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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-31205

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Carnegie UK’s Life in the UK 2024: Scotland report, which found that collective wellbeing scores in 2024 remain largely unchanged from those reported in 2023.

The goal of the Scottish Government is to help people live happier and healthier lives with higher living standards, building a fair, green, growing economy that promotes the wellbeing of all Scotland’s people. Therefore, we welcome Carnegie UK’s Life in the UK 2024: Scotland report as a valuable contribution to the evidence base in Scotland. The principles are closely aligned to the National Performance Framework (NPF), which monitors numerous wellbeing issues. We are alert to the issues raised by Carnegie’s report and are committed to tackling the challenges that disabled people face, as well as investing £3 billion a year to tackle poverty and help with the cost of living.

Employment in a good job can be an important factor in a person’s wellbeing. Through the Fair Work Action Plan, we have set out actions needed to promote fair and inclusive workplaces for all people across Scotland, including addressing persistent structural barriers such as those faced by disabled people. Our Fair Work First policy applies Fair Work criteria to as many funding streams, business support grants and public contracts as we can. We have included payment of at least the real Living Wage in the criteria for Fair Work First, and this is a key mechanism for driving fair pay in Scottish workplaces, helping to support improved income security and living standards.

To help address barriers in the labour market for disabled people, the Programme for Government contains a commitment to introducing enhanced specialist employability support for disabled people across all local authorities by next Summer. We are working across sectors to achieve our aim of halving the disability employment gap in Scotland by 2038, focussing on support for disabled people to both enter and progress in fair work. We will shortly issue a response to the Scottish Parliament Economy and Fair Work Committee’s recent report on its inquiry into the disability employment gap. We have also developed the Disability Plan, which will ensure disabled people have greater involvement and visibility in policy and decision-making processes.

We note the recommendations included in the report. Whilst we are not introducing a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill at this time, we are committed to working across the chamber with Ms Boyack on her Members’ Bill as proposals develop. When these become available, they will be given due consideration. The NPF sets out our vision of societal wellbeing. We continue to advance the NPF, including working towards updating this in 2025 to ensure it reflects a unified vision for Scotland. We will also develop, as I confirmed to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 8 October, an implementation plan to improve how the NPF is taken forward by public bodies, including the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-31206

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve trust in government, in light of Carnegie UK research finding that 37% of people in Scotland have low levels of trust in the Scottish Government.

We recognise that reduced levels of trust is a challenge facing governments around the world. Evidence shows that a key driver of trust is people feeling they have a say. One way we are working to improve levels of trust is through our Open Government Action Plan: providing meaningful opportunities for people to be involved in decisions that affect them and sharing information openly. This includes a fiscal transparency portal to help the public track government spend, and an AI register to show the development and use of AI in the Scottish public sector. Our commitments cover fiscal openness and transparency, health and social care, climate change, data and digital, and participation. These are all areas in which civil society and members of the public have told us the ongoing promotion of transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability is important to them.

We are paying close attention to the impact trust has on democracy through the Democracy Matters engagement process on the future of community decision making. A key pillar of this was asking how more people can participate in local decision making. The process findings were published in September and we will now work with civil society and the wider public sector to deliver on the ambitions set out by our communities.

Question reference: S6W-31554

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent it measures social value in determining planning consent for energy projects.

Question reference: S6W-31553

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent it prioritises any wider system benefits, including the level of affordable community benefits, of onshore renewable projects when assessing planning applications.

Question reference: S6W-31555

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 6 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that communities can benefit from pumped storage hydro projects.

Question reference: S6O-04011

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of the reasons why it decided against externally reviewing the Community Right to Buy scheme.

Question reference: S6W-31148

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any discussions with Crown Estate Scotland about replicating the UK Government partnership announcement with The Crown Estate for future ScotWind leasing rounds.

The Scottish Government already has a well established partnership with the Crown Estate that was fundamental to the Scotwind and INTOG licensing rounds for offshore wind. Our current focus is not on new leasing opportunities but delivering Scotland’s strong pipeline of clean energy and supply chain opportunities.

To support this the Scottish Government and UK Government Department of Energy Security and Net Zero developed a shared objective for Great British Energy to maximise the benefits of its activities in Scotland. Through developing partnerships with existing Scottish public bodies active within the clean energy sector (Crown Estate Scotland, the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank) organisations will work together to deliver joint objectives to maximise impact and value for money from Scottish projects.

Question reference: S6W-31147

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 19 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on timelines for future ScotWind leasing rounds.

Question reference: S6W-31146

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the Local Power Plan, and whether it will provide support for local authorities in Scotland to take advantage of any potential opportunities as a result of the plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to continue to grow the community and local energy sector and ensure the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland.

On 17 October the Scottish Government signed a Joint Vision Statement with the UK Government which set out a commitment to work together to explore opportunities for GB Energy to support community and local energy in Scotland. This includes considering the role of the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES).

In line with this Vision Statement, the Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to explore opportunities, including for local authorities in Scotland, offered by the Local Power Plan. The Scottish Government looks forward to working with local authorities to ensure that opportunities arising from the Local Power Plan are maximised for local communities.

Question reference: S6W-31133

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29941 by Ivan McKee on 24 September 2024, for what reason no provision exists within the National Electricity Supply Contract to provide local community-owned renewable electricity to clients, and what priority it gives to allowing clients to secure electricity that was being sourced from certified renewable supplies to reduce their carbon footprint and any related carbon charges.

The strategy for the provision of electricity under the national framework agreement was developed and agreed in partnership with the User Intelligence Group (UIG). The UIG consists of representatives from across the public sector and they define the core purpose of the procurement and set out the key deliverables. In this case the core requirement was that the provider should be capable of delivering electricity supply and service to over 300 customers. Continuity of supply is a critical element and taking into account the requirement and the risks associated with supply, the UIG agreed that the framework should be tendered as a single supplier agreement. The energy supplier must have the capacity to supply and service all organisations by providing the ability to prepurchase electricity and also provide a billing service.

If a framework customer wishes to source certified renewable supplies, then they could do this. However any agreement between a customer and an additional supplier would be out-with the framework and its terms.