Chamber and committees

There are no sewage discharges into Peterhead Lido, designated bathing water. The recent Scottish Liberal Democrat analysis of Scottish Water’s published Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) spill data stating that ‘sewage was discharged for a staggering 483 hours last year, totalling 337 separate sewage dumps onto the beach’ and widely reported in the media is incorrect.

Peterhead Lido is located within Peterhead Bay Marina harbour walls, which is situated within Peterhead Bay again protected by a second set of harbour walls. Peterhead Wastewater Treatment Works short sea outfall CSO, as highlighted by the Scottish Liberal Democrats, is located 1 km south around a coastal peninsula outside both sets of harbour walls away from Peterhead Lido. Given its location it cannot discharge sewage into Peterhead Lido or impact on its bathing water quality.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring, classifying protecting and improving water quality at designated bathing waters. Peterhead Lido is currently classified as having excellent bathing water quality. Overall, 98% of bathing waters currently meet the bathing water standards with more beaches being classified as excellent than ever before.

Development Trusts and others taking forward community led housing already have access to the demand-led £30 million Rural and Islands Housing Fund. This fund already supports community organisations to bring forward new housing projects, or to renovate empty homes or to convert commercial or non-domestic premises into residential accommodation to meet local housing needs including through the attraction or retention of economically active households.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17667 on 17 May 2023. 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

We have made significant investment to introduce more than 80 extra counsellors across institutions and have committed funding to maintain support through to the end of this academic year.

No decision has yet been taken with regard to funding beyond the current academic year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17310 on 4 May 2023. 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

The Scottish Government did not pay for advertisements in relation to the public consultation on our overall approach to Highly Protected Marine Areas. The consultation was publicised online via social media – see the answer to
‎ S6W-17045 on 15 May 2023 for more details. Additionally emails were sent out to the over 200 stakeholders who had signed up for our mailing list.

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

The Scottish Government’s stakeholder engagement during this initial phase of policy development, when no sites have been identified, was conducted online to enable wide participation. See the answers to S6W-16733 on 28 April 2023 and S6W-17046 on 15 May 2023 for more details of specific engagements. Meetings which took place prior to the launch of the consultation allowed stakeholder feedback to be taken into account as we developed our initial proposals. Meetings held during the consultation period were designed to assist stakeholders, including individuals and businesses, to complete the consultation and answer any questions.

The intention is to undertake in-person sessions during the next phase of the project in relation to the development of site proposals. I, along with other Ministers, will be visiting island and coastal communities around Scotland to hear their views directly before setting out our next steps.

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

The shellfish industry is an increasingly important aquaculture and food sector, creating and sustaining employment opportunities in many of Scotland’s remote rural, island and coastal communities and which supplies healthy and delicious Scottish shellfish to domestic and international markets and businesses.

I was pleased to support the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers conference held in Oban last year, in addition to the Shellfish Association of Great Britain conference to provide an update on progress across our priorities in Scotland, which of course is producing substantial amounts of the UK’s shellfish either through wild or farmed stocks. This year’s annual conference will be held in London in June and I was grateful to receive an invite to attend from David Jarrad, Chief Executive of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain.

Scottish Government officials are currently considering attendance at the event.

In letters of 16 February 2023 and 27 March 2023, the Scottish Government offered the Church of Scotland the option of another meeting with Registers of Scotland and Scottish Government officials to discuss how they can work together to help achieve compliance. The Scottish Government has not yet received a response to that offer, however officials will be in touch with the Church of Scotland to follow up on this.

The Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland are working together to deliver an additional engagement plan to raise awareness and help support stakeholders through the process. This will include a programme of additional awareness raising and reviewing the existing guidance, however this will not include further legislative intervention or legal advice.

I note that the Heritage Railways and Tramways (Voluntary Work) Bill is going through the UK Parliamentary process. Railway Safety legislation is reserved to the UK Parliament, and would be expected to apply in Scotland.

The Scottish Government considers it sensible to permit young people to volunteer on heritage railways and tramways with appropriate safety and protection arrangements.