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-21860

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates it will receive the Scottish Law Commission’s findings and recommendations from its review of homicide law, which is due to report in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-22381

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of households in Scotland that currently have a prepayment meter for their (a) electricity and (b) gas supply.

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. Within this it provides estimates of the number of dwellings with a prepayment meter for gas or electricity.

The most recent estimates of households with a prepayment meter are from 2019, and are presented in the following table.

Table 1: Number of households with prepayment meters.

Meter type	Total number of households
Gas Prepayment meter only	20,000
Electric Prepayment meter only	150,000
Both Gas and Electric prepayment meter	260,000

Total	420,000

Notes

1. Figures do not sum due to rounding.

2. Source Scottish House Condition Survey 2019.

3. The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size. A statistical tool for calculating 95% confidence intervals around these estimates can be found at Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-21861

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, as part of its regular discussions with the Scottish Law Commission on its work programme, whether it can confirm if the commission is looking specifically at work-related involuntary act culpable homicide as part of its review of homicide law.

Paragraph 1.27 of the Scottish Law Commission's Homicide Project Discussion paper indicates corporate homicide is one of a number of topics that the Commission will not be considering as part of their project. As paragraph 1.27 and associated footnotes indicates, a Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2020 in this area of law and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament made a statement that the Bill was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament. The Commission's Homicide project relates to matters which would be within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-22362

Asked by: Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free university tuition since it was first introduced.

Question reference: S6W-22405

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what objectives it set for the funding it provided to the British Allergy Foundation in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-22324

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many fish counters are currently in operation in Scotland, and where they are located.

The location of the 42 automatic fish counters that are known to Scottish Government are provided in the following table. The vast majority of these are not owned or operated by Scottish Government, and it is not possible to confirm their current operational status.

The Scottish Government operates one fish counter in the North Esk Salmon Fishery District and is a joint operator, of a fish counter in the Helmsdale district with the District Salmon Fishery Board. We recently supported the installation of three new fish counters in the Ayr, Deveron and Laxford districts. These are in the process of being validated and are not yet producing data.

Salmon Fishery District	Location
(Aberdeenshire) Dee	Beltie Burn Cowie Water Culter Burn Dinnet Burn River Muick
(Kirkcudbrightshire) Dee	Tongland Dam
Awe	Awe Barrage
Ayr	Catrine Weir Ayr
Beauly	Aigas Dam Beannachran Dam Kilmorack Dam
Conon	Luichart Dam Tor Achilty Dam Meig Diversion Dam
Deveron	River Isla R Deveron
Doon	Loch Doon
Forth	Carron Dam
Helmsdale	Helmsdale
Kyle of Sutherland	Duchally Diversion Weir (R Cassley) Shin Diversion Dam (R Shin) River Evelix
Laxford	Laxford Bridge
Lochy	River Arkaig Mucomir Power Station (R Lochy)
Morar	Morar fish pass
Ness	Garry Dam (R Garry) Dundreggan Dam (R Moriston)
North Esk	Logie
Pennygown	River Forsa (Mull)
Spey	Knockando Burn Spey Dam (R Spey) Truim Intake (R Truim)
Tay	Lochay Falls (R Lochay) Stronuich (R Lyon) Clunie Dam (R Tummel) Pitlochry Dam (R Tummel)
Tweed	Gala Water River Ettrick Whiteadder
Ugie	River Ugie

Question reference: S6W-22317

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the natively grown sustainable fibres that it has identified for support in any of its economic or environmental strategies or plans.

The Scottish Government does not collect data specific to the production of flax or other sustainable fibre crops. Currently, flax is not a major crop in Scotland, however we recognise there are potential benefits to flax production, and we are keen to speak with those interested in growing this and other sustainable fibre crops.

The Scottish Government does not offer support specific to the production of flax or other sustainable fibres. However, non-crop specific agricultural support is provided to farmers in a variety of ways, including through the Basic Payment Scheme, and we encourage those looking for further information to read more about these measures on our official website at https://www.mygov.scot/farm-payments-support .

We are aware of ongoing research by the Soil Association Scotland, which is running trials to compare several varieties of flax, and also work by the Rowett Institute to explore flax production.

Question reference: S6W-22325

Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on rail infrastructure in each local authority area in each of the last 10 years.

Network Rail is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the UK Government. The responsibility for determining and monitoring its operation, maintenance and renewal expenditure rests with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

Transport Scotland funds Network Rail in accordance with the ORR’s determination. Therefore, Scottish Government does not hold the full investment information broken down by local authority within Scotland.

Therefore, I recommend that the member contacts Network Rail or the ORR for the detailed information requested for how much has been spent on rail infrastructure in each local authority area in each of the last ten years.

Question reference: S6W-22319

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any recent engagement with industry representatives or stakeholders that are seeking to expand flax production in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-22225

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12681 by Mairi McAllan on 13 December 2022, whether the second National Marine Plan (NMP2) will require Regional Marine Plans to be produced by a set date.

The purpose of Scotland’s National Marine Plan is to set out the strategic policies for the sustainable development of our marine resources. Regional marine plans are currently being developed for three out of the eleven defined Scottish Marine Regions (Orkney, Shetland and the Clyde). Unlike the National Marine Plan, which ‘must’ be prepared and adopted under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, regional marine plans ‘may’ be prepared and adopted, under the same legislation. It is not within the scope of any National Marine Plan to require the production of Regional Marine Plans by a set date.