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-20008

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) Transport Scotland and (b) ScotRail Holdings has entered negotiations with Stena Line on increasing the availability of "Rail and Sail" tickets between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast.

Question reference: S6W-20604

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-20347

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide the dates of all Open Government Partnership meetings in 2023, including those scheduled to take place.

The Open Government Partnership Steering Group meets at a minimum three times per year.

The Open Government Partnership Steering Group met on 17 May 2023. The following dates are confirmed for the Open Government Partnership Steering Group to next meet:

26 September 2023
6 December 2023

Scottish Government proactively publishes the minute of each meeting, which includes the date of the next scheduled meeting. This information can be found on the Open Government Partnership Steering Group page . This information is also shared via Scotland’s Open Government Network .

Question reference: S6W-20145

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment in the Bute House Agreement to "consult as soon as practicable on proposals to apply a cap to fishing activity in inshore waters", when it expects to deliver any such consultation.

The Bute House Agreement builds on the actions in our Fisheries Management Strategy which sets out our approach to managing Scottish sea fisheries in partnership with our stakeholders, to deliver the best results for the future of our marine environment, our fishing industry and the communities that rely on them.

Observing our co-management approach, policies relating to inshore fishing will be progressed further through our Regional Inshore Fisheries Group network and Fisheries Management and Conservation group, prior to full consultation.

Question reference: S6W-20123

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-02399 by Gillian Martin on 21 June 2023, whether it plans to consider reforms that devolve the decisions of Grazings Committees to the local level.

The legal function of a grazing committee is to maintain the common grazing for the benefit of the crofters who share in it, and to manage the interests of those crofters.

The management and control of common grazing land, where there are many inter-acting rights, including those of crofters, landowners and grazings committees, requires safeguarding. The purpose of legislation is to ensure that these rights are kept in balance and that everyone’s rights are protected.

We will consult on the Bill proposals in due course and will consider all views as part of Bill development.

Question reference: S6W-20288

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to commission a study into the cause of mass whale beachings.

Scottish Government fund the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) which already undertakes investigations into the cause of death of marine animals (e.g. dolphins, whales, porpoises, seals, turtles and basking sharks) stranded around the Scottish coastline. Samples and data are collected at the strandings location and carcases are collected for further investigation via necropsy following a risk-based approach.

Question reference: S6W-20280

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents have (a) taken place and (b) been investigated where pods of whales have died as a result of becoming stranded on beaches in Scotland in each year since 1 January 2021.

The Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS) at the University of Glasgow, is funded by the Scottish Government to provide a coordinated approach to the surveillance of marine species (e.g. cetaceans, seal and basking sharks) strandings around the Scottish coast with the aim of investigating major causes of death.

A mass stranding event is described as incidents involving two or more cetaceans (porpoise, dolphins and whales). Since 1 January 2021, the SMASS programme have reported 14 mass stranding incidents, where cause of death has been attributed to live stranding. This includes the recent stranding of 54 long-finned pilot whales on the Isle of Lewis. In all cases, a selection of the animals underwent post mortem examination to assist the investigation into potential factors surrounding the cause of death.

All annual reports are published at https://strandings.org/publications .

Question reference: S6W-20281

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Marine Scotland plans to launch an investigation into the reported incident of a pod of pilot whales dying after becoming stranded on a beach on the Isle of Lewis.

The response to the mass stranding event of 54 pilot whales at Tolsta, Isle of Lewis last month was led by the Scottish Government-funded Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) at the University of Glasgow. Examinations and samples were undertaken on all stranded animals, and full post-mortem examinations were completed on a subset of animals.

Investigations are ongoing, with the aim of understanding potential factors that could have contributed to the animals’ death. The results will be published in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20011

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spending on the Road Equivalent Tariff, by (a) route and (b) carrier, in each year since it was introduced.

The spending on RET is not recorded separately. Since the start of new Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Service contract in 2016, Transport Scotland pays CalMac Ferries Limited, as the operator, a monthly grant payment which covers costs to operate the network as a whole. This is not broken down by individual routes. Previous evaluations have suggested that RET fares save users around £25m per year compared to pre-RET fares.

Question reference: S6W-20020

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many new schools are currently planned to be built, broken down by local authority.