- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish a dedicated strategy for scaling up ecosystem-based approaches to climate mitigation, and, if so, when such a strategy will be released, and how it will be resourced.
Answer
The Scottish Government has no plans to publish a separate dedicated strategy for scaling up ecosystem-based approaches to climate mitigation, as these issues are addressed in our Biodiversity Strategy and Climate Change Plans.
Our Biodiversity Strategy and Climate Change Plans include policies to develop healthy and restored ecosystems with landscape scale nature-based initiatives, contributing to our nature and climate targets. This is an effective framework for policy, and we have recently announced that Scotland's Peatland ACTION partnership has put 14,860 hectares of degraded peatlands on the road to recovery last year, which represents a new record in one year.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to section 3(1)a of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, when (a) the proposed plan will be laid before the Scottish Parliament and (b) the expiry of the 60-day period will fall.
Answer
The proposed national Good Food Nation Plan must be laid in Parliament on or before 29 June 2025. The date on which the expiry of the 60 day scrutiny period will fall will depend on the date on which the proposed national Good Food Nation Plan is laid before Parliament. A minimum of 30 of the 60 days must be days on which the Parliament is not in recess or dissolved.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to section 3(1)b(i) of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, when the deadline is for representations to the Scottish Ministers about the proposed national good food nation plan.
Answer
When finalising the plan, the Scottish Ministers must have regard to any representations that are made during the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny, which starts on the day the proposed plan is laid before Parliament. Therefore, the deadline is the end of the 60th day of this period.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what cost-benefit analysis it has undertaken to compare the £80 million investment in carbon capture and storage technology with nature-based solutions such as peatland restoration, native woodland regeneration and coastal habitat restoration, including kelp forests and seagrass.
Answer
The deliverability and value for money of different options to achieve our climate change targets are assessed through the climate change planning and budgetary processes.
The Scottish Government has committed to make available £80 million to support the Acorn Project and Scottish Cluster, subject to the UK Government providing a full funding package and timeline towards a Final Investment Decision. This funding commitment is subject to the guidance provided in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.
Scotland is firmly committed to woodland creation, planting 75% of all new woodland across the UK in the past five years. This amounts to 55,000 hectares of woodland, approximately 40% of which is native. The Government will continue to use the Forestry Grant Scheme and other levers such as the Woodland Carbon Code to maximise the resources available for woodland creation.
Scottish Ministers remain firmly committed to peatland restoration and have pledged £250m to restoring 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030.
Coastal and marine projects that aim to protect and restore important habitats for climate change and biodiversity received support from restoration and enhancement funds, including the Scottish Marine Environment Enhancement Fund (SMEEF).
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when section 6 of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 will be commenced.
Answer
Section 6 of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 will be commenced in autumn 2025. This will ensure the SSI on specified functions made under section 6 of the Act, can be laid and in force in time for the final plan being published.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to section 3(3) of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, by what date the Scottish Ministers will (a) lay the national good food nation plan before Parliament under section 1(1) and (b) deliver a statement setting out details of any (i) representations, (ii) resolutions and (iii) reports mentioned in subsection (1)(b); what changes they made to the plan in response to any such (A) representations, (B) resolutions and (C) reports, and what the reasons were for any such changes.
Answer
The national Good Food Nation Plan and section 3(3) statement will be laid in Parliament before the end of the period of 3 months, which begins on the expiry of the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to section 3(1)(b)(ii) and (iii) of the Good Food Nation Act (Scotland) 2022, when the cut-off date is for any (a) resolution relating to the proposed national good food nation plan to be passed by the Scottish Parliament and (b) report relating to the draft plan to be published by any committee of the Parliament.
Answer
Any resolution by the Scottish Parliament or report by a committee of the Parliament must be made during the 60 day period of parliamentary scrutiny. The cut-off date is therefore the expiry of this 60 day period.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recently published Cost of Living Research 2025 report by Disability Equality Scotland, which highlighted issues that disabled people are having with ferry travel, what steps it is taking to ensure that all ferry services are accessible to everyone, and what consideration it has given to extending free ferry travel to disabled people.
Answer
I welcome the report and note the ferry recommendation.
The recently published Strategic Approach of the Islands Connectivity Plan sets Accessibility as one of four priorities for future ferry services and identifies a number of actions to support the delivery of this priority, including development of a Ferries Accessibility Standard and reopening of the Ferries Accessibility Fund.
The Scottish Government has recently introduced free travel on inter-islands ferries for under 22 year olds and an extension of the ferry journey voucher scheme to 19-21 year olds and there are no current plans to extend this further. However, we invest significantly to keep ferry fares affordable for all, including on Road Equivalent Tariff and islander fares, as well as the Older and Disabled Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme. In addition, a number of local authorities already provide concessionary ferry travel for disabled people.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the enforcement of the wrasse fishery licensing conditions, how many fixed penalty notices (FPN) have been issued since April 2021, and how many of those went unpaid; of those FPNs that went unpaid, how many have (a) been referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and (b) proceeded in the courts, and, of any that resulted in convictions, what the (i) nature of the offence, (ii) value of the original FPN and (iii) court disposal was.
Answer
In the period since April 2021, the Scottish Government have issued no Fixed Penalty Notices in relation to the enforcement of the wrasse fishery licence conditions.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government at what stage its ministers are involved in applications to translocate beavers; how they approach any such interventions (a) in general and (b) when an application (i) complies with Scotland's Beaver Strategy and (ii) has strong community support, and how its ministers have approached the translocation in Glen Affric.
Answer
The responsibility of the species licensing function was transferred from Scottish Ministers to NatureScot on 1 July 2011. Scottish Ministers retain an interest in the exercise of all the licensing powers delegated.
NatureScot must inform Scottish Ministers about any novel or contentious issues that arise in connection with the exercise of the delegated licensing functions.
The Scottish Government has not been involved in the licensing decision regarding the translocation of beavers to Glen Affric. The Scottish Government fully supports the decision by NatureScot that further consultation with those land managers who may be affected by the translocation of beavers in Glen Affric will be beneficial, and to ensure that appropriate mitigation measures will be agreed before any licensing decision is made.