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: S5W-13556

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what research (a) it has and (b) its agencies have commissioned on the development of a genetic test to identify Scottish wildcats; how much this cost, and whether it will publish the findings.

The Scottish Government has not directly commissioned research on the development of a genetic test to identify Scottish wildcats but Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has, from the early 1990s to the present day, commissioned research into the classification and genetics of Scottish wildcats.

In 1992, SNH initiated a comprehensive study into the morphology, genetics and behavioural ecology of wild-living cats in Scotland. This work was largely taken forward by SNH staff and resulted in several publications (Balharry D, Daniels MJ (1998) Wild living cats in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage Research, Survey and Monitoring Report No 23; Beaumont M, Barratt EM, Gottelli D, et al. (2001) Genetic diversity and introgression in the Scottish wildcat, Molecular Ecology 10, 319-336).

In 2009, SNH commissioned the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford to carry out a comparison of genetic data and pelage criteria. This work cost SNH £14,988 and is published (Kilshaw, K, Drake, A., Macdonald, D.W. & Kitchener, A.C.(2010) The Scottish wildcat: a comparison of genetic and pelage characteristics. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No.356).

In 2012, SNH issued a contract to the value of £5,778 to the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Chester, for genetic analysis to help assess the purity of the contemporary population of Scottish wildcats within the Cairngorms National Park. No findings have been received by SNH from this contract and SNH has been in correspondence with the University of Chester to resolve the situation.

In 2013, SNH commissioned an independent review of information on wildcat genetics, carried out by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, as part of a Conservation Genetics Knowledge Transfer project. The outcome of the review is published (Neaves, L.E. & Hollingsworth, P.M. 2013. The Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris); A review of genetic information and its implications for management. Conservation Genetic Knowledge Exchange, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh).

In 2013, SNH in partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) funded a trial to identify the presence of wildcat and feral cat populations within the wildcat range based on genetic testing of droppings. Droppings were collected by trained volunteers and submitted for testing using pre-paid sample kits. The results of this work are available to SNH, but were not published as a commissioned report as many of the samples submitted turned out not to be from cats, but rather from foxes and pine marten. This work cost SNH £6,000.

In 2013, SNH issued a contract valued at £11,000 to the Wildgenes Laboratory at the RZSS for the genetic testing of samples from potential wildcat priority areas. Findings are included in SNH Commissioned Report 768 and in the report ‘Wildcat Hybrid Scoring for Conservation Breeding under the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan’ (Littlewood, N.A., Campbell, R.D., Dinnie, L., Gilbert, L., Hooper, R., Iason, G., Irvine, J.,Kilshaw, K., Kitchener, A., Lackova, P., Newey, S., Ogden, R. & Ross, A. 2014. Survey and scoping of wildcat priority areas. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 768. Senn HV and Ogden R, Wildcat Hybrid Scoring For Conservation Breeding under the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan (2015), Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, May 2015. https://www.nature.scot/wildcat-hybrid-scoring-conservation-breeding-under-scottish-wildcat-conservation-action-plan).

Since 2015, as part of a commitment under the Scottish Government’s Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, £13,900 has been paid to the Wildgenes Laboratory for the genetic testing of samples collected during the project, including £2,100 to cross-reference previously analysed samples against a more detailed genetic test. Data has been made available to SNH and an update was provided to project stakeholders and partners during a Wildcat Forum held in November 2017. A report has not yet been published because data collection and analyses are on-going.

Question reference: S5W-13524

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of private forestry land is owned in holdings of (a) 0-10ha, (b) 11-50ha, (c) 51-200ha, (d) 201-1,000ha and (e) greater than 1,000ha.

Forest Research, through the National Forest Inventory, publishes data on the number of hectares of forests, including in Scotland, in the following size classes (hectares): <2, 2-10; 10-20; 20-50; 50-100; 100-500; 500 and above.

Summary data on the proportion of privately and publically owned forestry is also published.

This and other data on Scotland’s forests and woodlands can be found at: https://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/NFI_SCOTLAND-REPORT_010813.pdf/$FILE/NFI_SCOTLAND-REPORT_010813.pdf

Question reference: S5O-01676

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides for instrumental music education in primary and secondary schools.

Question reference: S5O-01575

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes.

Question reference: S5W-12467

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what statistics are collected by Marine Scotland regarding wrasse mortality in transit.

Marine Scotland does not routinely collect statistics on wrasse mortality in transport. However, as part of the Aquaculture Production Business (APB) authorisation conditions, an APB is required to record mortalities during transport and these records must be made available to the Fish Health Inspectorate when requested. It is an offence under The Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009 for a person who transports any aquaculture animal to fail to keep a record of the number of animals that die in the course of transport.

Question reference: S5W-12470

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to ensure that otters are not endangered by the use of wrasse traps.

Question reference: S5W-12466

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether precautionary management measures similar to that introduced in England will be implemented for the wrasse fisheries.

Question reference: S5W-12468

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what measures have been implemented to ensure that wrasse that are caught conform to the minimum conservation reference sizes, and how those sizes have been set with regard to the wrasse life-cycle.

Question reference: S5W-12465

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its duty under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 to further the conservation of biodiversity, how it is protecting the wrasse fisheries.

Question reference: S5W-12471

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the management of wrasse populations is conducted in line with General Policy 9 of the 2015 Scottish National Marine Plan.