Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35622

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to backdating the 36-month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Increases to the timelines relating to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Additional Dwelling Supplement were introduced with prospective effect from 1 April 2024, following a process of consultation.

The Scottish Government made clear in the initial December 2021 call for evidence and views on the Additional Dwelling Supplement that any changes arising from the process would not be made retrospective. The subsequent consultation on draft legislation published in February 2023 confirmed that the proposed changes, including to the relevant timelines, would have prospective effect only.

In this context, the Scottish Government has not considered backdating the 36 month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6W-35692

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will put in place a moratorium on all battery energy storage system planning applications until the findings of any investigation into the recent fire at the battery energy storage system site at Rothienorman in Aberdeenshire are published.

Question reference: S6W-35784

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the brokerage discussions with NHS Grampian regarding the overspend for 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-35632

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it being approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for the rest of the UK, for what reason the medication, Givinostat, for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is not available through NHS Scotland.

A conditional marketing authorisation was granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for givinostat (Duvyzat®) on 20 December 2024. A conditional marketing authorisation is an early temporary licence.

The pharmaceutical company that markets Duvyzat® has offered a national Early Access Programme which provides free of charge access to the medicine for the treatment of ambulant young people aged six years and older with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This has been in place since late December 2024.

It is for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new medicine, and ultimately for the clinician in charge of a person’s care to advise on suitable treatment options. The Scottish Government is aware that Health Boards are currently considering how to schedule offering this medicine in the most fair and equitable manner.

Question reference: S6W-35693

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will investigate the recent fire at the battery energy storage system site at Rothienorman in Aberdeenshire.

Question reference: S6W-35251

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether community councils are statutory consultees regarding applications under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, where the development concerned requires an environmental impact assessment, and, if not, whether it plans to include them.

Statutory consultees are those set out in legislation as requiring to be consulted on submission of an application.

Community councils are not referred to as statutory consultees of applications for energy consents under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989. However, consultation responses from non-statutory consultees such as community councils and public bodies are important considerations during the determination process.

The Scottish Government is committed to further strengthening engagement for communities by making pre-application consultation a statutory requirement as part of the UK Government’s proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35267

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to changing the funding process of distributing community benefit from the current model of local community benefit funds administered by the communities impacted by developments to a central fund distributed by it.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments are voluntary arrangements between communities and developers. Despite the powers to mandate community benefits being reserved to the UK Government, Scotland has made significant progress with a voluntary approach through our Good Practice Principles. Over the past 12 months, renewables developers have offered more than £30 million to local communities.

We are currently consulting on our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore renewable energy developments, to ensure we continue to support sustainable and meaningful outcomes for people in Scotland. This includes seeking views on local, regional and national approaches to community benefits. The consultation closes on the 11 April and we will consider all responses as we work towards updating the guidance by the end of 2025. We want to gather a wide range of views from across communities, industry, the third sector and public sector partners, and encourage everyone to take part.

Question reference: S6O-04419

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline its funding strategy for health and social care partnerships in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S6W-34318

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33251 by Ivan McKee on 23 January 2025, how much revenue has been raised from non-domestic rates levied on properties with pylon infrastructure in each of the last three years; whether any other levies are applied to pylons based on their height or size, and, if so, how much revenue was raised in 2024 from each of these levies.

The estimated non-domestic rates revenue from energy transmission infrastructure from 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 is presented in Table 1. This includes overhead transmission lines and pylons, underground lines, and sub-stations, operating at or above 132kV. We are unable to separately estimate the amounts related to pylon infrastructure only.

There are no Scottish Government levies charged on the basis of pylon height or size. We are not aware of any other levies charged on this basis.

Table 1: Estimated non-domestic rates income from electricity transmission infrastructure

Financial year	Non-domestic rates income (£)
2022-2023	81,744,000
2023-2024	112,398,000
2024-2025	114,595,000

Source: Designated electricity transmission entries on the Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2022, 1 October 2023, 1 October 2024.

Question reference: S6W-34343

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has paid out from the £1 million investment in bursaries for GP trainees who stay in rural and island areas for their training.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The Scottish Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS) offers a one-off payment of £20,000 to GP trainees who commit to undertaking their training in selected areas and programmes. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for issuing the bursaries, which are paid directly to the GP trainees.

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