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-30538

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to recruit a new Chief Entrepreneur.

Question reference: S6W-30539

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any contract extension for the Chief Entrepreneur.

Question reference: S6W-30417

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group to discuss employment and training initiatives for the renewable energy sector.

Question reference: S6W-30441

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with the BP & EnBW enabling (a) crew transfer vessel and (b) service operation vessel fabrication project in the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council Strategic Investment Model.

These projects have been classed as referral projects in the Strategic Investment Model process and have been referred to their local enterprise agency to continue discussions on ways in which the projects can be supported. Full details about the route forward for each of the project categories are available online: Full SIM Stage 2 List published | Offshore Wind Scotland.

While the Scottish Government supports the industry-led Strategic Investment Model, the decision to prioritise projects for investment through the Strategic Investment Model was made by industry – not the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-30375

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many projects have received funding from the Nature Restoration Fund, and what the value is of that funding, broken down by local authority area.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) makes funding available through two main strands: the competitive strand administered by NatureScot, and the Edinburgh Process strand, which provides direct allocations to Local Authorities and National Parks.

In total, to date, 220 projects have been offered funding from the competitive strand of the NRF, including 28 NRF-funded Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF) projects. This represents a total of £33,366,872 in committed funding.

The following table sets out by local authority area the 183 projects awarded competitive funding to the end of March 2024, the period for which data is currently available. We do not hold information about the amounts of funding offered in this format and this does not include the NRF-funded SMEEF projects referred to above.

Local authority	Number of NRF competitive strand supported projects (as of end of March 2024)
Aberdeen City	1
Aberdeenshire	12
Angus	6
Argyll and Bute	11
Clackmannanshire	3
Dumfries and Galloway	13
Dundee City	1
East Ayrshire	5
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh, City of	7
Eilean Siar	3
Falkirk	1
Fife	14
Glasgow City	2
Highland	28
Inverclyde
Midlothian
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	3
Orkney Islands	3
Perth and Kinross	12
Renfrewshire	1
Scottish Borders	11
Shetland Islands	1
South Ayrshire	2
South Lanarkshire	1
Stirling	10
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	2
Scotland-wide / multiple areas	23

The Edinburgh Process strand of the NRF has provided a total of £17 Million in direct allocations to Local Authorities and National Parks to date, between 2021-22 and 2023-24. A further £5 Million was distributed to Local Authorities in 2023-24 to support the development of Nature Networks. The following table provides a breakdown of the Local Authority awards. However, each council is responsible for using this funding on locally determined biodiversity priorities, in line with the principles of the Edinburgh Process. We do not therefore hold a centralised record of the number of individual projects supported by the Edinburgh Process strand in each local authority area. Not included in the table is an additional £1 Million which was made available as a competitive fund for local authorities in 2022.

Local Authority	Rounded Allocation (£m)
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	3-year total	Nature Networks 2023-24
Aberdeen City	0.128	0.135	0.135	0.398	0.135
Aberdeenshire	0.268	0.213	0.223	0.704	0.223
Angus	0.095	0.15	0.153	0.398	0.153
Argyll & Bute	0.108	0.238	0.245	0.591	0.245
Clackmannanshire	0.067	0.091	0.098	0.256	0.098
Dumfries & Galloway	0.135	0.257	0.245	0.637	0.245
Dundee City	0.109	0.086	0.086	0.281	0.086
East Ayrshire	0.172	0.102	0.103	0.377	0.103
East Dunbartonshire	0.079	0.132	0.133	0.344	0.133
East Lothian	0.109	0.11	0.112	0.331	0.112
East Renfrewshire	0.084	0.061	0.061	0.206	0.061
Edinburgh, City of	0.264	0.161	0.136	0.561	0.136
Eilean Siar	0.018	0.124	0.128	0.270	0.128
Falkirk	0.183	0.179	0.174	0.536	0.174
Fife	0.416	0.378	0.306	1.100	0.306
Glasgow City	0.487	0.132	0.124	0.743	0.124
Highland	0.258	0.328	0.338	0.924	0.338
Inverclyde	0.088	0.16	0.153	0.401	0.153
Midlothian	0.081	0.103	0.106	0.290	0.106
Moray	0.101	0.124	0.123	0.348	0.123
North Ayrshire	0.166	0.19	0.178	0.534	0.178
North Lanarkshire	0.369	0.274	0.278	0.921	0.278
Orkney Islands	0.016	0.054	0.053	0.123	0.053
Perth & Kinross	0.166	0.176	0.177	0.519	0.177
Renfrewshire	0.157	0.102	0.100	0.359	0.100
Scottish Borders	0.12	0.161	0.164	0.445	0.164
Shetland Islands	0.016	0.079	0.081	0.176	0.081
South Ayrshire	0.105	0.096	0.095	0.296	0.095
South Lanarkshire	0.264	0.188	0.273	0.725	0.273
Stirling	0.097	0.114	0.114	0.325	0.114
West Dunbartonshire	0.102	0.126	0.129	0.357	0.129
West Lothian	0.172	0.176	0.184	0.532	0.184
TOTAL	5	5	5	15	5

Question reference: S6W-30420

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met industry stakeholders to discuss workforce planning for renewable energy projects.

The most recent discussion on workplace planning for renewable energy projects took place at The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) on 18 September 2024, where members discussed barriers and opportunities in relation to skills and the workforce for the offshore wind industry.

We will continue to engage with industry stakeholders to plan for a multi-skilled energy workforce that can benefit from opportunities across the energy system.

Question reference: S6W-30439

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many green jobs have been created directly as a result of Just Transition funding.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting a cross-sector portfolio of projects ranging across sectors like energy, agriculture, digital innovation and construction while also supporting communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

This includes £9.7 million on a package of skills interventions supporting the transferability of workforce across sectors to meet the needs of the net zero transition including: a digital offshore energy skills passport; and an Energy Transition Skills Hub.

The Scottish Government does not currently hold overall figures relating to employment outcomes or job creation as a result of our funded programmes. We are currently commissioning an independent evaluation which will help to determine this and the impact of the Fund to date, in due course.

Question reference: S6W-30284

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported calls from the Scottish Retail Consortium and Scottish Tourism Alliance for the UK Government, in the upcoming Autumn Budget, to restore tax-free shopping for overseas visitors as a means of supporting Scotland’s retail, tourism and hospitality sectors.

The Scottish Government opposed the abolition of tax-free shopping when it was announced in 2020 and called upon the previous UK Government to listen to industry and urgently reconsider the issue, including in a letter sent to the Chancellor ahead of the 2024 UK Spring Budget.

The removal of VAT-free shopping is likely to be having a detrimental impact on retail businesses and may be discouraging tourists from visiting the UK, and Scotland specifically. Many EU countries offer tax-free shopping for non-EU visitors, giving their retail sectors an advantage over Scotland’s fantastic range of shops, stores, manufacturers and producers and making those European cities a more attractive tourist destination.

The Scottish Government’s position remains that the restoration of VAT-free shopping for all overseas visitors to the UK would help support this vital sector in Scotland.

Ultimately, the Scottish Government believes that all tax powers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament so that we can provide the support that Scottish retailers and tourism businesses need.

Question reference: S6W-30319

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which companies would provide any live facial recognition technology services to Police Scotland under the reported proposals outlined by the Chief Constable.

Question reference: S6W-30320

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can guarantee that any companies implicated in human rights abuses will not be used to provide the live facial recognition technology services to Police Scotland under reported proposals outlined by the Chief Constable.