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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-24367

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding the potential impact in Scotland of any increased freight shipping costs resulting from the reported attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea areas.

The Scottish Government has discussed the Red Sea shipping crisis with the Department for Business and Trade and we will continue to monitor the situation, as it develops.

This is an international concern, and we're aware of the potential challenges Scottish businesses and consumers might face due to the delays and rising logistical and insurance costs. This is a direct outcome of the security threat and commercial decisions to reroute vessels from the Red Sea to a safer but longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.

We expect a short period of adjustment for supply chains, with potentially some delays due to additional sailing times, but there will still be very regular vessel arrivals, and continual supply of goods arriving into the UK and Scotland. Operators are working to mitigate any potential impact on consumers, and the shipping and supply chain sectors are well practiced at putting contingencies in place to continue to meet their customer needs.

The combination of additional costs to the operators and changed market conditions (e.g. capacity) is seeing rate rises for container pricing. To what extent these cost increases are absorbed or passed on is a commercial decision.

Question reference: S6W-23982

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have provided annual deer cull data to NatureScot in each of the past five years.

Question reference: S6W-23626

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22555 by Fiona Hyslop on 10 November 2023, whether it will provide an update on what date the Serco NorthLink Ferries booking system will open for bookings for dates beyond 31 March 2024.

Question reference: S6W-23691

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much it has spent on the promotion of the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme to date, broken down by spend on (a) the national marketing campaign and (b) other costs.

A national marketing campaign raising awareness and encouraging uptake for the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme was undertaken in autumn 2022. PR and marketing activity was also undertaken during COP26 to promote the scheme ahead of its launch.

The following table provides the spend as at 13 December 2023 (inclusive of VAT where applicable) for both campaigns.

Messaging to promote the scheme was included in our Choose the Bus campaign, co-funded by the bus industry, however it is not possible to provide specific costs as under 22s was not the campaign’s primary focus.

	Spend (as at 13 Dec 2023)
National Marketing Campaign Autumn 2022	£958,888
COP26 PR and Marketing Autumn 2021	£204,656
Total	£1,163,544

Question reference: S6W-22643

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, as of 31 October 2023, how many (a) cards have been issued and (b) applications have been received through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme.

As of the end of day 31 October 2023, there were 701,696 cardholders under the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

Transport Scotland officials have worked to improve and develop reporting processes since the scheme launched, and as such now report on cardholders rather than cards issued.

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office, who support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

Transport Scotland does not hold application information as the Improvement Service are in charge of applications made through getyournec.scot and all other applications are managed by local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-22530

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 10 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many live homeless applications there were in each local authority area on Christmas Day in 2022, and how many (a) adults and (b) children these related to.

The following table gives the number of homelessness applications live as at 25 December 2022, by local authority and the associated number of (a) adults and (b) children.

	Number of
	Applications	Adults	Children
Scotland	28,154	32,749	16,493
Aberdeen City	490	527	211
Aberdeenshire	288	326	142
Angus	733	830	270
Argyll & Bute	374	454	183
Clackmannanshire	287	327	123
Dumfries & Galloway	468	535	184
Dundee City	691	749	301
East Ayrshire	399	444	235
East Dunbartonshire	294	336	221
East Lothian	823	913	331
East Renfrewshire	387	494	267
Edinburgh	6,128	7,465	3,902
Eilean Siar	124	142	46
Falkirk	1,160	1,311	596
Fife	1,983	2,259	1,000
Glasgow City	4,863	5,857	3,537
Highland	884	1,017	440
Inverclyde	107	108	34
Midlothian	616	663	443
Moray	232	273	111
North Ayrshire	427	526	201
North Lanarkshire	764	861	468
Orkney	169	197	115
Perth & Kinross	159	183	55
Renfrewshire	346	362	95
Scottish Borders	333	407	255
Shetland	102	110	27
South Ayrshire	385	408	162
South Lanarkshire	1,188	1,352	908
Stirling	763	856	475
West Dunbartonshire	587	641	337
West Lothian	1,600	1,816	818

Question reference: S6W-22555

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Serco NorthLink Ferries booking system will open for bookings for dates beyond 31 March 2024.

Question reference: S6W-22118

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it currently provides for English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes for asylum seekers and refugees.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland whose first language is not English can contribute to Scotland’s future and the society they live in. Having support to learn English is key for many refugees and asylum seekers to communicate, enter education, find employment, and access information on healthcare, housing and other services that they require. In 2021-22 the volume of funded ESOL activity in colleges amounted to £22,709,353. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) provides an overall funding allocation to colleges, which they then allocate to learning and teaching across their curriculum areas (including ESOL), informed by data and insight, and based on regional demand, regional and national priorities, the needs of their local economies, communities and learners, as well as intelligence from partners. In addition, through the Supporting New Scots Fund, the New Scots partnership awarded a total of £179,431.00 to nine organisations across Scotland to deliver ESOL provision for refugees.

Question reference: S6W-22402

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19204 by Mairi Gougeon on 21 June 2023, whether it will provide an update on the status of the public consultation on the Good Food Nation Plan.

Question reference: S6O-02642

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports the safety of Scotland’s fishermen when at sea.

2018-2019	2707
2019-2020	2286
2020-2021	2523
2021-2022	2627
2022-2023	2448