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-34200

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered expanding mobile audiology services to improve access in (a) rural and (b) underserved areas.

While the Scottish Government remains committed to its vision for an integrated and community-based hearing service in Scotland, re-phasing of funding has meant that not all the challenges we are facing will be addressed in a single budget and therefore there is no community hearing service in operation at this time.

While our response to the Independent Review of Audiology is implemented, we will continue to work with the NHS, Third Sector and private providers to identify and cost an appropriate model of community care for any future service reform, and ensure that the voices of those with lived experience inform this work.

Question reference: S6W-34623

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue it has received from agricultural leases or tenancies involving livestock farming on land that it owns in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-34803

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the NatureScot licensing review will report, and by what date a decision will be announced regarding the agency charging for its licensing services.

Question reference: S6W-34621

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many livestock are kept on land that it owns, broken down by (a) species and (b) location.

Question reference: S6W-34410

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to expand the Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) programme to include new types of projects or industries, and, if so, what these new areas of focus would be.

Question reference: S6W-34259

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how Food Standards Scotland supports food producers to meet labelling regulations.

To support food producers to meet labelling regulations, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has published various forms of guidance and training material which are designed to lay the relevant information out in an easy-to-understand way. This includes guidance on the Food Information Regulation, allergen labelling, food sold prepacked for direct sale and front of pack nutrition labelling along with online allergy training and MenuCal resource.

Question reference: S6W-34264

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role Food Standards Scotland plays in monitoring and preventing the sale of counterfeit or substandard alcohol.

In line with the Food Standards Scotland (FSS) Food Crime Prevention Strategic Plan 2024-27, FSS works in partnership with local authorities, other law enforcement agencies (LEA), industry and stakeholders at various strategic and tactical fora, including:

the National Multi Agency Counterfeit Alcohol Working Group
regular engagement with the drinks industry
share intelligence with relevant LEA and local authority partners
engagement with international LEA partners - Europol, OLAF and participate in Operation OPSON
Food Crime Global Alliance
access to Trading Standards intelligence system
media awareness - including risk communication to consumers
horizon scanning
proactive sampling projects
multi-agency inspections
through joint working/liaison with Police Scotland, HMRC and local authorities
intelligence requirements from/to various partners
Food Alerts for Action (FAFA) via local authorities
liaison with Public Health teams and National Poisons

Question reference: S6W-34233

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how Food Standards Scotland engages with food businesses to improve compliance with food labelling laws.

During the preparation, evaluation and revision of food law (including any changes to labelling requirements), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) carries out open and transparent public consultation, directly or through representative bodies. FSS does this by reaching out to business using their Stakeholder Management System and social media. FSS also engages with businesses during the development of guidance documents and provides other tools such as online allergy training.

However, whilst FSS has responsibility for the policies surrounding food composition, labelling and hygiene, local authorities are primarily responsible for the enforcement of the relevant legislation at local level. FSS encourages businesses to work with their local authority to improve compliance.

Question reference: S6W-34225

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many food safety incidents Food Standards Scotland has responded to in each year since 2018, broken down by type of incident.

FSS Incident Statistics 2018 - 2024 by Incident Category


	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Category Total
Allergens	19	16	20	14	29	18	30	146
Animal feed	10	4	4	10	4	4	5	41
Chemical	10	12	18	18	20	11	17	106
Emergency	9	4	3	0	0	0	2	18
GMO / Novel Food	1	3	4	4	1	4	4	21
Illegal activity	2	1	5	3	2	0	2	15
Microbiological	18	30	17	22	39	32	33	191
On-Farm	7	7	11	3	6	9	6	49
Other	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	5
Physical	5	7	3	5	3	4	3	30
Production error	8	4	6	7	8	6	8	47
Regulatory Breach	18	8	7	9	20	22	21	105
Shellfish	2	3	5	4	11	5	6	36
Yearly Total	111	101	103	99	144	115	137	810

Question reference: S6W-34265

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support Food Standards Scotland provides to businesses to reduce the risk of food crime in their supply chains.