Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-17605

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the taskforce established to explore what practical solutions can be delivered to help improve bus services across the country, in light of the reported continued reduction in routes by bus operators.

The Bus Taskforce was convened by the previous Minister for Transport to work on critical issues with bus stakeholders. It is reviewing and coordinating immediate activity to support patronage recovery, to address workforce retention and recruitment, and to ensure proactive communication and engagement with bus users as networks adapt post Covid. The work is expected to conclude in the coming months and a report of the Taskforce's work and recommendations will be published in Autumn 2023.

Question reference: S6W-17691

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry will report.

As a statutory inquiry, The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is independent of the Scottish Government.

Questions concerning the conclusion of the inquiry, including its timeline, are a matter for the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry team and Lord Hardie.

We are aware of the update on inquiry’s website advising that Lord Hardie’s report has been handed over to the publishing company and is due to be with them for several weeks. We look forward to receiving Lord Hardie’s report when it is ready.

Question reference: S6W-17441

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland have been charged and subsequently convicted of owning a banned dog breed since 2013, broken down by what the court disposal was.

Information on proceedings is provided in the following tables. Table 1 shows all charges reported to COPFS under Section 1(3) of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Table 2 shows only people prosecuted where the main charge was under Section 1(3) of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

Table 1

Charges reported to COPFS under: Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 S1(3)&1(7) - Possess a dog otherwise than in accordance with Act, 2013-14 to 2022-23.

	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Total	11	7	3	5	7	4	5	3	3	2

Source: Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service

Table 2

Number of people proceeded for possession of a dangerous dog, where main crime, by result, 2013-14 to 2020-21.

		2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
DANGEROUS DOGS ACT 1991 SECTION 1(3) & 1(7)	Not guilty	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	-
	Community sentence	-	1	-	-	1	1	1	-
	Monetary	1	1	2	-	2	1	-	-
	Other	1	1	1	-	1	1	-	-
Total proceedings		3	3	4	-	4	3	1	-

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Please note: Data for 2020-21 are affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures and may not be reflective of long term trend.

Question reference: S6W-17486

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on paying compensation to any businesses affected by the most recent delay to the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-17045

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it advertised its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) Instagram, and if so, whether it will provide details of engagement figures for each platform.

As well as a press release and supporting social media on the consultation opening on 12 December 2023, ?the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate frequently promoted the consultation, stakeholder information sessions and the extension of the consultation on its Twitter (@marinescotland) and LinkedIn channels, which have a combined following of more than 12.5K stakeholders. Please note that @marinescotland does not have an Instagram account.

A total of 15 posts were shared by @marinescotland which reached almost 80,000 people and achieved a good engagement rate of 2.7% (anything between 1-5% is considered good by social media marketing experts, according to Hootsuite). This equated to a total of 2,147 engagements (interactions) with the social media posts such as clicking on the link to the consultation, sharing, ‘liking’ and commenting on the posts.

It is important to note that the actual engagement with the online consultation will be much higher as this just reflects the social media promotion. For example, while 565 people clicked onto the consultation directly from these 15 social media posts, others will have visited the consultation directly from elsewhere, such as from stakeholder engagement activity and seeing press coverage.

Evaluation summary

A breakdown of the @marinescotland social media is included below, including the engagement rate calculation for transparency:

15 December – ‘ consultation now open ’ – 113 link clicks, 13,566 opportunities to see, 332 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 43 clicks, 1,576 OTS, 58 reactions)7 February – stakeholder information sessions – 63 link clicks, 4,096 opportunities to see, 202 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 76 clicks, 1,637 OTS, 34 reactions)

9 February – still spaces left to attend stakeholder information sessions – 18 link clicks, 3,727 opportunities to see, 51 engagements

7 March – closes on 20 March – 22 link clicks, 1,890 opportunities to see, 67 engagements

10 March – you have until Monday to respond – 9,968 opportunities to see, 274 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 5 clicks, 122 OTS, 2 reactions)

16 March – consultation extended by one month – 82 link clicks, 22,420 opportunities to see, 264 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 20 clicks, 790 OTS, 24 reactions)

29 March – stakeholder information sessions – 29 link clicks, 3,388 opportunities to see, 99 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 28 clicks, 882 OTS, 6 reactions)

31 March – stakeholder information sessions – 6 link clicks, 1,402 opportunities to see , 20 engagements

11 April – consultation closes in one week – 37 link clicks, 13,046 opportunities to see, 139 engagements ( LinkedIn post – 23 clicks, 922 OTS, 9 reactions)

Accurate as of 17 April:
LinkedIn followers – 3,245

Twitter followers – 9,325

Total followers – 12570

Total number of posts – 15

Opportunities to see (OTS) – Twitter – 73,503; LinkedIn – 5,929 = 79,432

Clicks – Twitter – 370 and LinkedIn – 195 = 565

Engagements – Twitter – 1448 and LinkedIn – 133 = 1581

Total engagements (clicks + engagements) – 2,146 ?

Engagement rate (total engagements / OTS x 100) – 2.7%

Question reference: S6W-17065

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the £25 million investment from the Just Transition Fund for the north east, which was announced on 4 April 2023, including which organisations will receive the funding, when the funding be delivered and what criteria will be used to determine who receives the funding.

The £25 million funding will be allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24 to invest in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy, and in support of a Just Transition to net zero in the region. The funding will be invested by the Bank on a commercial basis, to leverage further private investment towards accelerating a just energy transition across the North East and Moray.

The Bank has a proven track record having committed £415.1 million across 27 investments, alongside over £680 million of third party capital since 2020. Utilising the Bank’s commercial investment expertise and experience represents a key opportunity to unlock third party finance at the scale required to realise our ambition for a just transition in the region.

Question reference: S6W-17035

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it anticipates publishing its response to the results of the Scottish Highly Protected Marine Areas public consultation, after it closes on 17 April 2023.

The Scottish Government’s initial consultation on our proposed overall approach to Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) closed on 17 April and we have received thousands of responses which we want to ensure are given due consideration. We have now begun collating and analysing the responses we have received and will be carefully considering this feedback before setting out our next steps in due course.

Question reference: S6W-17046

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its public consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas, what external organisations it met in advance of the consultation launch, and on what date each meeting took place.

During this initial phase of policy development on Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), in 2022, the Scottish Government met with a range of stakeholders including -

British Trout Association (BTA) – 17 March
Coastal Communities Network (CCN) – 22 March
Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) - 23 November
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) – 24 March
Crown Estate Scotland (CES)–28 March
Oceana – 13 May
Royal Yachting Association (RYA) – 5 May
Salmon Scotland – 17 March and 6 April
Scottish Environment LINK–18 March, 14 July and 2 December
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – 8 March
Scottish Renewables – 13 May
Scottish Sea Farms Ltd–23 May
Scottish Seaweed Industry Association (SSIA) – 25 April

Please also refer to the answer under S6W-16733 on 15 May 2023 for a list of meetings with the fishing industry where HPMAs were discussed. 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-17047

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with (a) Western Isles, (b) Highland, (c) Argyll and Bute, (d) Orkney Islands and (e) Shetland Islands Council in relation to Scottish Highly Protected Marine Areas.

During this initial phase of policy development the Scottish Government met with representatives of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on 17 February 2023, representatives of Highland Council on 20 February 2023, and representatives of Orkney Islands Council on 17 February, 22 February and 4 April 2023.

Further direct engagement will take place during the site selection process, as specific site proposals are being developed, to ensure views can be taken into account regarding any proposed sites in each council area.

Question reference: S6W-17648

Asked by: Fulton MacGregor, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the recently-introduced Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land) Regulations 2021, what mitigations it can offer to the Church of Scotland, given that the church's over 6,000 congregations are all registered as separate charities and have reportedly described attempting to comply with the new regulations as extremely logistically difficult, expensive, and complicated to roll out.

The Register is a significant transparency measure that will shed light on who makes decisions about Scotland’s land. It has been live since 1 April 2022 and there is no charge to make a submission to the Register. For some, there may be a resource cost for the time taken to gather the information they require as part of their preparation prior to making a submission. The greater the number of properties owned, the greater the effort required is likely to be.

The Church of Scotland are one of the largest owners by volume of property titles held. This makes it important for the integrity of the Register that they comply with the RCI.

On 16 March 2023 the Scottish Parliament unanimously supported a 12-month extension to the transitional period to 1 April 2024 before offence provisions take effect. This is easing the burden by allowing those in scope to spread it over the coming year.

In letters of 16 February 2023 and 27 March 2023, the Scottish Government offered the Church of Scotland the option of another meeting with Registers of Scotland and Scottish Government officials to discuss how they can work together to help achieve compliance. The Scottish Government has not yet received a response to that offer, however officials will be in touch with the Church of Scotland to follow up on this.

The Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland are working together to deliver an additional engagement plan to help support stakeholders through the registration process. This will include additional awareness raising and a review of the existing guidance. It will not include further legislative intervention or legal advice.

Chamber and committees