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 41770 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-30346

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether Police Scotland has corresponded with the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner about the reported proposals to deploy live facial recognition technology in Scotland, and, if so, whether this correspondence was undertaken before the Chief Constable outlined the proposals to the media.

Question reference: S6W-30365

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the report that it commissioned on the constitutional role(s) of the Law Officers for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-30158

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it stated that the terms of reference of the Zero Waste Scotland landfill ban and infrastructure capacity report were "incomplete" and "under final review" on 19 June 2024, in correspondence with Friends of the Earth Scotland in response to freedom of information request FOI/202400417634, in light of it having stated in earlier correspondence on 3 May 2024 that the "outputs and recommendations of this work are currently under consideration by the Scottish Government".

Question reference: S6W-30516

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any impact on its energy policy and strategy, what its position is on the reported calls on the UK Government by Scottish Renewables and other trade bodies to rule out zonal pricing under the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA), and to instead commit to a Reformed National Market (RNM) programme.

The Scottish Government is aware that the introduction of zonal pricing could have a significant impact on all market participants, including industry, communities and consumers. It is therefore important that any such proposal is considered in the round in wider electricity market reform, which considers how we can establish an energy system that ultimately delivers investment, energy security and translates the lower costs of renewables through to consumers.

The Scottish Government welcomes the constructive engagement we have had with Ofgem, NG ESO, the UK Government and industry on the reform of electricity markets, however, it is crucial that the UK Government urgently provides clarity on the timetable and direction of travel on this key piece of work.

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-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-30314

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 what its position is on whether live facial recognition technology could disproportionately misidentify the faces of ethnic minority people, and what implications this might have for the use of the technology.