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-24201

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates its proposed £17,496,000 reduction in funding for Ferguson Marine, as set out in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, will have on its ability to deliver Hull (a) 801 and (b) 802 within its respective revised timescale.

Question reference: S6W-24176

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many registered GlobalScots there were in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-24169

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have applied to the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme in each year since 2016.

VisitScotland has provided the following data:

Year End Date	Count
end Dec 2016	281
end Dec 2017	196
end Dec 2018	181
end Dec 2019	188
end Dec 2020	116
end Mar 2022	204
end Mar 2023	173

It should be noted that:

The figures show only new applicants in each year, the figures do not include renewals.
Figures include re-joined businesses, meaning those who left the scheme and subsequently re-joined.
Figures show unique sites and one business may have multiple sites.
Reporting period changed in 2021 from calendar to fiscal year.

Question reference: S6W-24173

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been made available for the (a) Access to Music Making and (b) Strengthening Youth Music Fund for (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-24175

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that it now holds information on how many handheld music devices provided through Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative are currently in use, and how much funding it has made available for the future use of these devices, and, if it is the case, whether it will provide this information.

Question reference: S6W-24167

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any performance payments that VisitScotland has awarded to staff at executive level in each year since its creation.

VisitScotland pay all staff in line with the Scottish Government pay guidelines. HR records cover the past six years, these are stored in line with legal requirements of employee record keeping.

VisitScotland’s digitised annual accounts published on VisitScotland.org cover 2012-13 onward. Detailed in these, since (and including) the 2012-13 financial year, no bonus payments have been made to executive level staff. These annual accounts are publicly available by accessing online at https://www.visitscotland.org/about-us/annual-corporate-reports/annual-report

Please note that by ‘executive level’, VisitScotland refers to CEO and Director level staff.

Question reference: S6W-24279

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government in what ways (a) Historic Environment Scotland and (b) Creative Scotland supports community organisations with heritage safeguarding.

Question reference: S6W-24164

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19768 by Christina McKelvie on 7 July 2023, whether it will provide an updated breakdown of any performance payments that Historic Environment Scotland has awarded to staff at executive level in 2023.

As stated in my answer to question S6W-19768 given previously, no such payments have been made since the establishment of Historic Environment Scotland in 2015. Scottish Government pay policy for public bodies has not permitted performance-related payments for Chief Executives or for staff at director/executive level over this period.

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: S6W-24200

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates its proposed £2,441,000 reduction in resource funding for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, as set out in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, will have on its ability to maintain and operate regional airports.

The resource grant funding budget of £39,446,000 for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) in 2024-25 is intended to close the gap between HIAL’s commercial revenue and operating costs. As passenger numbers and commercial revenue have continued to recover post-pandemic, the subsidy requirement to maintain HIAL’s operations has lowered. The amount of grant funding required in 2024-25 will be determined by ongoing growth in passenger numbers, the delivery of new commercial opportunities and measures to reduce operating costs.

Question reference: S6W-24161

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints have been made to Historic Environment Scotland in 2023, and how many of those complaints were (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully resolved.