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-30285

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21980 by Graeme Dey on 31 October 2023, whether it has concluded and published the findings of the Student Finance and Wellbeing Study, and, if not, when it will do so.

Question reference: S6W-30687

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary in each of the last five academic years, also broken down by type of course.

Eligible Scottish pre-registration nursing, midwifery and paramedic science students receive funding through the Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary Scheme (PNMSB) which is administered by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Eligibility for support depends on three conditions:

that the course is eligible;
that the individual has not had previous PNMSB funding; and
that they meet the residence requirements.

Bursaries are for eligible students attending courses which:

lead to registration on the Professional Register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which may include degree, honours and masters levels; or
lead to the award of a BSc Paramedic Science; and
are partly or wholly funded by the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates (SGHSCD).


Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary Applicants and Recipients by Course, 2019-20 to 2023-24
	2019-20		2020-21		2021-221		2022-23		2023-24
	Applied	Received	Applied	Received	Applied	Received	Applied	Received	Applied	Received
BSc Nursing2	7,815	7,520	8,085	7,875	8,890	8,525	9,040	8,570	8,345	8,015
BSc Nursing Studies	1,080	1,005	2,080	2,060	2,240	2,145	2,235	2,115	2,275	2,165
BSc Midwifery	570	550	650	635	690	670	740	715	680	660
BSc Paramedic Practice	-	-	-	-	160	150	215	200	205	200
BSc Paramedic Science	-	-	-	-	535	515	750	710	815	790
MSc Nursing2	275	260	255	245	235	215	220	210	260	240
MSc Nursing Studies	15	15	55	45	40	35	25	25	-	-
MSc Midwifery	85	75	110	105	120	115	135	130	135	130
Other3	160	150	35	35	c	c	-	-	-	-
Total	10,000	9,575	11,270	11,000	12,915	12,385	13,355	12,675	12,725	12,195
Source: SAAS
Note: Figures relating to student numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5 to mitigate the risk of individuals being identified. Totals may not equal the sum of the parts.
c - value suppressed to protect against the risk of disclosure of personal information
1 from 2021-22 the existing NMSB scheme incorporated those undertaking Paramedic courses
2 Nursing degree courses include those taking a BSc/MSc in adult, child, learning disability and mental health nursing as well as those taking a dual registration qualification.
3 Other includes those undertaking pre-registration courses and conversion courses.

Question reference: S6W-30375

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many projects have received funding from the Nature Restoration Fund, and what the value is of that funding, broken down by local authority area.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) makes funding available through two main strands: the competitive strand administered by NatureScot, and the Edinburgh Process strand, which provides direct allocations to Local Authorities and National Parks.

In total, to date, 220 projects have been offered funding from the competitive strand of the NRF, including 28 NRF-funded Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF) projects. This represents a total of £33,366,872 in committed funding.

The following table sets out by local authority area the 183 projects awarded competitive funding to the end of March 2024, the period for which data is currently available. We do not hold information about the amounts of funding offered in this format and this does not include the NRF-funded SMEEF projects referred to above.

Local authority	Number of NRF competitive strand supported projects (as of end of March 2024)
Aberdeen City	1
Aberdeenshire	12
Angus	6
Argyll and Bute	11
Clackmannanshire	3
Dumfries and Galloway	13
Dundee City	1
East Ayrshire	5
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh, City of	7
Eilean Siar	3
Falkirk	1
Fife	14
Glasgow City	2
Highland	28
Inverclyde
Midlothian
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	3
Orkney Islands	3
Perth and Kinross	12
Renfrewshire	1
Scottish Borders	11
Shetland Islands	1
South Ayrshire	2
South Lanarkshire	1
Stirling	10
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	2
Scotland-wide / multiple areas	23

The Edinburgh Process strand of the NRF has provided a total of £17 Million in direct allocations to Local Authorities and National Parks to date, between 2021-22 and 2023-24. A further £5 Million was distributed to Local Authorities in 2023-24 to support the development of Nature Networks. The following table provides a breakdown of the Local Authority awards. However, each council is responsible for using this funding on locally determined biodiversity priorities, in line with the principles of the Edinburgh Process. We do not therefore hold a centralised record of the number of individual projects supported by the Edinburgh Process strand in each local authority area. Not included in the table is an additional £1 Million which was made available as a competitive fund for local authorities in 2022.

Local Authority	Rounded Allocation (£m)
	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	3-year total	Nature Networks 2023-24
Aberdeen City	0.128	0.135	0.135	0.398	0.135
Aberdeenshire	0.268	0.213	0.223	0.704	0.223
Angus	0.095	0.15	0.153	0.398	0.153
Argyll & Bute	0.108	0.238	0.245	0.591	0.245
Clackmannanshire	0.067	0.091	0.098	0.256	0.098
Dumfries & Galloway	0.135	0.257	0.245	0.637	0.245
Dundee City	0.109	0.086	0.086	0.281	0.086
East Ayrshire	0.172	0.102	0.103	0.377	0.103
East Dunbartonshire	0.079	0.132	0.133	0.344	0.133
East Lothian	0.109	0.11	0.112	0.331	0.112
East Renfrewshire	0.084	0.061	0.061	0.206	0.061
Edinburgh, City of	0.264	0.161	0.136	0.561	0.136
Eilean Siar	0.018	0.124	0.128	0.270	0.128
Falkirk	0.183	0.179	0.174	0.536	0.174
Fife	0.416	0.378	0.306	1.100	0.306
Glasgow City	0.487	0.132	0.124	0.743	0.124
Highland	0.258	0.328	0.338	0.924	0.338
Inverclyde	0.088	0.16	0.153	0.401	0.153
Midlothian	0.081	0.103	0.106	0.290	0.106
Moray	0.101	0.124	0.123	0.348	0.123
North Ayrshire	0.166	0.19	0.178	0.534	0.178
North Lanarkshire	0.369	0.274	0.278	0.921	0.278
Orkney Islands	0.016	0.054	0.053	0.123	0.053
Perth & Kinross	0.166	0.176	0.177	0.519	0.177
Renfrewshire	0.157	0.102	0.100	0.359	0.100
Scottish Borders	0.12	0.161	0.164	0.445	0.164
Shetland Islands	0.016	0.079	0.081	0.176	0.081
South Ayrshire	0.105	0.096	0.095	0.296	0.095
South Lanarkshire	0.264	0.188	0.273	0.725	0.273
Stirling	0.097	0.114	0.114	0.325	0.114
West Dunbartonshire	0.102	0.126	0.129	0.357	0.129
West Lothian	0.172	0.176	0.184	0.532	0.184
TOTAL	5	5	5	15	5

Question reference: S6W-30439

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many green jobs have been created directly as a result of Just Transition funding.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting a cross-sector portfolio of projects ranging across sectors like energy, agriculture, digital innovation and construction while also supporting communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

This includes £9.7 million on a package of skills interventions supporting the transferability of workforce across sectors to meet the needs of the net zero transition including: a digital offshore energy skills passport; and an Energy Transition Skills Hub.

The Scottish Government does not currently hold overall figures relating to employment outcomes or job creation as a result of our funded programmes. We are currently commissioning an independent evaluation which will help to determine this and the impact of the Fund to date, in due course.

Question reference: S6W-30391

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether minimum unit pricing has reduced the consumption of alcohol among hazardous and harmful drinkers.

Public Health Scotland's (PHS) independent evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol estimated that our world-leading policy reduced wholly alcohol-attributable deaths by 13.4% and was likely to have reduced hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol by 4.1%.

There was strong and consistent evidence of a reduction in alcohol consumption following MUP implementation, and that the reduction in consumption was driven by the heaviest purchasing households, leading to the conclusion that MUP was well targeted. As MUP was estimated to have resulted in a decrease in alcohol-attributable deaths and hospital admissions related to chronic conditions, the evaluation took this as further evidence to suggest that MUP has reduced consumption in those that drink at hazardous and harmful levels.

Overall, the evidence supports that MUP has had a positive impact on health outcomes, including alcohol-related health inequalities.

Question reference: S6W-30335

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Professor Angela Daly's reported comments that live facial recognition technology is "not fit for purpose" and is "generally unethical", in light of the reported proposals by the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to deploy the technology in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-30343

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported proposals from the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, what its response is to reports that the use of live facial recognition by South Wales Police has produced 2,833 false alerts, compared with only 72 resultant arrests.

Question reference: S6W-30284

Asked by: Michelle Thomson, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported calls from the Scottish Retail Consortium and Scottish Tourism Alliance for the UK Government, in the upcoming Autumn Budget, to restore tax-free shopping for overseas visitors as a means of supporting Scotland’s retail, tourism and hospitality sectors.

The Scottish Government opposed the abolition of tax-free shopping when it was announced in 2020 and called upon the previous UK Government to listen to industry and urgently reconsider the issue, including in a letter sent to the Chancellor ahead of the 2024 UK Spring Budget.

The removal of VAT-free shopping is likely to be having a detrimental impact on retail businesses and may be discouraging tourists from visiting the UK, and Scotland specifically. Many EU countries offer tax-free shopping for non-EU visitors, giving their retail sectors an advantage over Scotland’s fantastic range of shops, stores, manufacturers and producers and making those European cities a more attractive tourist destination.

The Scottish Government’s position remains that the restoration of VAT-free shopping for all overseas visitors to the UK would help support this vital sector in Scotland.

Ultimately, the Scottish Government believes that all tax powers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament so that we can provide the support that Scottish retailers and tourism businesses need.

Question reference: S6W-30320

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can guarantee that any companies implicated in human rights abuses will not be used to provide the live facial recognition technology services to Police Scotland under reported proposals outlined by the Chief Constable.

Question reference: S6W-30331

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 28 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards will be in place to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens under the reported proposals by Police Scotland's Chief Constable to deploy live facial recognition for law enforcement purposes.