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-22324

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many fish counters are currently in operation in Scotland, and where they are located.

The location of the 42 automatic fish counters that are known to Scottish Government are provided in the following table. The vast majority of these are not owned or operated by Scottish Government, and it is not possible to confirm their current operational status.

The Scottish Government operates one fish counter in the North Esk Salmon Fishery District and is a joint operator, of a fish counter in the Helmsdale district with the District Salmon Fishery Board. We recently supported the installation of three new fish counters in the Ayr, Deveron and Laxford districts. These are in the process of being validated and are not yet producing data.

Salmon Fishery District	Location
(Aberdeenshire) Dee	Beltie Burn Cowie Water Culter Burn Dinnet Burn River Muick
(Kirkcudbrightshire) Dee	Tongland Dam
Awe	Awe Barrage
Ayr	Catrine Weir Ayr
Beauly	Aigas Dam Beannachran Dam Kilmorack Dam
Conon	Luichart Dam Tor Achilty Dam Meig Diversion Dam
Deveron	River Isla R Deveron
Doon	Loch Doon
Forth	Carron Dam
Helmsdale	Helmsdale
Kyle of Sutherland	Duchally Diversion Weir (R Cassley) Shin Diversion Dam (R Shin) River Evelix
Laxford	Laxford Bridge
Lochy	River Arkaig Mucomir Power Station (R Lochy)
Morar	Morar fish pass
Ness	Garry Dam (R Garry) Dundreggan Dam (R Moriston)
North Esk	Logie
Pennygown	River Forsa (Mull)
Spey	Knockando Burn Spey Dam (R Spey) Truim Intake (R Truim)
Tay	Lochay Falls (R Lochay) Stronuich (R Lyon) Clunie Dam (R Tummel) Pitlochry Dam (R Tummel)
Tweed	Gala Water River Ettrick Whiteadder
Ugie	River Ugie

Question reference: S6W-22323

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to implement a fish counter on the River Dee, which is a Special Area of Conservation.

Question reference: S6W-22158

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what involvement it has had in the designation of assistance centres or pre-positioning of generator capacity to support communities during times of severe weather.

The Scottish Government does not designate assistance centres or make decisions regarding the pre-positioning of generator capacity.

These issues are rightly for the front line responders, principally Local Authorities, to consider following any emergency. In the Scottish Government's June 2022 update to the Storm Arwen Review, we noted that "All LRPs (principally via Local Authorities) have a wide range of pre-identified rest or assistance centres, with associated arrangements for activation.”

They are supported in this by the energy distribution companies, who deploy their own generator capacity during emergencies to minimise the impact to the public.

The Scottish Government’s Preparing Scotland guidance on Care for People, available at ready.scot, also provides a wide range of guidance to responders on the effective activation of these capabilities if required.

Question reference: S6W-22160

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential for streamlining the mechanisms for coordinating requests for, and offers of, resources and assets at a national level during times of severe weather.

The overall response landscape in Scotland is set out in our guidance document “Preparing Scotland - Responding to Emergencies”.

A review of this suite of guidance is currently underway. The review, which is being undertaken in consultation with resilience partners, will consider whether the inclusion of additional mechanisms for the coordination of mutual aid should be built into the arrangements.

Question reference: S6W-22310

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm the membership of the network of menopause specialists, including the representative of NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S6W-22150

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Water has reviewed its emergency generator contingency plans in (a) general and (b) relation to pumping stations.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked its Chief Executive to respond. His response is as follows:

Scottish Water regularly reviews its generator strategy across the country for all water and wastewater treatment works to minimise disruption in the event of wide scale power outages. Significant work has also been undertaken to understand the medium to long term investment needs. This has identified additional sites that will receive a standby generator, or a hook up, to allow quicker deployment of temporary generators at pumping stations when needed.

Question reference: S6O-02695

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on eliminating long waiting times for NHS patients.

Question reference: S6W-22163

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify any economic and efficiency improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.

The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government and therefore the resilience of the UK’s energy network is the responsibility of the UK lead Government department, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The Scottish Government contributed to the Storm Arwen Ofgem review and supported the recommendation that work is undertaken by the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) to review current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify economic and efficient improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.

Any further information relating to progress of this recommendation is a matter for Ofgem.

Question reference: S6W-22154

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with energy network operators and the wider utilities sector to review their processes for (a) establishing restoration plans and timelines during times of severe weather and (b) communicating regular updates to responders and the public.

The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government. This limits the Scottish Government ’ s ability to directly engage with energy network operators and ask for a review of their processes.

However, the Scottish Government does regularly engage with UK Government Departments and the energy network operators in Scotland along with the wider utilities, particularly during severe weather events, where we encourage and emphasise the importance of accurate restoration plans and timelines.

In addition, we continue to work closely with the UK Government lead departments when they are developing statutory reporting arrangements and will make clear the requirements of the Scottish Government during a severe weather response.

The Scottish Government also supports the three Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRPs) who coordinate communications between Scottish Government, utility companies and categorised responder organisations who are working in affected areas during emergency responses. In this role the RRP coordinators engage with stakeholders on restoration plans at a local level as well as in the statutory requirement of category one responders to communicate with the public in emergency responses.

Question reference: S6W-22162

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what online resources and training it (a) has provided and (b) plans to provide to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Our emergency planning portal, ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new "Learn" section to support the public, community groups and voluntary sector partners by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and helping them to understand how they may participate in an effective and joined up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023, we also ran a series of 4 online community resilience workshops which were attended by approximately 240 participants.

We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities, who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and provide additional resources if required.