Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-03182

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the remaining £46 million of deferred funding from the agriculture budget will be returned.

Question reference: S6W-25282

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its civil servants are currently employed in the Aberdeen City Council area.

Question reference: S6W-25278

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has distributed in flood recovery grants to (a) homes and (b) businesses affected by Storm Babet.

The Scottish Government has funded Angus, Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Councils to distribute £516,000 in community recovery grants and £240,000 in business recovery grants to eligible homes and businesses affected by Storm Babet, totalling £756,000.

In addition, £100,000 was provided to Angus Council through the Homelessness Prevention Fund to help families who had been flooded to rebuild their lives, and £1.8m was pledged to support farmers to help repair damaged floodbanks. Ministers also activated the Bellwin Scheme to help affected local authorities with revenue and uninsurable expenditure resulting from the storm, and extended the eligibility period of claims from two to four months.

Question reference: S6W-25267

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spend from the Just Transition Fund in financial year 2023-24.

A total of 20 projects are currently being delivered through the Just Transition Fund in 2023-24.

Spend is still ongoing to March end 2024 with just under £12 million drawn down by projects to date. This is comprised of £10.3 million in capital, £1 million in financial transactions and £671,000 in resource.

A further £3.15 million of 2023-24 forecast spend has been reprofiled into 2024-25 financial year.

In addition, £25 million was allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24, to be invested in the North East on a commercial basis, in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy and its Missions, including to support a Just Transition to net zero.

Question reference: S6W-25265

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the percentage change in the amount allocated to the Just Transition Fund is from financial year 2023-24 to 2024-25.

In 2024-25 there has been a regrettable 51.2% reduction in capital allocated to the Just Transition Fund in 2024-25.

There has been a 100% reduction in financial transactions allocated to the Just Transition Fund in 2024-25.

The change in budget allocation to the Just Transition Fund is due to a reduction in capital and financial transactions funding allocations from the UK Government which the Fund relies on. I remain entirely committed to the multi-annual funding commitment to provide £500m over ten years. 75m has been provided to date and 16m will be spent in 24/25.

Question reference: S6W-25266

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of spend from the Just Transition Fund in financial year 2022-23.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

A total of 23 projects were delivered through the Just Transition Fund in 2022-23.

Spend totalled £10.9 million comprised of £9.93 million in capital, £500,000 in financial transactions and £465,000 in resource funding support. A breakdown across projects is detailed in the flowing table:

Energy Transition Skills Hub (formerly Advanced Manufacturing Skills Hub	£1,180,000 (capital)
Cabrach Distillery	£361,767.25 (capital)
Climate Assemblies Pilot	£214,055 (resource)
Community Capacity Support	£23,968 (resource)
Digital Innovation Lab	£313,982.04 (capital)
Easter Anguston Farm	£504,446.86 (capital)
Energy Skills Passport	1,871,967.88 (capital)
Findhorn Ecovillage	£226,775 (capital)
Findhorn Watershed Initiative	£139,972.45 (capital)
Hydrogen Offshore Production (HOP2)	£126,000 (capital)
Hydroglen	£262,270.09 (capital)
Just Transition Hub	£243,601.16 (capital)
Moray Council Just Transition Masterplan	£250,544.62 (capital)
NESS Carbon Capture Feasibility Study	£96,750 (capital)
North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT)	£397,000 (capital)
Participatory Budgeting	£1 million (capital), £200,000 (resource)
Pilot Energy Skills Project	£39,960 (capital)
SeedPod	£500,000 (capital)
Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund	£476k (capital), £500k (FT’s), £27,180 (resource)
Sustainable Solvent Recovery/EV Battery Recycling	£457,559 (capital)
Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	£1,299,598 (capital)
Tidal Rotor Generator	£71,200 (capital)
Moray Net Zero Bottlenecks	£41,596.47 (capital)
Wave Energy Converter	£70,000 (capital)

Question reference: S6W-25268

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of planned spend from the Just Transition Fund in financial year 2024-25.

The Just Transition Fund has allocated £75 million to date, supporting projects and communities across the North East and Moray to create jobs, support innovation, and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

The current planned spend for the Just Transition Fund in 2024-25 is £16.24 million. This is split across the following 7 projects:

Energy Transition Skills Hub (formerly Advanced Skills Manufacturing Hub)	£2,850,000 (capital)
Findhorn Watershed Riverwoods Pilot	£395,930 (capital)
Hydrogen Offshore Production (HOP2)	£680,000 (capital)
Hydroglen	£1,987,031 (capital)
Just Transition Skills Hub	£6,281,399 (capital)
Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	£2,840,000 (capital)
Just Transition Participatory Budgeting	£1 million (capital), £200k (resource)

Question reference: S6W-25270

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many oil and gas workers have been on reskilling courses supported by the Scottish Government in each financial year from 2020-21 to date.

The Scottish Government does not hold or compile figures relating to the occupations of people who have taken up reskilling courses provided through programmes receiving our funding support.

Examples of such supported programmes, which have provided reskilling to a range of workers over recent years, include the National Energy Skills Accelerator's Pilot Energy Skills Project and the Offshore Recertification training scheme delivered by the Energy Transition Zone as part of a local and regional partnership for the North East Economic Recovery and Skills Fund.

Question reference: S6W-25704

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on the targets set out in its Programme for Government 2023-24 regarding the improvement of cancer waiting times by April 2024.

Cancer remains a national priority for the Scottish Government. This is reflected in the fact that more cancer patients have been treated on both the 62 and 31 day pathways in the latest quarter (Q3 2023) compared to the same time pre-pandemic. Specifically we are treating more cancer patients on time – within both standards – compared to pre-pandemic and 10 years ago (9.1% and 21.5% more, respectively, within the 31 day standard & 2.0% and 14.0% more, respectively, within the 62 day standard).

To support efforts to reduce cancer waiting times, £10 million of non-recurring Cancer Waiting Times funding has been made available in 2023/24 across NHS Scotland. The majority of funding is being directed to urology, colorectal and breast – the three most challenged tumour types.

The Scottish Government also published our ten year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan ( Cancer Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 ) in June 2023.

Over the next 10 years, our strategic aim is to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care. The Strategy and Plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care, and have people living with cancer, their families and carers at their very heart.

Question reference: S6W-25735

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-25234 by Fiona Hyslop on 22 February 2024, in light of the answer to question S6F-02532 not providing the information requested regarding timeframes for the ScotRail consultation on alcohol on trains, whether it will confirm by what date (a) the consultation will be completed and (b) a decision will be made on reallowing alcohol at certain times.

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