Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-34403

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 on how many occasions the businesses that have submitted an application for a Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) have asked for the information that they provide to be treated as confidential and therefore not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Information provided in any application for Freight Facilities Grant (FFG), including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with legislation including the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) and the Data Protection Act 1998.

All applicants are asked if any of the information they provide as part of the process is to be treated as confidential with an explanation of why this is so. If Transport Scotland receive a request for disclosure of this information we will take full account the explanation given. However, due to our obligations under the relevant legislation we have never given an assurance that information supplied to us, even in confidence, would not be disclosed.

To date, no FOI in relation to confidential information supplied as part of an application for FFG has been received by Transport Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35135

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28796 by Mairi Gougeon on 19 August 2024, whether it can provide an update on what discussions it has had with the forestry sector regarding the spread of outbreaks of the larger eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) in Scotland, and what preventative actions it has taken to limit the spread of these beetles.

Scottish Government considers industry involvement and engagement an important component in preventing the spread of Ips typographus into or within Scotland. Regular discussions are held with industry representatives from the nursery sector, growers and processing sector through the scheduled Scottish Tree Health Advisory Group and the Scottish Forest and Timber Technologies Industry Leadership Group.

Extensive surveillance and trapping is conducted across Scotland to monitor for the presence of these beetles. Following the trap finding in Scotland an intensive trapping programme has been underway to catch any residue beetles and prevent a breeding population from establishing in Scotland. There is no evidence that Ips typographus has become established or spread in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35029

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) has commissioned a structural engineer that is registered on the Conservation Accreditation Register for Engineers (CARE) to assess the structural condition of the Caerlee Mill at Innerleithen, and its viability for retention and conversion in whole or part.

Question reference: S6W-34796

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, following the drug, exagamglogene autotemcel, being approved for use in England to treat sickle cell disease, what progress has been on approving it for use in Scotland.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has not yet received a submission from the manufacturing company, Vertex, for exagamglogene autotemcel (Casgevy®) for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD).

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) and the SMC have engaged regularly with the marketing authorisation holder, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, on the SMC’s process for assessing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of exagamglogene autotemcel (Casgevy®) for use in the SCD indication in the NHS in Scotland. The SMC would welcome a submission from Vertex for Casgevy® in the SCD indication at any time.

Question reference: S6W-34624

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 criteria it uses when granting leases or tenancies for livestock farming on land that it owns.

Question reference: S6W-34484

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will report on the progress that it has made on implementing the relevant recommendations from the Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people (the Cass Review).

The Cass Review only considered services offered by NHS England, and the report’s 32 recommendations are made to NHS England. As such, NHS England holds responsibility for implementing these recommendations.

The Scottish Government did, however, commit to closely consider the Review’s findings in the context of NHS Scotland services. Accordingly, the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland convened a multidisciplinary team to consider the Review’s recommendations and how they might be applicable to Scotland, which published its findings on 5 July 2024. The Scottish Government has accepted this report and its recommendations.

A “Task and Finish” group, supported by the Scottish Government’s Chief Operating Officer’s Directorate, has now been convened to design a sustainable model for young people’s gender identity services, and the work of this group will be shaped by the multidisciplinary team’s recommendations. Additionally, as recommended by the report, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde ended self-referrals to the Sandyford Gender Identity Clinic in August 2024, and the health board is taking forward work to move young people’s gender identity services into a paediatric clinical setting.

Question reference: S6W-34502

Asked by: Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32043 by Jenni Minto on 17 December 2024, whether consideration is being given to creating a clinical and third sector stakeholder group to help inform the implementation of the NICE guideline on myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), to be delivered by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The Budget includes a new investment of £4.5 million to deliver specialist support for ME/CFS, Long Covid and other similar conditions. We are exploring whether bringing clinical and third sector stakeholders together to seek further consensus and clarity around the status and implementation of the NICE guidelines on ME/CFS would help deliver this specialist support and, if so, consideration will be given to whether Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), or another organisation, is well placed to facilitate this work.

Question reference: S6W-34202

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 what the cost has been of engaging private companies to deliver audiology services in each year since 2018, broken down by NHS board.

While the Scottish Government remains committed to its vision for an integrated and community-based hearing service in Scotland, currently there is no community audiology service in place, with services provided either in hospital settings or, if patients choose to self-refer for treatment privately on the high street. There has therefore been no assessment of private provision made.

The Scottish Government do not hold information if individual Boards have engaged with private companies in support of waiting lists.

Question reference: S6W-34069

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many pieces of (a) physical and (b) email correspondence (i) the First Minister (ii) each cabinet secretary, (iii) each minister and (iv) each law officer has received in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government does not currently hold data on the number of physical items of ministerial correspondence received so we are unable to provide this.

However when correspondence is received, by email or by post, these are uploaded onto our correspondence management system, MiCase.

Please see below the volume data recorded on MiCase for Ministerial Correspondence received each year since 2020, split by Ministerial Portfolio.

All Ministerial Portfolios from the past five years have been included. Over this period, the names of portfolios have changed, with some similarly titled portfolios existing within the same year period. The data supplied reflects these changes.

It should be noted that there are a small number of correspondence cases that are not uploaded and managed through MiCase. These are instead handled by Private Office outside of MiCase, before being saved to the Official Record. These cases are therefore not captured in the following figures.

Ministerial Portfolio	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
First Minister and Deputies
First Minister	3,199	1,937	643	786	856	7,421
Deputy First Minister & Cabinet Secretary for Finance				353	227	580
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery		816	621	133		1,570
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Gaelic					758	758
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills	6,627	2,781				9,408
Cabinet Secretaries
Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government	1,523	456				1,979
Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture		511	919	646	915	2,991
Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs	94					94
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills		2,523	1,675	1,879	1,790	7,867
Cabinet Secretary for Finance	1,434	1,662				3,096
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy		1,119	947	16		2,082
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government					419	419
Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work	52					52
Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations	132					132
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care		10,072	7,119	1,130	2,187	20,508
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport	15,144	7,721				22,865
Cabinet Secretary for Justice	2,246	1,125				3,371
Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs				990	1,048	2,038
Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans		1,366	1,249	267		2,882
Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy				21	760	781
Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition				256		256
Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport	20	1,948	2,559	165		4,692
Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care				2,134	1,112	3,246
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands		887	949	170		2,006
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands				769	1,003	1,772
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice				634	684	1,318
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government		2,263	2,761	467		5,491
Cabinet Secretary for Social Protection, Housing, and Equalities		42				42
Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People	1,304	454				1,758
Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs	575	344				919
Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Fair Work and Culture	2,679	650				3,329
Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform	1,633	457				2,090
Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy	70					70
Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Tourism	3,556	1,448				5,004
Cabinet Secretary for Transport					2,446	2,446
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity	776	2,439				3,215
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition				497	56	553
Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy				620	70	690
Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy					360	360
Ministers
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity					1,031	1,031
Minister for Business					329	329
Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills	3,523	1,909				5,432
Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise		1,324	927	156		2,407
Minister for Children and Young People	1,946	1,674	702	169		4,491
Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise				598	663	1,261
Minister for Climate Action					925	925
Minister for Community Safety	1,468	1,431	663	126		3,688
Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance				600	237	837
Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development		1,046	458	541	226	2,271
Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and Minister with special responsibility for Refugees from Ukraine			1,375	214		1,589
Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy				309	267	576
Minister for Drugs Policy	50	494	254	61		859
Minister for Employment and Investment					371	371
Minister for Energy				190		190
Minister for Energy and the Environment				747	90	837
Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands	918	445				1,363
Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work					276	276
Minister for Environment and Land Reform		388	1,066	191		1,645
Minister for Environment, Biodiversity & Land Reform		361				361
Minister for Equalities					482	482
Minister for Equalities & Older People		363	367	62		792
Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees			19	657	258	934
Minister for Europe and International Development	155	183				338
Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development	64					64
Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science	1,469	907				2,376
Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity		371	759	1,005	161	2,296
Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans				1,018	966	1,984
Minister for Higher Education & Further Education, Youth Employment & Training		878	1,019	193		2,090
Minister for Higher Education; and Minister for Veterans					17	17
Minister for Housing				1,450	1,619	3,069
Minister for Independence				119	22	141
Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work		343	277	52		672
Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning				693	301	994
Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning	4,153	1,504				5,657
Minister for Mental Health	1,291	456				1,747
Minister for Mental Wellbeing & Social Care		1,363	1,543	304		3,210
Minister for Older People and Equalities	736	405				1,141
Minister for Parliamentary Business		54	52	53	87	246
Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans	279	136				415
Minister for Public Finance					936	936
Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy	24					24
Minister for Public Finance and Migration	1,084					1,084
Minister for Public Finance, Planning & Community Wealth		838	1,342	239		2,419
Minister for Public Finances and Digital Economy	48					48
Minister for Public Health and Sport	1,111	2,568				3,679
Minister for Public Health and Women's Health				1,815	2,109	3,924
Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing	6,299	34				6,333
Minister for Public Health, Women's Health & Sport	20	3,782	2,305	434		6,541
Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment	1,029	336				1,365
Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade				178		178
Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade				429	252	681
Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport				1,312	1,467	2,779
Minister for Social Security and Local Government		749	1,041	222		2,012
Minister for Trade, Innovation and Public Finance	20	243				263
Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation	258					258
Minister for Transport		2,316	3,939	3,237	217	9,709
Minister for Victims and Community Safety				726	1,151	1,877
Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights		416	1,101	1,002	226	2,745
Total	35771	32851	20473	20374	16527	125996

Question reference: S6W-35114

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the survival rate of farmed salmon on marine farms was in 2024.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on fish survival by calendar year. Each October, Scottish Government publishes a Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey which presents data on survival to harvest within a year class; that is, the fish grown to harvest within a production cycle.

The member may be interested to know that industry trade body Salmon Scotland publishes monthly mortality data. In recent correspondence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee dated 3 February 2025, Salmon Scotland noted that their data indicated survival across all marine farms was 82.3% in 2024, up 10 percentage points from 72.3% in 2023.

Chamber and committees