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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 41367 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-17045

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it advertised its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) Instagram, and if so, whether it will provide details of engagement figures for each platform.

As well as a press release and supporting social media on the consultation opening on 12 December 2023, ?the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate frequently promoted the consultation, stakeholder information sessions and the extension of the consultation on its Twitter (@marinescotland) and LinkedIn channels, which have a combined following of more than 12.5K stakeholders. Please note that @marinescotland does not have an Instagram account.

A total of 15 posts were shared by @marinescotland which reached almost 80,000 people and achieved a good engagement rate of 2.7% (anything between 1-5% is considered good by social media marketing experts, according to Hootsuite). This equated to a total of 2,147 engagements (interactions) with the social media posts such as clicking on the link to the consultation, sharing, ‘liking’ and commenting on the posts.

It is important to note that the actual engagement with the online consultation will be much higher as this just reflects the social media promotion. For example, while 565 people clicked onto the consultation directly from these 15 social media posts, others will have visited the consultation directly from elsewhere, such as from stakeholder engagement activity and seeing press coverage.

Evaluation summary

A breakdown of the @marinescotland social media is included below, including the engagement rate calculation for transparency:

15 December – ‘ consultation now open ’ – 113 link clicks, 13,566 opportunities to see, 332 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 43 clicks, 1,576 OTS, 58 reactions)7 February – stakeholder information sessions – 63 link clicks, 4,096 opportunities to see, 202 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 76 clicks, 1,637 OTS, 34 reactions)

9 February – still spaces left to attend stakeholder information sessions – 18 link clicks, 3,727 opportunities to see, 51 engagements

7 March – closes on 20 March – 22 link clicks, 1,890 opportunities to see, 67 engagements

10 March – you have until Monday to respond – 9,968 opportunities to see, 274 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 5 clicks, 122 OTS, 2 reactions)

16 March – consultation extended by one month – 82 link clicks, 22,420 opportunities to see, 264 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 20 clicks, 790 OTS, 24 reactions)

29 March – stakeholder information sessions – 29 link clicks, 3,388 opportunities to see, 99 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 28 clicks, 882 OTS, 6 reactions)

31 March – stakeholder information sessions – 6 link clicks, 1,402 opportunities to see , 20 engagements

11 April – consultation closes in one week – 37 link clicks, 13,046 opportunities to see, 139 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 23 clicks, 922 OTS, 9 reactions)

Accurate as of 17 April:
LinkedIn followers – 3,245

Twitter followers – 9,325

Total followers – 12570

Total number of posts – 15

Opportunities to see (OTS) – Twitter – 73,503; LinkedIn – 5,929 = 79,432

Clicks – Twitter – 370 and LinkedIn – 195 = 565

Engagements – Twitter – 1448 and LinkedIn – 133 = 1581

Total engagements (clicks + engagements) – 2,146 ?

Engagement rate (total engagements / OTS x 100) – 2.7%

Question reference: S6W-17066

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what basis it determined that the £25 million investment for the north east, which was announced on 4 April 2023, was the amount that should be allocated from the existing Just Transition Fund for that purpose; whether it will provide its (a) written analysis and (b) evidential basis for that decision; and what preparatory work had been done to ensure sufficient detail and planning to enable the announcement to be made on 4 April 2023.

The £25 million which has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24, is part of the ten year, £500 million Just Transition Fund. It will be invested on a commercial basis in line with the Bank's Investment Strategy.

Officials and the former Minister for Just Transition engaged with a range of stakeholders from the region, including Enterprise Agencies, to inform the decision to allocate funding to the Bank.

Question reference: S6W-17020

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prescriptions of morphine have been issued to chronic pain patients in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-17046

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas, what external organisations it met in advance of the consultation launch, and on what date each meeting took place.

During this initial phase of policy development on Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), in 2022, the Scottish Government met with a range of stakeholders including -

British Trout Association (BTA) – 17 March
Coastal Communities Network (CCN) – 22 March
Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) - 23 November
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) – 24 March
Crown Estate Scotland (CES)–28 March
Oceana – 13 May
Royal Yachting Association (RYA) – 5 May
Salmon Scotland – 17 March and 6 April
Scottish Environment LINK–18 March, 14 July and 2 December
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – 8 March
Scottish Renewables – 13 May
Scottish Sea Farms Ltd–23 May
Scottish Seaweed Industry Association (SSIA) – 25 April

Please also refer to the answer under S6W-16733 on 15 May 2023 for a list of meetings with the fishing industry where HPMAs were discussed. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-17019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many prescriptions of morphine have been issued in each year since 1999.

The requested information is shown in the following table:

Table 1: Total number of paid items for morphine from calendar year 1999 to 2022.

Calendar Year	Number of Paid Items
1999	106,130
2000	111,796
2001	118,210
2002	125,369
2003	130,563
2004	138,484
2005	155,096
2006	173,380
2007	196,443
2008	220,980
2009	244,691
2010	271,626
2011	306,229
2012	352,633
2013	391,407
2014	430,913
2015	465,241
2016	493,017
2017	513,624
2018	523,638
2019	539,061
2020	557,589
2021	555,208
2022	562,415

Source: Public Health Scotland

Data Notes:

1. Data taken from the Prescribing Information System (PIS), which holds information on all prescriptions prescribed in Scotland and dispensed in the community.

2. A paid item is a prescription that has been dispensed and reimbursed.

3. Excludes items dispensed in Scotland but prescribed in England/Wales/Northern Ireland.

Question reference: S6W-17065

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the £25 million investment from the Just Transition Fund for the north east, which was announced on 4 April 2023, including which organisations will receive the funding, when the funding be delivered and what criteria will be used to determine who receives the funding.

The £25 million funding will be allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24 to invest in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy, and in support of a Just Transition to net zero in the region. The funding will be invested by the Bank on a commercial basis, to leverage further private investment towards accelerating a just energy transition across the North East and Moray.

The Bank has a proven track record having committed £415.1 million across 27 investments, alongside over £680 million of third party capital since 2020. Utilising the Bank’s commercial investment expertise and experience represents a key opportunity to unlock third party finance at the scale required to realise our ambition for a just transition in the region.

Question reference: S6W-17035

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it anticipates publishing its response to the results of the Scottish Highly Protected Marine Areas public consultation, after it closes on 17 April 2023.

The Scottish Government’s initial consultation on our proposed overall approach to Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) closed on 17 April and we have received thousands of responses which we want to ensure are given due consideration. We have now begun collating and analysing the responses we have received and will be carefully considering this feedback before setting out our next steps in due course.

Question reference: S6W-17047

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with (a) Western Isles, (b) Highland, (c) Argyll and Bute, (d) Orkney Islands and (e) Shetland Islands Council in relation to Scottish Highly Protected Marine Areas.

During this initial phase of policy development the Scottish Government met with representatives of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on 17 February 2023, representatives of Highland Council on 20 February 2023, and representatives of Orkney Islands Council on 17 February, 22 February and 4 April 2023.

Further direct engagement will take place during the site selection process, as specific site proposals are being developed, to ensure views can be taken into account regarding any proposed sites in each council area.

Question reference: S6W-17044

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide details of any (a) newspaper and (b) TV adverts that it placed in relation to its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas.

Question reference: S6W-17067

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a complete list of all industry engagement that took place before, and specifically to inform, the announcement of the £25 million investment for the north east on 4 April 2023.

The Just Transition Fund sends a clear signal of our support for the North East and Moray however government alone cannot finance the region’s journey to net zero. The Scottish National Investment Bank will invest this £25 million funding in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy, its missions including to support the Just Transition to net zero, and the Fund’s geographic remit.

Officials have engaged regularly with the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank to inform the approach to Just Transition Fund investment capital.

On 24 January officials engaged with representatives from local councils, chambers of commerce, enterprise agencies, regional economic development organisations and community groups to reflect on the lessons learned from the first year of the Just Transition Fund.

On 9 February 2023 the former Minister for Just Transition held a series of engagements with representatives from Opportunity North East, Energy Transition Zone and the Net Zero Technology Centre.