Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25193

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the guidance for conducting transport assessments for planning applications will be updated in line with the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4).

Question reference: S6O-03131

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Scottish Prison Service’s work to address reported noise disturbance at HMP Stirling.

Question reference: S6O-03090

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish its response to its consultation on the licensing of activities involving animals.

Question reference: S6W-24788

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to request advice from the Climate Change Committee regarding the appropriate value of the multiplier to be applied to greenhouse gas emissions from aviation, as required by section 2C(3)(h) of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 as amended.

As required under section 2C of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the Scottish Government plans to request advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) on the appropriate value of the international aviation multiplier, and other advice about emissions targets, within 5 years of the last request for this advice on 19 April 2022. In response to the most recent request, the CCC’s first five-yearly review of Scottish emissions targets, published in December 2022, does not recommend the use of a multiplier to reflect the non-CO2 climate change impacts of emissions at altitude from international aviation.

Question reference: S6O-03004

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the support that is available for people living with, or affected by, dementia.

Question reference: S6W-24040

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23014 by Neil Gray on 28 November 2023, until such time as the review of the carbon calculator is completed, how it plans to comply with policy 5(c)(ii) of the National Planning Framework 4 by ensuring that developers correctly calculate emissions from the development versus the carbon savings to be made from displacing fossil fuels from the grid.

National Planning Policy 5d) makes clear that, where development on peatland, carbon-rich soils or priority peatland habitat is proposed, a detailed site specific assessment will be required to identify: i) the baseline depth, habitat condition, quality and stability of carbon rich soils; ii) the likely effects of the development on peatland, including on soil disturbance; and, iii) the likely net effects of the development on climate emissions and loss of carbon.

Through our Onshore Wind Policy Statement 2022, we have committed to assess the operation of, and if necessary update or replace, the carbon calculator. Whilst the review is ongoing, the existing carbon calculator, in its current form, can continue to be used by applicants and decision makers to support the carbon assessment of wind farm developments.

Question reference: S6W-24041

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given as part of its planning reform programme to require greater public transparency of developers’ actions to meet the planning conditions attached to large-scale developments.

Conditions attached to any planning permission are published as part of the consent on the relevant planning authority’s publicly available Register of Applications. Any member of the public who considers that a developer may not be in compliance with any condition of planning permission can report their concerns to the relevant planning authority, which has extensive powers to investigate, and if necessary, take action to ensure that conditions are complied with.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to review the legislation relating to monitoring and enforcement of planning conditions at the present time.

Question reference: S6W-24038

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 9 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether sportscotland continues to allocate any funding to support the development of a tennis centre at Park of Keir.

sport scotland’s provisional allocation of up to £5m for the development of a potential tennis facility at Park of Keir remains in place.

However, at this stage, a full application for a tennis facility at Park of Keir has not been received. Any decision on whether to make a capital award and the appropriate level of any award will only be taken on completion of a full application (as outlined in response to S6W-05651 on 20 January 2022).

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-23727

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any risks to Scotland's native trees from the fungus, Curreya pithyophila.

An assessment of current and potential future impacts on Scotland’s native trees from the fungus Curreya pithyophila is ongoing.

In late 2022, reports were received of canker and crown dieback symptoms on Scots pine at various locations across Scotland. Subsequent investigations suggest this is likely to be caused by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, Curreya pithyophila , and an adelgid called pine woolly adelgid ( Pineus pini ). This association has been observed occasionally in the UK, continental Europe and north America since the 1800s.

In 2023, Scottish Forestry and Scotland’s Plant Health Centre commissioned Forest Research and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to investigate the causes and impacts of the current occurrences in Scotland.

Surveys were conducted over the summer to identify the distribution of the fungal-adelgid association and if factors such as climate or site type influence symptom severity. Samples were collected to understand the complex relationships between Curreya pithyophila , the pine woolly adelgid and secondary fungal pathogens and to understand if infection differs between provenances of Scots pine. The findings will be published next year.

An assessment of current and potential future impacts on Scotland’s native trees from the fungus Curreya pithyophila is ongoing.

In late 2022, reports were received of canker and crown dieback symptoms on Scots pine at various locations across Scotland. Subsequent investigations suggest this is likely to be caused by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, Curreya pithyophila , and an adelgid called pine woolly adelgid ( Pineus pini ). This association has been observed occasionally in the UK, continental Europe and north America since the 1800s.

In 2023, Scottish Forestry and Scotland’s Plant Health Centre commissioned Forest Research and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to investigate the causes and impacts of the current occurrences in Scotland.

Surveys were conducted over the summer to identify the distribution of the fungal-adelgid association and if factors such as climate or site type influence symptom severity. Samples were collected to understand the complex relationships between Curreya pithyophila , the pine woolly adelgid and secondary fungal pathogens and to understand if infection differs between provenances of Scots pine. The findings will be published next year.

Question reference: S6W-23751

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 19 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how often it has met with community groups since June 2022, when it accepted recommendation 9 of the independent review of the role of incineration to facilitate the co-production of guidelines for effective community engagement by the end of 2023.

The commitment to facilitate the co-production of guidance on community engagement is a key commitment made in response to the incineration review and we are currently considering the best approach and timing for delivering it.

Scottish Government has met with eNGOs and community groups five times since June 2022 to discuss recommendations from the incineration review, including a meeting between myself and the Dovesdale Action Group in September. As part of this meeting, the Group was asked for views on where this work could be particularly valuable in improving the community engagement processes. I would welcome thoughts from all community groups interested in the incineration review.

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