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-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-24170

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 and attractions were awarded a (a) one star, (b) two star, (c) three star, (d) four star and (e) five star rating through VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance scheme in each year since 2016.

VisitScotland has provided the following data:

YE Date	1 Star	1-3 Star	2 Star	2-3 Star
end Dec 2016	15	2	167	17
end Dec 2017	12	1	138	14
end Dec 2018	10	1	105	11
end Dec 2019	6	1	100	8
end Dec 2020	6	1	88	7
end Mar 2022	6	0	77	6
end Mar 2023	6	0	58	4

YE Date	2-4 Star	2-5 Star	3 Star	3-4 Star
end Dec 2016	6	1	1747	101
end Dec 2017	5	1	1524	90
end Dec 2018	4	1	1380	89
end Dec 2019	3	1	1221	79
end Dec 2020	3	1	1120	65
end Mar 2022	4	1	1053	65
end Mar 2023	2	1	735	48

YE Date	3-5 Star	4 Star	4-5 Star	5 Star
end Dec 2016	8	2479	56	513
end Dec 2017	7	2342	60	525
end Dec 2018	8	2244	59	549
end Dec 2019	11	2083	50	551
end Dec 2020	12	1952	47	531
end Mar 2022	12	1829	45	512
end Mar 2023	7	1444	34	457

YE Date	Pass	Await	Total
end Dec 2016	166	101	5379
end Dec 2017	171	77	4967
end Dec 2018	172	36	4669
end Dec 2019	174	52	4340
end Dec 2020	159	130	4122
end Mar 2022	149	308	4067
end Mar 2023	128	204	3128

It should be noted that:

The data is a snapshot of the number of sites in QA membership at the end of the membership year. A business may have multiple sites.
Increase in Awaiting Grading figures since 2020 are due to a two-year suspension of live visits due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Award ranges apply to some sectors where one site has a range of properties at different grades. Historic breakdown for these individual properties is not available.
Reporting period changed in 2021 from calendar to fiscal year.

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-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.

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-24163

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 members of Historic Scotland there were at the end of each month in 2023.

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-24160

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 sites that are managed by Historic Environment Scotland and its predecessor agencies have been (a) open, (b) temporarily closed and (c) permanently closed in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-24177

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 participated in the GlobalScot network 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.