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-33773

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting local authorities to improve mobile connectivity in areas with poor reception.

From 2018 to 2023, the Scottish Government invested £28.75 million to build 55 new mobile masts in longstanding ‘notspots’, bringing 4G connectivity for the first time to communities and businesses across rural and island Scotland. The Scottish Government has also funded the creation of Infralink. This is a dedicated toolkit designed to help Scotland’s public sector organisations more easily leverage publicly owned property and assets in the rollout of new telecommunications infrastructure.

Question reference: S6W-33567

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how often healthcare needs assessments are conducted in rural areas, and what changes have been implemented in the last 10 years as a result.

Question reference: S6W-34029

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws it has procured in each of the last 10 years, and what the average cost was.

Question reference: S6W-33411

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32613 by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025, what tangible benefits are delivered by its international network, and how these benefits are (a) measured and (b) reported.

The International Network annual report 2023-24, published on 18 November 2024, demonstrates how our network delivers tangible benefits across the three main pillars of work set out in the International Strategy. The International Network annual report is available at the following URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-international-network-annual-report-2023-24/

We are committed to a process that ensures our work is measurable, transparent and available to the public. We will publish the 2024-25 annual report later in the year.

Question reference: S6W-33666

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated to community-led health initiatives in rural areas over the last five years, and what the outcomes were.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular health challenges faced by those in rural areas. In addition to the support outlined in response to S6W-33562 on 3 February 2025, we have invested in a number of funding streams which have included allocations for community-led health initiatives in rural areas, including:

£66 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults since 2021, with more than 4,800 grants made to local projects across Scotland over the first three years. Of these more than 900 grants were made to community projects supporting people disadvantaged by geographical location (including rural areas) - Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Year 3 – Monitoring and Reporting Summary
Over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, including those in rural areas -

Independent-Evaluation-of-Community-Mental-Health-Supports-and-Services-April-2023.pdf

Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services: summary report - January to June 2023 - gov.scot

Over £29 million of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) funding since 2021 to deliver over 1000 grassroots community-led projects across rural & island Scotland in partnership with rural organisations. Some of which have health related benefits ranging from mental health and wellbeing to physical health. Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which may include community led health and social care provision
A further £11.4 million in 2024-25 to support Community-led Local Development and similar initiatives in our rural and island communities.

Links to the most recent evaluation reports of each of these initiatives, including information on outcomes, are included above where available. A review of CLLD funding began in 2024-25, and will continue throughout 2025-26.

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

Question reference: S6W-33738

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the frequency and severity of storms that have affected Aberdeenshire over the last five years, and what plans it has to improve infrastructure resilience in the region.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the frequency and severity of storms. This information is collected and held by Met Office.

We have recently made available £5m per annum capital budget over 4 years to fund the extension of the public water network to enable the removal of Private Water Supplies which should improve resilience to affected water supplies during power outages. Milton of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire has been shortlisted as one of the communities who will benefit from this funding.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) published in December 2022, provides guidance on long term investment in Scotland’s strategic transport network. STPR2 recommends future investment to ensure that Scotland’s trunk road network remains safe (Recommendation 30), adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change (Recommendation 31) and resilient (Recommendation 32).

Recommendation 31 provides a basis for identifying, prioritising and implementing transport infrastructure improvements. Measures could include but are not limited to strengthening or replacing sea walls, upgrading coastal fences and stabilising embankments, slopes and hillsides.

Scottish Government have also initiated a Significant Local Infrastructure process in which Local Resilience Partnerships are mapping infrastructure within their geographic areas. This will allow better understanding of this local infrastructure and will collate a rich picture to support further work, including identifying dependencies and interdependencies and allow improvements to business continuity and emergency response plans.

We would recommend that, should you require further information on storms and infrastructure in Aberdeenshire, you contact Aberdeenshire Council.

Question reference: S6W-33774

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of lost or stolen government-issued mobile phones have been reported in the last five years, and what actions were taken in response.

Question reference: S6F-03781

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Court of Session’s decision regarding the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field.

Question reference: S6W-33986

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to foster improved trust from distillers and small-scale spirits producers, in light of the reported issues with the Deposit Return Scheme.

Scotland’s DRS was due to launch in March 2024 and we would have been enjoying the benefits of a DRS now if the previous UK Government had agreed a full Internal Market Act exclusion to our scheme.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with businesses regarding Scotland’s Circular Economy and the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, including the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

In 2023, following a significant amount of engagement with businesses, including small-scale drinks producers, we amended DRS Regulations so that any product with fewer than 5,000 units on the market may be registered as a low volume product. As part of the development of the 3 nations scheme our officials shared the experience of developing the Scottish Scheme and due to this low volume products will be exempt from most of the requirements of the deposit return schemes across the UK.

Draft regulations recently notified to the WTO confirmed that glass will no longer be included in Scotland’s scheme. Because spirits are normally packaged in glass bottles, this means that the majority of distillers and small-scale spirits producers will be out of scope of DRS when it launches in October 2027.

Question reference: S6W-33987

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current regulations are for the (a) labelling and (b) marketing of Scotch whisky, and how these are enforced.

The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 set out requirements for the marketing and labelling of whisky alongside the Food Labelling (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1989 and The Spirit Drinks Regulations 2008. This is enforced by the relevant food authority in the UK or port health authority. The protection Scotch Whisky has under the GI scheme and associated legislation is certified and enforced by HMRC. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 also sets out additional regulations on the display and promotion of alcohol, which are enforced by the relevant local authority.

Furthermore, retained EU Regulation 110/2008, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 as well as Regulation 2019/787, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1637) and the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 continue to apply to the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of GIs for spirit drinks.