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: S6O-04123

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how its Marine Directorate monitors international fishing vessels.

Question reference: S6O-04150

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle any fraud in Social Security Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04104

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that it plans to double the funding available to local authorities through its school meal debt fund from £1.4 million to £2.8 million, whether it plans to allocate the same amount of funding on a recurring basis in future Budgets.

The Scottish Government has taken steps to address the historic school meal debt accrued by local authorities by increasing the funding available through the School Meal Debt Fund from £1.5m to £2.8m in 2024/25. This increase has fully met the requests made by local authorities on school meal debt.

The 2025/26 budget will deliver a really strong deal for councils that means they can avoid families building up significant debt. This funding along with the measures outlined in the COSLA guidance on this matter, will ensure that future school meal debt is managed appropriately, as far as possible, for families.

Question reference: S6W-32007

Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, following the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government on 4 December 2024, in which it was announced that it would be "making an additional £3 million available to help to tackle retail crime", whether the (a) Scottish Retail Consortium and (b) Retail Industry Leadership Group will be asked to contribute to the deliberations on how this funding should be used.

The Scottish Government are making £3 million available to help tackle retail crime which costs businesses millions each year and has a knock-on effect on the prices we pay in the shops. Police Scotland will work in partnership with the Retail Industry Leadership Group on how best to use this additional funding for maximum impact. The Scottish Retail Consortium, through their membership of the Retail ILG, will have the opportunity to contribute to these discussions.

Question reference: S6W-32033

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the 2025-26 draft Budget proposes reducing the digital budget of the portfolio of the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic by more than one half, and what areas of the digital budget this will impact on.

Following record investment in digital this financial year, the draft budget allocates £166 million for investment during 2025-26. This total includes income to the Scottish Government of around £68 million from legacy programmes and will support continued delivery of the Reaching 100% (R100) contracts and the Digital Strategy. The Scottish Government has also secured UK Government funding for investment in digital infrastructure through the Project Gigabit programme which will further increase planned digital spend in 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-31984

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will align with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-led Quota Application Mechanism to grant additional quota to fishing businesses that demonstrate that they have reduced their environmental impact and/or are deploying selective approaches to fishing.

In 2025, the Scottish Government will distribute a portion of West of Scotland cod based on an application process which will place environmental considerations at its heart. This seeks to incentivise the use of selective fishing gear and fishing techniques or vessels with a reduced impact on the environment.

This approach is distinct from the process in England. Scottish Government officials regularly meet to discuss fisheries management matters with officials from all UK and devolved administrations, and officials have been in dialogue with Defra to learn from their experiences in launching and administering the Quota Application Mechanism pilot.

Question reference: S6W-31908

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it first received the A96 Corridor Review before it was publicly released on 28 November 2024.

I received initial advice from Transport received on the emerging outcomes of the Corridor Review in February 2024 followed by comprehensive advice on the outcomes from the Review’s appraisal and assessment work including full details of the magnitude of the Review’s associated reporting in July 2024.

I then received a hard copy of the full Corridor Review’s Transport Appraisal Report on 28 August 2024 which set out the outcomes of the Transport Appraisal of the Review. Following consideration of the advice from Transport Scotland officials, the reporting from the Corridor Review was published on 28 November 2024 in draft for consultation. A copy of the reports published for consultation are available from the Transport Scotland website at https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/strategy/a96-corridor-review/.

Feedback from members of the public and key stakeholders will be vital in helping inform the Scottish Government’s final decision on how best to take forward improvements to the A96 whilst also balancing the demands of the challenging economic climate and the climate emergency and will inform our timescales going forward.

Question reference: S6W-31883

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan 2024–2030 (a) protects Scotland's (i) rainforest and (ii) native woodlands and (b) mitigates the spread of rhododendron ponticum.

The Biodiversity Strategy Delivery Plan 2024-2030 includes specific action to implement Scotland’s Strategic Approach for Scotland’s Rainforest which aims to improve its condition and health so that it can regenerate and expand whilst providing benefits to communities. There are a number of actions that protect our wider native woodlands including a commitment to landscape restoration areas with a significant woodland element, a register of ancient woodland, ensuring mechanisms are in place for restoration of ancient woodlands, establishing a programme to bring protected woodlands into favourable condition, best practice guidance for upland restoration, and actions on deer and grazing management.

The Delivery Plan also contains the key action to develop an invasive non-native species (INNS) Action Plan to support the protection and restoration of native habitats. The Plan will include actions to be taken to ensure new potential INNS are detected early to prevent establishment and spread. The Action Plan will also seek to better focus resources and effort to control or eradicate established INNS, where possible working at a landscape scale. Scottish Government are currently working with our stakeholders to develop the Action Plan, with a view to publication in summer 2025.

Scottish Forestry continues to target support for Rhododendron control through the forestry grant scheme at the priority areas in our Strategic Approach to Scotland’s Rainforest.

Question reference: S6W-31860

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is collaborating with (a) the UK Government and (b) international partners on the regulation of online platforms in order to reduce young people's online exposure to radical misogyny.

Keeping children safe from online abuse and exploitation and tackling misogyny in our society are key priorities for the Scottish Government. We are committed to ensuring that robust measures are in place across Scotland to ensure our services can identify and support victims of online harm, including children and young people.

While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have engaged with both the previous and current UK Government administrations to strengthen the protections for children in the Online Safety Act. The Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise and I met with the online safety regulator Ofcom in August to discuss their strategy for online safety in Scotland. We await Ofcom’s draft guidance on protecting women and girls online, due to be published next year, and will reflect on its recent research which has highlighted the increased risk and concerns teenage girls and women face in relation to misogynistic content.

The Scottish Government also works closely with operational partners to tackle cyber-crime including Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre and Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland. These agencies link to international partnership working, and we will continue to identify opportunities for international engagement as we develop our approach to the global threat of online harm and radicalism.

As part of our existing approach, we support victims of abuse linked to misogyny, including through the provision of Our Delivering Equally Safe fund. This includes an award of over £110,000 to the South West Grid for Learning to deliver advice to victims of intimate image abuse and to improve awareness of sexual exploitation – or ‘Revenge Porn’ across Scotland. The Safer Scotland website was updated earlier this year to provide information, links to support and advice for victims on reporting intimate image abuse and our ParentClub website provides information on online harms including specific advice on misogynistic content.

The Scottish Government has also established an internal policy group on Technology-Facilitated Violence against Women and Girls, in recognition of the cross-cutting nature of this issue. This work will look to coordinate and accelerate the Scottish Government’s strategic approach to tackling technology-facilitated violence against women and girls, including how we further strengthen our approach to addressing online misogyny.

Question reference: S6W-31878

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to extend the Scottish Women's Aid Fund to Leave to victim-survivors of financial abuse.