge notification, in conjunction with SEPA, to ensure that cumulative discharges (those under CAR consent and Marine licence) do not breach EQS. Both the marine licences and CAR consents are conditioned such that discharges licensed under one licensing regime at a particular site, must not take place at the same time as discharge at that site under the other regime. To ensure compliance with CAR, SEPA conduct a programme of monitoring and evaluation of the use of medicines at each farm.

Further assessment may be required prior to a licence being issued, on a case by case basis, if a fish farm is located in a designated site (such as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) or Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Question reference: S5W-09596

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether large numbers of free swimming stage sea lice leaving fish farms harm wild Scottish salmonid (salmon and sea trout) populations, as they have reportedly been shown to do in Norway and Ireland.

Currently there is no estimate of the level of impact of sea lice from aquaculture on wild salmon and sea trout population status in Scotland. Marine Scotland are currently two years into a ten-year programme of research to look further into impacts on wild salmon from sea lice in the Scottish coastal environment. Progress is detailed at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/Freshwater/Research/Aqint/sealice.

Marine Scotland also has a long term monitoring programme looking at marine performance of sea trout at the River Shieldaig in Wester Ross. This work can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/Freshwater/Research/Aqint/Shieldaig

Question reference: S5W-09593

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many dead fish the approximately 41,000 tonnes of salmon farm mortalities reported on the Scotland’s Aquaculture database for the periods 2015 and 2016 represents.

The mortality data on Scotland’s Aquaculture website represents data reported to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) as required by conditions in licences issued under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. The data is based on the weight of fish mortalities. Farmed salmon held in sea cages may typically vary in weight from 0.1- 5kg as they grow to market size. It is not possible to estimate the number of fish which may have died based on reported tonnage as mortality may have occurred when the fish were at any stage in the growth cycle.

Question reference: S5W-09595

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many times in the last two years salmon farms in Scotland have (a) been ordered to and (b) needed to cull their fish early due to their inability to control sea lice numbers on the farmed fish.

No fish farm has been ordered to cull their fish in the last two years due to their inability to control sea lice numbers on the farmed fish.

Fish farms employ fish health staff and company veterinarians which may advise reducing the biomass of fish stocked on a fish farm, targeting populations of fish where sea lice numbers are highest as a part of their integrated sea lice management strategy.

Information recorded through the Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspection surveillance programme is contained within inspection case sheets and where relevant to the visit will detail the measures in place to control sea lice. This information is published online, on a quarterly basis, three months in arrears: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Fish-Shellfish/FHI/CaseInformation

Question reference: S5W-09408

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent (a) classroom and (b) additional support needs assistant positions there are in each local authority, also broken down by the number in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools, and how many positions are filled.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes information on the numbers of FTE classroom and additional support needs assistants as part of the School staff census. This information is published at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/teachcenssuppdata. Information on primary school staff is available at Table 7.11 and secondary school staff at Table 8.11.

Information on positions in these roles is not held by the Scottish Government as the arrangements for the resourcing and recruitment of all staff, including those who provide support to pupils with additional support needs rest with education authorities.

Question reference: S5W-09461

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the 2016-17 results were of the new group reading tests (NGRT), which are also known as GL assessments, in each local authority.

Question reference: S5W-09462

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which school year groups take the new group reading tests (NGRT), which are also known as GL assessments.

Question reference: S5W-09460

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce numeracy testing that is structured on a similar basis to the new group reading tests (NGRT), which are also known as GL assessments.

Question reference: S5O-01073

Asked by: Richard Lyle, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it is having with UK Government agencies regarding bringing major events to Scotland.