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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-08332

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial assistance has been provided through the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund to date, broken down by local authority.

Since its inception, the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF), which was established to support critical infrastructure at rural pinch points, has provided £14.5 million of grant funding to support development of facilities such as car parks, waste disposal and toilet provision.

The fund has supported 66 projects across 15 local authorities and both national parks. A full list of successful applicants and projects are published online: Rural Development Fund - Funding | VisitScotland.org

RURAL TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
RURAL TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
	ROUND 1 - 4 TOTALS
APPLICANT	STAGE 2 APP No.	Total RTIF APP	% of Total
LOCH LOMOND & TROSSACHS NPA	3	796,500	5.61
CNPA	2	244,098	1.72
HIGHLAND COUNCIL	29	5,373,269	37.82
ARGYLL & BUTE COUNCIL	6	1,454,327	10.24
ABERDEENSHIRE COUNCIL	4	1,089,549	7.67
SHETLAND IS COUNCIL	3	792,960	5.58
STIRLING COUNCIL	2	573,183	4.03
CLACKMANNANSHIRE COUNCIL	1	141,768	1.00
COMHAIRLE NAN EILEAN SIAR	1	230,000	1.62
DUMF & GLLWY COUNCIL	2	283,000	1.99
FIFE COUNCIL	1	380,000	2.67
EAST LOTHIAN COUNCIL	2	412,830	2.91
ORKNEY IS COUNCIL	1	260,000	1.83
PERTH & KINROSS COUNCIL	3	918,601	6.47
MORAY COUNCIL	2	426,565	3.00
EDINBURGH CITY COUNCIL	2	564,734	3.98
SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL	1	93,403	0.66
WEST LOTHIAN	1	171,420	1.21
TOTALS	66	14,206,207	100
AVERAGE		215,246

* Figures as of March 2022. Not including figures for the Design grants in Rounds 3 & 4 for projects which were ultimately unsuccessful or did not submit a full application

In addition to this £14.5m, preceding RTIF, there were three pilot projects designed to test the fund’s concept. These comprised: The Stones of Stenness (£80,000); Neist Point (£100,000) and the Fairy Pools (£340,000)

Question reference: S6T-00680

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on households and businesses in Scotland of the National Grid’s locational pricing system, in light of Scottish Renewables' reported assessment that Transmission Network Use of System charges make projects in Scotland almost 20% more expensive than equivalent projects in the south of England.

Question reference: S6W-07793

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 April 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether ministers have visited the Penumbra Edinburgh Crisis Centre, and whether it has any plans to support similar services being established across Scotland to bridge the gap between emergency and community mental health care.

The integration of care across emergency and community mental health services is vital to ensure that anyone in crisis receives continuous, compassionate care.

At the end of last year, the Government appointed the former chief executive of Penumbra, Nigel Henderson, as National Lead for suicidal crisis responses, with responsibility for driving forward the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG)’s recommendations on suicidal crisis responses. The NSPLG’s recommendations did not prescribe a fixed model for crisis support, but highlighted the need for people in crisis to receive Time, Space and Compassion wherever they present – be that in statutory services, front line services, and across our communities.

In taking forward this work, the National Lead has established an action group, which includes a range of statutory and third sector partners, including Penumbra; he is also engaging with statutory partners and communities. This engagement is focussed on identifying models of good practice (including pathways between services), that reflect the diversity of people and places in Scotland, This learning will inform a Scotland wide programme to further embed compassionate crisis responses right across our communities.

The Edinburgh crisis centre is an example of an established crisis support service. There are other community based services, such as the recently established Neuk in Perth. A Ministerial visit has not taken place to either service, however good engagement is happening at official level to ensure learning is shared.

Finally, the Government’s national Distress Brief Intervention programme is a world-leading example where compassionate support is provided for people in distress within their communities; with direct referrals from emergency services, where appropriate. The Government’s investment in alternatives to emergency care will also ensure that every GP practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service by 2026, with 1,000 additional roles.

Question reference: S6O-00966

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any feedback from businesses that are making use of financial support to trial a four-day working week.

Question reference: S6W-07788

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Programme for Government commitment to develop a Blue Economy Strategy.

We intend to publish the first phase of this work, the Blue Economy Vision for Scotland, today. This vision sets out the Scottish Government’s long-term ambition for Scotland’s blue economy to 2045, promoting an approach that is consistent with Scotland’s National Performance Framework and our international obligations. It demonstrates how much we value our marine environment and its significance which is captured in the six outcomes that we want to achieve.

The six blue economy outcomes have been identified to respond to major challenges of our time, such as the climate and nature crises, just transition to zero, a blue recovery from Covid-19 and EU withdrawal. The outcomes also recognise our ambition for Scotland to be a global leader in providing healthy, quality and sustainably harvested food. They frame a direction of travel and provide focal points for our long term blue economy aspirations with the overall aim that by 2045, Scotland’s shared stewardship of our marine environment supports ecosystem health, improved livelihoods, economic prosperity, social inclusion and wellbeing.

A blue economy approach will also help us to realise our ambitions for a wellbeing economy in Scotland where the country’s successes are defined and measured beyond economic growth and Gross Domestic Product, and we emphasise the importance of addressing inequality. Human wellbeing is multi-dimensional and nature plays an important part in ensuring a high quality of life for our people. The vision demonstrates the importance of the marine environment and its significance in contributing to Scotland’s economy, well-being climate and biodiversity priorities.

Across the world, there are an increasing number of countries looking to introduce a blue economy approach to better balance their economic, societal and environmental challenges and opportunities in marine environments. This vision puts Scotland at the heart of this international movement to support global ocean governance.

The publication of the Blue Economy Vision for Scotland is consistent with our Programme for Government commitment to develop a Blue Economy Strategy and subsequent delivery plan to support a green recovery and just transition, with sustainable growth of the blue economy underpinned by environmental protection.

The document will be available to view on the Scottish Government website from today:

The Blue Economy Vision for Scotland: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/978-1-80435-258-8

The next step is to develop the programmes and policies to deliver these outcomes through a Blue Economy Action Plan.

Question reference: S6W-07325

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on any costs associated with mitigating any impact in Scotland of decisions taken by the UK Government in each of the last five financial years.

The estimated costs of "reserved" areas of spend that are being mitigated/supplemented by the Scottish Government are shown in the following table:-

Programme	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Discretionary Housing Payments	47.0	50.1	52.2	73.8	83.1
Promoting Equality and Human Rights	20.3	22.7	24.6	30.2	32.2
Scottish Child Payment				21.0	68.0
Broadband	117.1	22.2	32.9	63.4	102.8
Employability- Fair Start Scotland		14.9	16.4	21.6	27.3
Employability and Workforce Skills			17.2	51.1	22.1
Scottish Veterans' Commissioner			0.3	0.3	0.3
Veterans			0.2	0.5	1.5

Source: Level 4 budgets published alongside the annual Budget Bill.

Question reference: S6O-00945

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how its international offices are functioning and improving international relations.

Question reference: S6W-07187

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much peat has been extracted in Scotland for commercial use in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Data on UK and export sales of peat sourced from Scotland since 2011 is gathered for the UK Growing Media Monitor ( https://hta.org.uk/associations-committees-groups/growing-media-association/gma-research ) and provides insight into the volumes of peat extracted for horticulture in Scotland up to 2020, the main end use of extracted peat.

The Scottish Government is committed to banning the sale of peat related gardening products, as part of our wider commitment to phase out the use of peat in horticulture, and we are currently preparing to consult on this issue. Our draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) sets out that development proposals for new commercial peat extraction, including extensions to existing sites, should not be supported unless the extracted peat is supporting an industry of national importance to Scotland.

We will also give consideration, through our peatland restoration programme, to whether and what further data may be required to support future monitoring of progress against targets.

Question reference: S6W-07186

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 21 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much peat has been burned in Scotland in the process of making whisky, in order to flavour malting barley, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6O-00899

Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken with ministerial colleagues across government to ensure that Scotland’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic addresses the reported disproportionate impact of the pandemic on low-income households.