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-18093

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it gives to customers of the tenancy deposits schemes if they have an issue, dispute or complaint with one of the tenancy schemes that do not offer an independent dispute resolution procedure.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes were introduced to deal with the problem of landlords and letting agents who unfairly withheld deposits from tenants. In Scotland a custodial scheme is operated by 3 schemes approved by Scottish Ministers.

Tenants benefit from having deposits safeguarded by an independent third party. Section 33 and 34 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 sets out the requirements for all approved schemes to provide a free and independent dispute resolution service, so that the deposit can be returned quickly and fairly.

Scottish Government cannot intervene with individual deposit disputes and cannot intervene in decisions made by the independent adjudicator in relation to a tenancy deposit case.

Question reference: S6W-18228

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many restoration orders to restore damaged natural features in certain protected areas have been handed down by courts in each year for which data is available.

Restoration orders can be issued as an additional disposal to people convicted of charges under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 Sections 19(1), 19(3), 27(1) or 36(2). As of 31 December 2022, no restoration orders have been issued as a disposal in a criminal court.

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2020-21 and the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard: Q3 2022-23.

Question reference: S6O-02362

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to tourism and other businesses within island communities to mitigate the impact of any connectivity issues affecting them.

Question reference: S6W-18171

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research’s updated report, published in April 2023, Infants Born into Care in Scotland, including the reported finding that around one in every 100 children born in Scotland enters care before their first birthday.

The Scottish Government is committed to Keeping the Promise and ensuring that families are supported to stay together when it is safe to do so. While we still have more work to do, it is positive progress that the recent Infant's Born into Care Report confirms that the proportion of children entering care before their first birthday in Scotland has fallen since 2018 - from 122 in every 10,000 to 91 in every 10,000 in 2021.

The Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach ensures that children and families can access support across maternity, health visiting, family nursing and social work services to help them thrive. Where it is deemed that a child requires statutory support for their care, the Local Authority becomes their Corporate Parent and are responsible for working with partners to ensure that the right services are in place to deliver a personalised plan to meet their needs.

Question reference: S6W-18258

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17750 by Lorna Slater on 19 May 2023, how many beaver carcasses have been submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem, since it became a legal requirement.

The beaver kit dependency period is between 1 April and 16 August and no licences to control beavers have been issued in this period. As such, there has been no legal requirement for carcasses to be submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem.

The legal requirement for licence holders to submit carcasses for independent post- mortem to NatureScot will take effect when new licences granted by NatureScot commence on 17 August 2023 and thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-18223

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), how many cases have occurred in which SSSIs have been compromised by management activities, and whether NatureScot has entered into any agreements to provide compensation for any such cases; how many (a) charges and (b) convictions resulted from individuals intentionally or recklessly damaging the protected natural features of an SSSI, in each year for which data is available, and whether it will provide a list of any SSSIs that have been intentionally or recklessly damaged since 2013.

There are records of 212 instances of damaging or unconsented activities on SSSIs that have not been attributed to third parties. No compensatory agreements have been entered into as a result of these cases.

NatureScot is only obliged to offer compensation to a land manager if the SSSI consenting process restricts the established management of their land and where this leads to a loss of income. NatureScot has 89 active compensatory Management Agreements with land managers to prevent damaging activity. The majority date back to before 2013. The majority of active Management Agreements entered in to by NatureScot contain provisions for proactive management to restore or maintain biodiversity.

The following table sets out the charging and convictions data requested:

Year	Charged	Charged & Convicted
2004	1
2007	1
2008		3
2015		1
2021		1
2022		1

Issues of motivation are judged on a case by case basis and so are not recorded in a way that can be aggregated.

Question reference: S6W-18226

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) site checks and (b) full site condition monitoring assessments have been carried out by NatureScot in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-18246

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands has to meet with shellfish businesses in Inverclyde, including Inverclyde Shellfish and its 13 staff, regarding its plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas.

It has always been our intention to develop these ambitious proposals in close collaboration with those impacted by them – in particular, people living and working in our island and coastal communities.

Prior to the consultation, we met with over 20 stakeholder groups representing a wide range of marine industries and users. We also ran ten online information sessions from February - April to help anyone wishing to provide a response to our consultation. These meetings included fisheries organisations such as the Communities Inshore Fisheries Alliance.

We continue to engage with communities and industry as we consider the many thousands of responses to our initial, broad consultation.

Local representatives of Scotland’s fishing industry are an important part of that.

Question reference: S6W-18119

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16710 by Jamie Hepburn on 16 May 2023, what mechanism or measure it would potentially plan to use to determine whether “the people of Scotland wish that to be the case”.

Question reference: S6W-18170

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many suspected marine invasive non-native species have been reported to Marine Scotland in each year for which data is available.

Marine invasive non-native species (INNS) are reported to the Scottish Government by statutory organisations such as NatureScot and SEPA and regional partnership groups, to inform international reporting obligations for INNS monitoring.

Year	Number of INNS reported to Marine Scotland (OSPAR data call & MSS data)
2022	8
2021	18
2020	2
2019	3
2018	6
2017	14
2016	32
2015	0
2014	2
2013	10
2012	5

A small number of ad hoc reports are received from the general public though these are not always possible to verify due to incomplete information received or absence of physical specimens to analyse in a laboratory. Marine INNS are not all reported directly to the Scottish Government but may be submitted via iRecord by members of the public. All verified reports are then collated on the National Biodiversity Network Atlas and freely accessible to all.

Year	Site Checks	Site Condition Monitoring
2017	149	252
2018	99	93
2019	51	21
2020	30	20
2021	98	41
2022	31	5
2023*	52	144