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-36183

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-32791 and S6W-32788 by Mairi Gougeon on 8 and 17 January 2025 respectively, and in light of recent media coverage, including a video showing discarded fish on the seabed, what (a) progress it has made toward the implementation of fish landing obligations to make the rules regarding discarding more effective, (b) action it has taken to ensure that it achieves the bycatch objective when it is allocating quotas, (c) progress it has made with the development of future catching policy in addressing discards and (d) its position is regarding to what extent (i) remote electronic monitoring and (ii) an increase in fines would help prevent illegal discarding.

Firstly, the landing obligation was fully implemented in Scotland on 1 January 2019. Prior to this date, the landing obligation was phased in gradually, starting with pelagic fisheries in 2015 and extending to demersal fisheries in 2016, with the final phase bringing all Total Allowable Catch (TAC) species under the obligation, except those that are exempt via de minimis or survivability exemptions.

In relation to the allocation of fish quota, the Scottish Government has taken action to promote the use of selective fishing gear and therefore help reduce discards. For 2025, the Scottish Government is primarily allocating a portion of West of Scotland cod following an application process which places the use of selective fishing gear and/or fishing methods associated with a lower environmental impact at its core. The Scottish Government has also acted to allocate a greater share of quota to the 10 metre and under non-sector fleet. This grouping of vessels (which are more limited in the time they can spend at sea and the distance they can travel than larger vessels) is associated with the use of more selective fishing gear (such as the use of handlines).

The Future Catching Policy workshops were completed in autumn last year, with a combination of industry and eNGO input across all fleet segments. The proposals for future technical measures are being finalised and further engagement with stakeholders will take place this year prior to the formal consultation.

On REM, it is our position that the use of REM will have a positive impact on illegal discarding, providing a strong deterrent and an effective monitoring tool. That is one of the reasons why we are deploying it on pelagic fishing vessels and will roll-out further in the future.

Finally, we are committed to reviewing the current penalties regime as part of our Fisheries Management Strategy and will consider the role of fines as part of that.

Question reference: S6W-36188

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030 before the end of the current parliamentary session.

There are no plans to review Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy before the end of the current parliamentary session. This is a ten year strategy and most of its actions relate to the ongoing delivery of our management functions. The progress being made with these is in the updated Scotland's Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030 Delivery Plan which was published on 20 March 2025.

The delivery plan is a live document and it will continue to be updated as progress is being made.

Question reference: S6W-36129

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 9 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to attend the forthcoming Financing For Development summit in Seville.

The Scottish Government has yet to make a decision whether to attend the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Seville, Spain between 30 June and 3 July 2025. Scotland recognises the importance of international cooperation and collaboration to drive progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the current geopolitical environment. As a government we continue to scope for opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on emerging global challenges and contribute to the fight against poverty, injustice and inequality internationally, including at key upcoming international events.

Scotland aims to maintain strong leadership in our commitment to good global citizenship and our solidarity with communities acutely affected by climate disasters, disease and conflict around the world through its International Development and Climate Justice programmes, as evidenced by the maintenance of existing commitments in the current Programme for Government.

Question reference: S6W-36342

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 9 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which section of the Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) outlines the reasons that the Scottish Ministers must provide when overturning planning decisions made at the local authority level.

Section 25 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 Act requires that all planning decisions, including those made by Scottish Ministers, delegated Reporters and Local Review Bodies, are done so in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. The National Planning Framework (NPF4) forms part of the statutory development plan.

Information on Scottish Government involvement in planning decisions, including appeals, is provided on our website

Ministerial involvement in planning decisions - Planning and architecture - gov.scot

in a Ministerial Statement Planning applications call-in: Ministerial statement – 28 June 2023 - gov.scot and in

Circular 3/2009: Notification of Planning Applications Planning Circular 3/2009: Notification of Planning Applications.

Question reference: S6W-36189

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 9 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress with the Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030 Delivery Plan.

Question reference: S6W-36687

Asked by: Lorna Slater, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which incinerators, including those with accepted planning permission, are able to destroy persistent organic pollutants, in alignment with the SEPA guidance on the management of waste upholstered domestic seating.

Question reference: S6W-36679

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects on retail crime trends broken down by region, crime type and outcomes, and whether it will publish any such data.

Question reference: S6W-36699

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on removing the immunity of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) from criminal prosecution, as called for by the SPS chief executive.

Question reference: S6W-36670

Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met officials from the Department for Work and Pensions regarding work to progress the delivery of automatic split payments of universal credit, as set out in part 6, section 94 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S6W-36683

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported finding that older women are disproportionately affected by low income in retirement.