- Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of escaped farmed salmon on wild salmon populations in Scottish rivers and coastal waters.
Answer
The Scottish Government published its first national assessment of genetic introgression in wild salmon in 2021 using data collected under the National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS) in 2018 and 2019, combined with targeted sampling in the vicinity of freshwater smolt rearing facilities: https://data.marine.gov.scot/dataset/national-assessment-influence-farmed-salmon-escapes-genetic-integrity-wild-scottish-atlantic
The research found evidence of introgression was concentrated in areas of marine aquaculture production on the west coast and areas with freshwater smolt rearing. Outside these areas, there was no strong evidence of introgression pressures. The results highlighted how important it is to reduce the risk of farmed fish escapes, to protect the integrity of wild salmon populations in areas of aquaculture production.
This was the first report of the National Introgression Programme for Scotland (NIPS) which is a nationwide project that is researching the link between fish farm escapes and introgression in wild salmon populations.
A larger number of sites were sampled in 2021 and 2023 as part of NEPS surveys (National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland). This should increase the spatial resolution of samples and confidence in the findings, while also allowing comparison across years. Analysis will be submitted shortly for peer review.
Following a large escape at one of its farms (Carradale) in 2020, Mowi funded a study to determine if introgression was occurring. No evidence of impact or introgression was found following the escape event. The report suggests that the effects of farm escapes can be complex depending on numbers of escapes, timing, status of wild stocks, and the maturation status of the escapees: https://www.gov.scot/publications/examination-levels-farm-wild-hybridisation-south-west-scotland-north-east-england-following-large-scale-farm-salmon-escape-event-2020/
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with consumer representative groups to assess any perceived fairness issues in relation to the potential introduction of zonal electricity pricing in Scotland, and what timeline it has set for any such engagement.
Answer
We have had extensive engagement with stakeholders – including consumer organisations such as Consumer Scotland – to ensure we understand all perspectives in this debate and represent this in our engagement with the UK Government.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed, or plans to review, the eligibility criteria for Funeral Support Payment.
Answer
At launch we substantially widened eligibility for Funeral Support Payment in comparison to the UK Government’s funeral payment. We recognised the complex nature of family relationships and introduced flexibility, meaning that the applicant does not have to be the closest relative of the deceased.
We regularly consider how to improve our payments and last year introduced amendment regulations to make improvements to Funeral Support Payment, further supporting bereaved people and helping people who are struggling to pay for a funeral. The changes included extending the definition of funeral to include alkaline hydrolysis, providing assistance for funerals abroad in exceptional circumstances and removing the cap for funerals outwith the deceased’s local area.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many of its public agencies, including NHS boards and local authorities, currently operate single-sex services based on gender identity rather than biological sex, and what steps are being taken to address this.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and is a matter for individual public bodies. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is the body responsible for regulating and enforcing the Equality Act 2010. The Scottish Government is already undertaking a review of existing policies, guidance and legislation impacted by the recent Supreme Court judgment but will require to fully consider the revised Guidance and Code from the EHRC when it is issued, along with the Supreme Court judgment itself, before any changes could be made.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on emerging energy technologies funds in the current parliamentary session to date.
Answer
In the current parliamentary session to date the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund has spent a total of £15.3 million on grant awards:
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35302 by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025, how much it estimates would be raised in leasing fees for a 50-year lease of the site under the current ScotWind leasing process.
Answer
Based on 2024 estimates, Crown Estate Scotland projects a revenue from ScotWind developments of £3.42m per gigwatt over the lifetime of the project. If leased through ScotWind then Inch Cape (1.08GW installed capacity) would return £3.7m annually.
The figures provided are estimates only – actual revenues achieved will be dependent on a range of issues, including those affecting deployment scale, and timing and windspeeds.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential benefits of introducing a price cap for the use of agency staff in healthcare positions, such as that introduced by NHS England in April 2023.
Answer
The Scottish Government is clear that all nurse agency workers should be accessed via the relevant national procurement framework operated by NHS National Services Scotland unless in exceptional circumstances. This approach supports efforts by NHS Scotland Boards to ensure that all engagements involving nurse agency workers represent value for money and contribute towards the delivery of high quality patient care.
With regards to the engagement of medical agency workers, our recently concluded Medical Locum Task and Finish Group considered the experience of NHS England in adopting price caps and concluded that such a step was unlikely to aid efforts to ensure best value in respect of such engagements. Instead, all NHS Scotland Boards are asked to operate robust governance processes in respect of decisions concerning the engagement of medical agency workers, ensuring that such workers are only used as a measure of last resort. Where this is the case, steps should be taken to ensure best value is secured in relation to such engagements, including through the development of clear exit strategies where possible.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to protect freedom of speech for public servants, teachers and other professionals who hold or express gender-critical views, in light of the Supreme Court ruling regarding For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers.
Answer
There are existing protections for freedom of speech and the Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination or harassment at work or in other areas of their life, because of their religious or philosophical beliefs.
The Equality Act 2010 is mainly reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Government. The regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has issued guidance on avoiding discrimination and harassment in the workplace and there is a Statutory Code of Practice on Employment.
Freedom of speech is a qualified right and the ways in which a person’s religion or belief is manifested might not be protected if this impacts on the legal rights of others, including those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, not to be discriminated against or harassed.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment to abolish non-residential care charges, for what reason the number of local authorities introducing or raising such fees has reportedly increased since 2022.
Answer
Under Section 87(1A) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, a local authority may charge for the adult non-residential, non-personal care it provides such as day care, lunch clubs, meals-on-wheels, community alarm and help with shopping and housework.
Local authorities have the powers to develop their own charging policies for non-residential social care and support. These charging policies are designed with the primary objective of offsetting the costs of providing services at a local level.
COSLA produces annual guidance to help promote consistency in policies, however variation often exists due to local accountability and conditions. COSLA and the Scottish Government recognises that local authorities require autonomy and flexibility to adapt to their local circumstances.
COSLA guidance recommends that charges should be reasonable and must be no higher than the cost to the local authority of providing the service. In reality most charges are much lower than the cost of providing the service.
The Scottish Government recognises that the cost of care can be high for people particularly in the current financial climate. We are committed to working with COSLA to review non-residential charges.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has issued any guidance or expectations to university governing bodies regarding executive pay restraint during periods of public funding pressure, in the last five years.
Answer
The Minister addressed the issue of executive pay and the need for restraint when he attended the Meeting of the Committee of Scottish University Chairs on 27 March 2025.
Universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own pay and remuneration decisions.
However, the Scottish Government expects universities to exercise restraint in setting senior pay, and senior pay packages should be in step with the salary, terms and conditions offered to other university staff.
Universities are also required to comply with the terms of the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memorandum as a condition of grant funding. This includes compliance with the principles of The Scottish Code of Good HE Governance, such as the expectation that universities’ remuneration committees seek the views of student and staff representatives in relation to the remuneration packages of Principals and senior executive teams, represent the public interest and avoid any inappropriate use of funds.
