- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the risk of exposure of firefighters to fire contaminates.
Answer
The Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are committed to ensuring the safety of firefighters. In the draft budget for 2025-26, the Scottish Government will provide SFRS with an additional £18.8 million, which includes £4 million extra Capital funding to enable SFRS to continue to improve facilities for firefighters.
The SFRS Contaminants Group continues to make progress in improving processes and procedures and in December 2024 SFRS announced investment of £3.2 million in additional sets of firefighting personal protective equipment so that clothing can be thoroughly cleaned more often. The Service is also making significant capital investment in the refurbishment of stations, which will help to reduce prolonged exposure to fire contaminants.
SFRS has an ongoing innovation project related to fire contaminants in progress, this as part of Scottish Government CivTech programme. CivTech is a Scottish Government innovation accelerator programme that brings public and private sector organisations together to identify and work on innovation projects. The project is working to identify ways to track fire fighter exposure to contaminants and improve health monitoring.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work in relation to the Arctic Policy Framework.
Answer
Scotland’s first Arctic policy framework, Arctic Connections, was published in 2019. In line with commitments in Scotland’s International Strategy, work has begun on an evaluation process. This will consider the impact of the framework, how Scotland’s relationship with the Arctic has developed during the implementation period and make recommendations on future engagement. It is due to be completed by the end of 2025.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was made of the impact on biodiversity and ecological health of the escape of an estimated 80,000 fish while being transported from Sutherland to the Orkney Islands in 2023.
Answer
In February 2023 the Scottish Government was made aware of an escape of approximately 80,000 fish during transport. The fish originated from Loch Shin and were loaded at Lochinver; the loss occurred en route to Orkney.
No formal assessment of the impact was made by the Scottish Government or its bodies as the incident took place during transport. The regulatory framework requires the circumstances which give rise to a significant risk of escape or actual escape of fish on or in the vicinity of a fish farm to be reported under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended. As drafted, the regulations do not require losses during transportation, which are less common, to be reported, although businesses often do as it is good practice.
The transporter involved in the incident has taken action to prevent similar events in future.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to protect the 2026 Scottish Parliament election from foreign interference.
Answer
The Scottish Government opposes any form of interference in Scottish politics and elections. We use the powers we have available to protect the integrity of the democratic process. To prevent foreign interference, we work closely with the UK Government, for example by taking part in exercises with the Defending Democracy Programme. This programme seeks to identify and address threats to elections and electoral processes including foreign interference, disinformation, physical and cyber threats to democratic institutions and representatives.
We will have the full support of the national agencies, for example the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), who are on the frontline in detecting and exposing foreign interference in the run up to the Scottish Parliament Election to be held on 7 May 2026.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider including off-site based escapes in its monitoring framework for salmon farms, including escapes from transport crafts.
Answer
It is not currently a legal requirement under the Aquatic Animal Health Regulations (Scotland) 2009 as amended for farmed fish transporters to report farmed fish escapes, however we are considering the issue of reporting and transparency further.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many land and nature apprenticeships have been completed since May 2021.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
As our national skills body Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish high level statistical information relating to completion of apprenticeships. You can find this information within the following links
Land and nature apprenticeships fall into a range of occupational groupings. I have asked the Chief Executive of SDS, to write to you on this matter.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of alcohol-related hospital admissions continuing to be below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the gradual reduction of alcohol-related hospital admissions over the past decade and is working closely with Public Health Scotland, local services and other stakeholders to ensure the reasons behind the gradual reduction are factored in to service provision.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 28 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20923 by Maree Todd on 26 September 2023, whether it can provide an update on progress with the implementation of Anne's Law, and whether it will be in force by the end of 2025.
Answer
Answer expected on 28 January 2025
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32140 by Gillian Martin on 18 December 2024, whether it will review the regulations governing water quality in Scotland, in light of the reported concerns by Environmental Standards Scotland.
Answer
We assume the question refers to the recent analytical report, Storm Overflows in Scotland, published by Environmental Standards Scotland.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) considers 87% of our water environment to be high or good quality - up from 82% in 2014.
Measures and regulations to protect and improve water quality are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain appropriate. This includes, for example, considering changes to European legislation and the introduction of new environmental standards. The Scottish Government is committed to alignment where it is in the interests of Scotland to do so and is considering the new rules (Directive 2024/3019) on the treatment of Urban Wastewater which came into force on 1 January 2025. This Directive seeks to further protect the environment by driving improvements to the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater. We also recently issued directions to SEPA that update the Environmental Quality Standards, which underpin our efforts to protect and where necessary improve the water environment.
In addition, Scotland’s River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) is our route map for protecting and improving the water environment. SEPA is responsible for developing the RBMP, which is reviewed and updated every six years. SEPA has published a statement which sets out the steps it will take to engage stakeholders in reviewing and updating the RBMP for Scotland over the next three years. SEPA’s statement is available here: SEPA | River Basin Management Planning in Scotland, Statement of Consultation Steps
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 14 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-18745 by Jenni Minto on 21 June 2023, whether it can provide a full list of meetings of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024, whether officials attended those meetings, and, if so, whether it can provide a summary of what issues were raised by officials and discussed at each meeting.
Answer
As I set out in answer to question S6W-31933 on 16 December 2024, the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group is comprised of the Chief Executives of most of the independent Scottish hospices and their key partners and is not a Scottish Government group. As such, we do not hold minutes of the group or have summaries of the discussions held.
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
