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-33771

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 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve mobile connectivity for its employees in remote and rural areas.

The Scottish Government works closely with the framework supplier to ensure the best possible network coverage.

For Scottish Government (SG) employees in remote and rural areas using an SG-issued mobile device, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling are permitted when mobile connectivity is insufficient.

The Scottish Government maintains membership in the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN).

SWAN, a partnership between the Scottish public sector and BT, is committed to accelerating the digital transformation of Scotland’s public sector, including in some of the most rural areas of the country.

The contract will enhance communication, data sharing, and collaboration across more than 94 public sector organisations and thousands of sites.

BT has pledged to provide significantly faster and more resilient fibre broadband and mobile connections to its network members.

Question reference: S6W-33762

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 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on contracts for government-issued mobile phones in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33767

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 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it keeps communications secure for government-issued mobile phones.

Question reference: S6W-33887

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much end-of-life (a) fishing and (b) aquaculture gear has been recycled in each year since 2021.

The Scottish Government has prioritised improving the collection and recycling of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear in our Marine Litter Strategy published in 2022 in order to protect our environment from plastic pollution and support the growth of our circular economy. Earlier research showed that end-of-life gear is in the most part stored or sent to landfill as it is extremely difficult to recycle due to its low-value, bulky, contaminated and degraded nature. There are very few recycling facilities currently, and we have no information on how much been recycled since 2021. It is therefore a focus to improve recycling opportunities for both the fishing and aquaculture sectors.

We are building on the information gathered through our research published in 2022 which established an inventory of fishing and aquaculture gear in use across the UK and the expected levels of end-of-life gear requiring suitable waste management. We supported the development of a European Standard to introduce design concepts that facilitate the future reuse and recycling of end-of-life gear, published through the British Standards Institution in November 2024. We continue to support initiatives that aim to recycle end-of-life gear and funded capital investment in an initiative in the North East through Marine Fund Scotland. In addition, we also established a formal working group across the four nations to commission further research and analyse policy options which we will consider with industry stakeholders in the near future.

Question reference: S6W-33857

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages NHS boards to include more domestic seafood products in hospital catering.

The Scottish Government is using its legislation and policies to maximise the impact procurement can have for public bodies, local suppliers and the Scottish economy.

To promote local and sustainable produce public bodies have the flexibility to:

Design menus that include Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Food;
Specify food produced according to recognised assurance schemes, e.g. Quality Meat Scotland, MSC, Red Tractor, RSPCA, or equivalent bespoke company systems;

While public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which came into force on 18 April 2016, proposes a range of opportunities to increase the quality and provenance of food and drink procured. The key opportunity is in relation to the form and content for public bodies’ procurement strategies in which they must set out their policy on the procurement of food. Under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, a public body with an annual procurement spend of at least £5 million must report each year on how, its procurements improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area and facilitate access to procurement for SMEs, the third sector and supported businesses. Statutory Guidance published under the Act, sets out this requirement in more detail.

The Scottish Government is also providing Marine Fund Scotland funding towards Seafood Scotland’s “Market Development Project”, which involves work to ensure Scottish seafood’s profile grows in UK markets. This includes specific activity with various stakeholders throughout the supply chain to look at ways of increasing consumption of Scottish seafood in public procurement settings.

Question reference: S6W-33913

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many instances of (a) EU and (b) non-EU vessels landing fish without sufficient quota coverage in Scottish waters have been recorded, in each year since 2021.

The Scottish Government has no access to information on quotas held by individual vessels, it is therefore not possible for the Scottish Government to provide any information on instances of EU or non-EU vessels landing fish in Scottish waters without sufficient quota coverage.

Individual state’s quota uptake is monitored, where fleets have fished beyond their quota limit, the excess is covered retrospectively through quota exchanges.

Question reference: S6W-33765

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 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors compliance with policies on the use of government-issued mobile phones.

Question reference: S6O-04301

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to invest in the hospice care sector, in light of the £4 million referred to in the draft Budget 2025-26.

Question reference: S6O-04305

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average timescale is for non-criminal complaints against the police to be allocated for investigation by Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04303

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported guidance issued by Rape Crisis Scotland, and its definition of the word "woman".