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-35524

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is a statutory requirement for initiatives that are aimed at increasing public transport use, in order to reduce emissions, to be cost neutral.

All initiatives that are aimed at increasing public transport use must represent Value for Money (VfM) and a good use of Scottish Government resources. The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, Section 24 states "(21) The plan must also set out an estimate of the costs and benefits associated with the policies set out in the plan" which would include any public transport incentivisation policies included in the Climate Change Plan. There is no requirement statutory or otherwise that they are cost neutral.

Transport interventions are assessed for VfM for Government spend. Major interventions, in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG), are assessed against a range of criteria covering Economy, Climate Change, Environment, Health, Safety and Wellbeing and Equality and Accessibility.

Question reference: S6W-35480

Asked by: Elena Whitham, MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of estates applying for a section 16AA licence to shoot grouse in the 2024-25 season has registered the grouse moor only, rather than the whole landholding.

Question reference: S6W-35528

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to update the ScotRail Peak Fares Removal Pilot Final Evaluation Report to cover the whole of the trial period.

Transport Scotland is currently analysing data to the beginning of March and expects to publish results shortly. This will cover the whole period of the pilot and beyond. As detailed in the answer to S6W-35525 on 24 March 2025, daily journeys have increased (on average) since the pilot ended and the analysis is exploring this further.

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-35363

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken any assessment of the costs of undertaking peatland restoration, and whether any such costs are (a) static, (b) falling and (c) rising; what the current (i) average cost is and (ii) range of costs are per hectare, and what the main factors affecting the range of costs are.

The Scottish Government has commissioned research through ClimateXChange (CxC) to better understand peatland restoration costs. This results of this research will be published shortly.

Previous research assessing the costs of peatland restoration can be found here: The costs of peatland restoration – data & initial analysis 2020 | SEFARI, The costs of peatland restoration – data & analysis update 2021 | SEFARI

Question reference: S6W-35538

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many external tutors have been employed in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 2004, also broken down by what the associated costs were each year.

Question reference: S6W-35540

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 24 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have left the profession within five years of qualifying, in each year since 2004.

Question reference: S6W-36022

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-36015

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-35728

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent measures can be put in place to protect marine life and stop the reported alleged dumping of wasteful bycatch as a result of bottom-trawling nets being used to catch prawns.

The abundance of fish in Scottish waters means that a varied industry has developed over time, with many different types of fishing vessels operating as part of a mixed fishery. There are different target fish species, depending on the type of fishing vessel and where it operates, and different issues around unwanted catch. Discarding in the nephrops trawl fishery does occur as whitefish it is typically in very small amounts and for very specific reasons. Historically, very small amounts of whitefish may be caught alongside nephrops. Since the introduction of the landing obligation, this unwanted catch can amount to a disproportionate cost for fisherman who have to land and then dispose of it. As such, the Scottish Government have utilised lawful exemptions to the landing obligation for these fish, in order to lessen the financial burden on these small nephrops vessels. These exempted fish are fully accounted for in quota calculations and factored into stock assessments.

Going forward, as part of the policy development of Scotland’s our Future Catching Policy, we have been working with industry to explore pragmatic technical and spatial measures to support fishers to reduce discarding. We also know there are improvements we can make to the implementation of the landing obligation that will make the rules around discarding more effective and will work with industry and others to develop this across Scotland’s diverse fleets in order to minimise instances of unwanted catch in the first place.

This is being supported by the rollout of remote electronic monitoring and vessel tracking technology to enable us to better monitor fishing operations, effort and catch with the aim of ensuring fishing activity remains sustainable, responsible and accountable across all of our waters.

While the management of Scottish waters is an area of devolved competency, the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government and other devolved administrations through the delivery of the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI) which is a joint plan for tackling bycatch across the UK to minimise, and where possible eliminate, bycatch of sensitive marine species.

It is important to note that all vessels authorised to operate in Scottish waters do so under the appropriate licences, and are obliged to follow Scottish domestic management rules. This includes a mandatory requirement for all vessels (including EU vessels) operating in UK waters to report all incidences of marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation.

Question reference: S6W-35646

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34926 by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025, what discussions it has had with the Respiratory Specialty Delivery Group within NHS Golden Jubilee to develop a pathway for (a) idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and (b) interstitial lung disease.

Scottish Government are not directly involved in the development of a pathway for IPF and ILD however we are aware that the Centre for Sustainable Delivery has a Speciality Delivery Group for respiratory and this pathway development has been added this to their work plan for this year. We will continue to collaborate with colleagues leading this work to ensure all key stakeholders are informed of its progress.