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-36940

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Electricity Act 1989, what information it has on how many respondents to section 36 planning applications were not contacted by its Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) in advance of a public inquiry, when they should have been, in each of the last five years, broken down by inquiry.

The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) are not aware that this has been a recurring issue other than for one recent specific case, where Energy Consents Unit (ECU) hadn’t initially passed all representee contact details to them from the outset. Steps were taken to ensure no parties were prejudiced and all who wanted to take part in the process were given the opportunity to do so.

Question reference: S6W-37466

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that the year 2023-24 is dealt with as a transitional year for licensed self-catering operators when supplying annual data to the assessor.

The requirement to provide evidence of letting to assessors to ensure compliance with the thresholds for self-catering holiday accommodation to be included in the valuation roll was introduced from April 2022 to counter a known tax avoidance tactic for second homes.

Assessors undertake annual audits to ensure that self-catering accommodation entered on the valuation roll meets the statutory requirements to be classed as non-domestic property. To provide clarity to self-catering accommodation providers on these requirements, and to provide greater certainty regarding the consequences of failure to meet the requirements, a statutory deadline to respond to requests for evidence was introduced from 1 April 2024. If evidence is not provided to the Assessor by the deadline, or if it is insufficient to establish if the requirements have been met, the Assessor must remove the property from the valuation roll under the current statutory framework.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to alter the rules for self-catering properties, however we do keep all policies under review and routinely engage with stakeholders on any issues with the operation of the system and associated legislation.

Question reference: S6W-37310

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10461 by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022, whether it will provide an update on the support it is giving to the development of the VLA15 vaccine for Lyme disease.

As noted in the response to S6W-10461, Scottish Enterprise has provided support to the Valneva facility in Livingston although the Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15 is not directly supported by Scottish funding.

The introduction of any new national vaccine programme in Scotland is based on the independent expert advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). If VLA15, were to be authorised for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and recommended for use by the JCVI, then the Scottish Government would consider the introduction of any such programme.

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: S6O-04698

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent current projects will be included when making a cumulative impact assessment for a section 36 application under the Electricity Act 1989.

Question reference: S6W-36815

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13059 by Keith Brown on 9 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland (OPG) backlog of power of attorney applications; how many cases are currently affected, and what funding is available to support the OPG to address this backlog.

Question reference: S6W-36402

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, whether the eight schemes stated as withdrawn and the one stated as no longer required were included in the 16 out of 33 remaining schemes marked as complete.

Question reference: S6O-04626

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's recent comments regarding the mothballing of nurseries, what systems are in place to ensure local authorities comply with national guidance.

Question reference: S6W-36409

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32194 by Gillian Martin on 3 January 2025, when it last met with COSLA.

Question reference: S6W-36403

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, where the annual reports required under section 52 of the Flood Risk Management Act (2009), can be accessed.

Flood risk management implementation reports are available on the Scottish Government's website. Some reports have been completed for single years and some for multiple years.

Relevant links are provided below:

Report for years 2015-2018: Implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009: report to the Scottish Parliament - gov.scot
Report for 2019: Implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009: report to the Scottish Parliament - 2019 - gov.scot
Report for 2020: Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 implementation: report to the Scottish Parliament - 2020 - gov.scot

A report covering the period 2021 to 2024 is under development.

Local authorities also produce regular mid cycle and end of cycle reports on the delivery of actions in the Flood Risk Management Plans.

Question reference: S6W-36404

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, whether it will meet all final costs, regardless of any increase compared with the initial estimate.

As outlined in the answer to question S6W-30798 on 7 November, since 2016, the Scottish Government has allocated £570 million to local authorities for flood protection schemes and flood resilience. In this period, the estimated costs of cycle one schemes eligible for funding has risen.

A joint Scottish Government/ COSLA Funding Working Group was established to make recommendations to Ministers and COSLA Leaders on how to improve the affordability of the remaining cycle one schemes. This has resulted in the removal of 6 schemes that failed to meet key progress deadlines from the funding programme.

The Funding Working Group are considering whether further recommendations are required to ensure the programme remains affordable.