Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-04218

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported concerns by the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers that falling cattle levels are leading to a reduction in beef supplies, and that gaps could subsequently appear in the red meat sections of supermarkets.

Question reference: S6T-02279

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what early assessment it has made following the opening of the safer drug consumption facility, The Thistle.

Question reference: S6W-32888

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6W-31866 and S6W-32202 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024 and 3 January 2025 respectively, in light of it not providing the numerical figures requested in the questions, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many miles of the A96 have been dualled in each year from 2011 to date, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its previous answers.

Question reference: S6W-32202

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31866 by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024, whether it will provide the information requested regarding how many miles of the A96 have been dualled in each year from 2011 to date.

Question reference: S6O-04169

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will launch an independent review of the 2024 Higher History exam, in light of reports that responses to a survey by the Scottish Association of Teachers of History were overwhelmingly critical of the SQA review, that it had been described as a "whitewash", and that one respondent referred to it as "the most biased and useless investigation I have ever seen a public body attempt to pass off as legitimate”.

Question reference: S6W-31930

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 13 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31621 by Dorothy Bain on 3 December 2024, whether it will clarify whether this means that there is no official record or documentation of section 12 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 being implemented.

As previously advised with reference to question S6W-31621 on 3 December 2024, during daily routine engagement with the police, Procurators Fiscal undertake the long-established practice of instructing the police in their investigation of crime and all suspicious, sudden and unexplained deaths. The ongoing input and direction during the investigative process is not specifically recorded as implementation of section 12 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, nor is there any statutory obligation to do so.

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: S6O-04133

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the proposal from Save Our Surgeries in Burghead and Hopeman to pilot a nurse-led service in the villages following the closure of their GP surgeries.

Question reference: S6W-31866

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many miles of the A96 have been dualled in each year from 2011 to date.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to fully dual the A96 was made in December 2011. A lot has happened since then, not least nearly 14 years of austerity and cost pressures under the previous UK Government, which put significant financial constraints on Scottish budgets. We also had a pandemic which meant that very little construction work was planned or undertaken for a number of years.

The position of the Scottish Government has not changed – the current favoured position is to fully dual the A96, and we are already taking forward the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including Nairn Bypass.

The outcomes from the A96 Corridor Review, which was undertaken as a result of the Bute House Agreement, have been published in draft for public consultation and no final decision has been made.

Feedback from members of the public and key stakeholders will be key in helping inform the Scottish Government’s final decision on how best to take forward improvements to the A96 whilst also balancing the demands of the challenging economic climate and the climate emergency, and to inform our timescales going forward.

Question reference: S6W-31865

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its reported decision to delay the full dualling of the A96, when the Cabinet Secretary for Transport last travelled on the A96 in order to understand the reported concerns regarding this decision.

The position of the Scottish Government has not changed – the current favoured position is to fully dual the A96, and we are already taking forward the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including Nairn Bypass.

The outcomes from the A96 Corridor Review, which was undertaken as a result of the Bute House Agreement, have been published in draft for public consultation and no final decision has been made.

Feedback from members of the public and key stakeholders will be key in helping inform the Scottish Government’s final decision on how best to take forward improvements to the A96 whilst also balancing the demands of the challenging economic climate and the climate emergency, and to inform our timescales going forward.

The Scottish Government is wholly aware of the challenges and reality of living with a trunk road, such as the A96 cutting through the heart of towns such as Nairn, Elgin and Keith. I attended the Build the Nairn Bypass event hosted by the Inverness Courier in Nairn on 31 May 2024 to hear first-hand the impacts it has on the safety and well-being of those that live, travel, work and attend education establishments along it.

Question reference: S6W-31621

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 3 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many times section 12 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 has been used each year since 1999, and what information it has regarding each year in the period prior to that when the Act was in force.

There is a long-established practice of Procurators Fiscal instructing the police in their investigation of crime and all suspicious sudden and unexplained deaths.

Investigation and direction may be issued in relation to specific matters in the context of ongoing liaison between the police and Procurators Fiscal who can instruct the police during the course of investigations and when further investigation is required in a case.

This is carried out as routine engagement during the investigative process and as such is not recorded as specific implementation of section 12 of the 1995 Act.

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