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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: S6F-02068

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the First Minister, in light of this being Deaf Awareness Week, what work the Scottish Government is undertaking to ensure that deaf people have their communication needs met.

Question reference: S6O-02158

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken, in addition to its public consultation, to engage with the fishing industry and the coastal communities that could be affected by Highly Protected Marine Areas.

Question reference: S6O-02085

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding funding for carbon capture projects in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15331

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its response to the UK Government's use of an order under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to prevent the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from proceeding to Royal Assent.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of the Scottish Parliament, with support from members of all parties. The UK Government's use of section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to prevent the Bill proceeding to Royal Assent represents an unprecedented challenge to the Scottish Parliament's ability to legislate on devolved matters.

The Scottish Government has provided detailed responses to questions from the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee in a letter of 5 February, is now considering the reasons given by the UK Government for its use of the section 35 power, and will update Parliament on next steps in due course.

We note the Committee has expressed disappointment that the Secretary of State for Scotland made little attempt to answer directly any of the questions it raised.

Question reference: S6F-01851

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2023

To ask First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's response to ongoing food shortages currently affecting Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-01696

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to reinstating rail services to the north east, in particular to Peterhead and Fraserburgh in the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency.

Question reference: S6W-12748

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the Blue Economy Vision for Scotland on 31 March 2022, whether it will provide an update on progress with Scotland’s blue economy approach.

Delivering Scotland’s Blue Economy Approach s ets out the first phase of delivery towards our Blue Economy Vision, as well as a commitment for subsequent next steps in our work.

It includes an overview of Scotland's Blue Economy against the six outcomes presented in the Vision, a review of existing actions to identify how they contribute towards the Blue Economy outcomes and an initial evaluation of the type of "Enablers" (tools, interventions and levers) that will be required to deliver the outcomes. These Enablers have been identified from stakeholder feedback and a review of other international Blue Economy approaches.

Over the next 12 months, the Scottish Government will establish a governance structure for our blue economy agenda and seek to promote collective ownership of the activity needed to deliver Scotland’s Blue Economy Vision.

Question reference: S6O-01444

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reported ongoing political instability within the UK Government impacts on the timing of its plans to ask the constitutional question of whether Scotland should be an independent country.

Question reference: S6W-11377

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 October 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to publish a strategy for seafood.

We intend to publish our Strategy for Seafood today. The strategy underlines the importance of the seafood sector and sets out how we are supporting industry to contribute to achieving our Blue Economy aspirations.

Scotland’s world renowned seafood sector is a vital part of our economy that particularly supports our coastal and island communities. Our marine environment contributes significantly to our commitment to being a Good Food Nation and to the ambition of the Local Food Strategy, with locally sourced seafood forming part of a healthy sustainable diet. The fishing, aquaculture and processing communities also have an important role to play in helping us achieve Scotland’s net zero targets and in implementing a range of measures articulated in the Bute House Agreement to improve existing ecosystems, encourage sustainability and protect our marine natural capital assets.

The strategy draws together and provides cohesion to the many existing initiatives which deliver for the seafood sector, and makes some recommendations which we will continue to explore as we transition towards net zero and delivery of the Blue Economy outcomes.

We look forward to taking this important work forward with the sector.

The publication of the strategy is consistent with our Programme for Government commitment to publish a strategy for seafood in 2022 and the document will be available to view on the Scottish Government website from today.

Question reference: S6W-11066

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to encourage greater landings of key fish stocks into Scotland and maximise economic benefit to coastal communities from national marine resources.

Each year Scottish vessels land around £100 million worth of fish outside of Scotland, often for species for which our nation already has ready processing capacity. This represents a lost opportunity to bring additional investment and downstream benefit to our coastal communities from Scotland’s fishing quotas.

Our fish quotas are a national asset and I want to ensure that fishing opportunities allocated to our fleet, for the most important Scottish species, deliver a substantial economic return to our businesses and communities in Scotland.

That is why today, I am announcing changes to the economic link condition contained in Scottish sea fishing licences. This change to the economic link conditions is a key policy in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, which supports sustainable and responsible fisheries management in Scotland. The delivery plan which supports the Strategy and outcome of consultation document for changes to the economic link, will be published today at 2pm and can be found at [ Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Changes to economic link licence conditions will take effect from 1 January 2023 and will require vessels that catch stocks of key economic importance to Scotland to either:

Land a set minimum percentage of these stocks into Scotland.

Return some fishing opportunity to the Scottish Government for re-distribution amongst the Scottish fishing industry.

These changes will help to redistribute economic returns from Scotland’s fishing opportunities to the Scottish Seafood sector and our coastal communities.