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-15373

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it first learned of reports that avian flu could be transferred to seals, and whether any monitoring of seals has since taken place.

In December 2021 the Animal Disease Policy Group (ADPG), which includes a range of avian influenza experts and representatives from UK administrations, agreed to collect and store samples from non-avian wildlife through the existing Diseases of Wildlife Surveillance (DoWS) scheme for retrospective testing. This would allow a better understanding of the epidemiological situation regarding influenza viruses in non-avian wildlife species while limiting the pressure on veterinary resource or the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) Weybridge allowing the prioritisation of testing of wild birds and poultry. ADPG took the decision in July 2022 to commence the retrospective testing of stored samples of mammal carcasses at the NRL. The samples had been collected as part of routine wildlife surveillance in 2021 and 2022. In February 2023 it was reported to Scottish Government that four seals from Scotland have returned positive findings of HPAI H5N1 from this retrospective testing programme.

Despite these findings, the risk of the H5N1 strain to non-avian species, including humans, remains low. The positive identification of HPAI in mammals remains an unusual event and available genomic surveillance data, reported by APHA in the UK, indicates that there is no widespread mammalian adaption of the virus.

Scottish Government continues to monitor the UK and international situation regarding HPAI in avian and non-avian wildlife. Since the beginning of 2023, APHA have moved to a system of real-time testing through the GB wildlife surveillance scheme of mammalian samples collected including seals.

Question reference: S6W-14792

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 7 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support is being provided to local authorities to support (a) breakfast and (b) after school clubs that may otherwise face closure due to financial constraints.

The Scottish Government does not provide specific funding to local authorities to support breakfast and after school clubs which are struggling financially. Local authorities have flexibility to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. In 2023-24 local authorities have autonomy to allocate over 93% - £12.5 billion – of the funding provided by the Scottish Government, plus all locally raised income.

Question reference: S6O-01979

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

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scottish Budget 2023-24 will support the economic development and prosperity of the north east.

Question reference: S6O-01905

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on avian flu in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14224

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commission NatureScot to lead on red squirrel conservation and embed grey squirrel control in its operations to ensure a future for the red squirrel in Scotland.

NatureScot has worked with partners on red squirrel conservation, including work to control grey squirrels, for many years. In particular, the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrel (SSRS) partnership project has been working in strategic areas to protect, maintain and promote existing red squirrel populations since 2007. With support from project staff, professional Grey Squirrel Officers (GSOs) have been working with volunteers and landowners to deliver strategic grey squirrel control.

NatureScot, Scottish Forestry and Forestry and Land Scotland are currently providing core funding for these roles. It remains a priority for the Scottish Government to ensure the important work undertaken by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels continues.

Question reference: S6W-14223

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commission its statutory environmental agencies to embed the control of the most prolific species, such as grey squirrels, into their operations long-term, in light of reports that non-native invasive species are now recognised as one of the top five drivers of biodiversity loss, and of it making the managing of them a priority in the latest draft of its Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045.

The control of invasive non-native species is already a priority in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy which states that a key aim for the Strategy is that by 2045:

“Harmful invasive non-native species (INNS) will be managed so that established INNS no longer degrade native habitats and species or impede their restoration and regeneration and new introductions are managed quickly and effectively”

The Strategy will be supported by a delivery plan which will set our approach to tackling INNS in Scotland, including the grey squirrel.

NatureScot, the key statutory agency for delivering the Biodiversity Strategy states in its business plan for 2022-23 that it will:

“Deliver invasive non-native species controls and reduce the biodiversity impacts of established invasive non-native species”

Work on the ground at present includes Scottish Government to support the work of Local Action Groups including the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI), an ambitious 5-year partnership project led by NatureScot that is tackling invasive non-native species alongside rivers and water courses in an area of 29,500km2 within northern Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-14444

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much each fit and proper person test, carried out by Police Scotland as part of short-term let licensing applications, costs the service.

Question reference: S6W-14275

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 31 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much each fire safety check carried out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service as part of short-term let licensing applications costs the service.

Question reference: S6O-01843

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Creative Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-13815

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to approve Palforzia, a treatment for children with peanut allergies, for use in Scotland, in light of it being available through NHS England.

In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises the clinical and cost-effectiveness of newly-licensed medicines. Making decisions about whether or not to recommend routine access to new medicines is a complex task and the SMC bases its decisions on the best available evidence provided to it. Following a full submission from the submitting company, Aimmune Therapeutics, on 10 October 2022, the SMC published “not recommended” advice for Health Boards on the routine use of Palforzia ® in NHS Scotland. The submission received did not present a sufficiently robust economic analysis to gain acceptance by the SMC.

By way of an update, Aimmune Therapeutics has indicated its intention to make a resubmission to the SMC.If they do, information on the specific timelines for the reassessment will be available via the search facility available on the home page of the SMC’s website here . There is a fast-track resubmission option, which reduces the normal assessment timeline.

In the meantime, Health Boards have procedures in place using the Peer Approved Clinical System “PACS Tier Two” process, for clinicians to request the use of licensed medicines on a ‘case-by-case’ basis for individual patients, when the treating clinician considers that there would be significant clinical benefit for a patient.