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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-12626

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will report the findings of its consultation on improving victims' experiences of the justice system.

The independent analysis of responses to the consultation on improving victims' experiences of the justice system was published on 12 December 2022. The report can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805253235 .

Responses to the consultation, where permission to publish them has been given, can be accessed at Improving victims' experiences of the justice system: consultation - Scottish Government - Citizen Space .

Question reference: S6W-12623

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will accept recommendation 7 of HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland’s report, Inspection of COPFS practice in relation to sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

The Scottish Government is currently giving consideration to recommendation 7 of the Inspectorate’s report as part of its work on the planned Criminal Justice Reform Bill and proposals in relation to Independent Legal Representation in respect of section 275 applications.

The Bill will look to deliver reforms building on the Scottish Government’s recent consultation on Improving Victims’ Experiences of the Justice System and recommendations from Lady Dorrian’s Review on Improving the Management of Sexual Offence Cases.

Question reference: S6W-12541

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is any duty on those operating in Scotland or its waters to report gas escapes, and if this is the case, what the threshold escape volume of CO2-equivalent gas for reporting is, in light of The Guardian article from 8 November 2022, World’s ‘most potent greenhouse gas’ escaped during work on UK windfarm.

Question reference: S6W-12542

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents have been recorded of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) escaping from (a) onshore and (b) offshore power generation sites in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Government does not hold recorded information on the number of leakage incidents of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) from onshore and offshore power generation sites that have been recorded in the last three years.

The Scottish Government is aware of the impact of this potent greenhouse gas on the environment and of the risk of leakage incidents. We are currently working with the UK and Welsh Governments to review the F-gas Regulation. We have already done a retrospective assessment of the Regulation and will publish an assessment report on the findings in the coming weeks.

Following the report, we will jointly consider policy options to ensure our regulations continue to support our ambitious Net Zero targets. As part of this, we will also consider other important issues including leakage. We expect to publish a joint consultation on these future policy proposals in due course.

Question reference: S6O-01687

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Orkney Islands Council regarding the Scottish Budget 2023-24 and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S6W-12622

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are to progress the introduction of a specialist court for hearing sexual offence cases, and what its proposed timescale is for doing this.

The proposal to establish a specialist sexual offences court as recommended by the Lady Dorrian Review remains under consideration. In delivering against our commitment to give serious consideration to the Review’s recommendations we have consulted with stakeholders and the public on proposals to establish a specialist court and have convened a Working Group which brings together partners from across the justice system to give detailed consideration to proposals for implementing a specialist court.

Both the independent analysis of consultation responses and the Working Group’s findings are expected to be published in the coming weeks and will inform our decision on whether to proceed with proposals to establish a specialist sexual offences court, although I am unable to provide a specific timescale for this.

Question reference: S6W-12180

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many ChargePlace Scotland EV charging stations have not been operational in each month of the current contract, broken down by local authority area.

The most robust method for reporting ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operational performance across the current contract to-date is by presenting the average daily number of non-operational charge point units. The following table provides a monthly breakdown of this information across the entire ChargePlace Scotland network under the current contract. The transitional period immediately after the migration to the current operator focused on network stabilisation, including resolving technical issues across the network, hence the disparity in operational performance in the months of August and September.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention by an engineer.

The Scottish Government do not currently hold this information by Local Authority area. However, CPS has recently published a new Network Performance page on the website which will be continuously updated with detailed information on the performance of the public charging network, such as uptime by Local Authority area.

Month	Number of charge points	Total daily number of non-operational charge points
August 2021	1760	366
September 2021	2065	136
October 2021	2101	79
November 2021	2126	136
December 2021	2148	90
January 2022	2168	118
February 2022	2216	96
March 2022	2227	73
April 2022	2249	124
May 2022	2268	96
June 2022	2284	126
July 2022	2319	68
August 2022	2363	108
September 2022	2389	44
October 2022	2388	76

Question reference: S6W-12313

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Clyde Catamaran Group regarding its Scottish ferry shipbuilding strategy.

Question reference: S6W-12312

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Clyde Catamaran Group regarding the procurement of new vessels for Orkney and Shetland's internal ferry services.

Question reference: S6W-12361

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the review of its goose management policies by NatureScot.

A Steering Group comprising staff from NatureScot and Scottish Government is undertaking the goose management policy review.

A six-week stakeholder consultation concluded on 17 October 2022 in which stakeholders were invited to comment on the effectiveness of current national goose policy and its delivery, to identify issues and make suggestions for future national goose policy.

Invitations were extended to individual members of the National Goose Forum and Local Goose Management Groups, and NatureScot’s web pages provided open access to the questionnaire to other interested parties.

257 stakeholders submitted questionnaire responses.

The results from the questionnaire have been summarised and the key themes include concerns around greylag geese, funding and how goose management might be supported in future.

The next steps are: for the Policy Steering Group to engage with Local Goose Management Groups and other stakeholders to share the summary responses with them, to confirm they accurately reflect their views, to ask them which issues are of greatest concern to them, and how they would like their concerns to be addressed through future goose policy. These discussions are ongoing, and will be completed before Christmas.

Production of the report by NatureScot has been delayed slightly due to pressures of the additional work being generated with regard to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). This delay will allow NatureScot to ensure the impacts of HPAI are taken into consideration as part of the review.

Following the completion of the review, NatureScot will produce a report for Scottish Ministers in Spring 2023.

In the meantime, the Steering Group will share a draft report with stakeholders and engage in further stakeholder discussions in February 2023.