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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6T-00876

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote participation in Scotland’s Climate Week 2022, which runs from 26 September to 2 October.

Question reference: S6W-10932

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what impact assessment it has undertaken regarding storm overflows and their impact on public health.

The independent Scottish EPA is required by law to identify unsatisfactory CSOs, primarily for water quality or sewage related debris impacts, in order to reduce those impacts on the water environment. SEPA also identifies unsatisfactory CSOs that impact on bathing water quality classification at the 87 designated Bathing Waters to reduce the risks to public health. Between 2010 and 2021 Scottish Water invested £335m improving 279 CSOs previously classed as unsatisfactory. The Scottish Government takes very seriously the issue of sewage spills, and my statement in Parliament last December set out comprehensive plans to reduce sewage spills over the coming decade.

Question reference: S6W-10786

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to deliver a (a) gradual and (b) flexible reintroduction of non-domestic rates to enable businesses to concentrate their resources on business re-growth.

Decisions on non-domestic rates, including the poundage and any reliefs, are generally considered in the context of the Scottish Budget in line with other government priorities.

The Scottish Budget 2022-23 maintains a competitive non-domestic rates regime, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row as well as a generous package of reliefs which are forecast to be worth £801 million.

Question reference: S6W-10712

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it plans to do with the £5 million that it previously committed to the Islands Bond scheme, and whether it will be spent on measures that aim to tackle the depopulation of islands.

The £300,000 allocated to the Islands Bond this financial year will now be used to shape a range of tests to help inform policy in an islands context, based on the feedback gathered through our engagement on the Islands Bond since October 2021, (including meeting over 100 island residents across 12 island communities in spring 2022).

These Practical Policy Tests (PPTs) will help to inform the development of our action plan to address depopulation as set out in our 2019 National Islands Plan, and also help to inform our future funding requirements so that we can tackle the depopulation challenges across our islands.

This work complements the £8.3 million provided to implement the National Islands Plan in the current financial year. This continues our record of delivering significant investment in key island-based projects, such as our £1.3 million contribution towards the rebuild of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory, and the £550K transformational Kerrera Road project.

Annual budgets will continue to be set through the annual parliamentary budget Bill process and the annual budget will be based on the latest fiscal information.

Question reference: S6W-10620

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support (a) permanent and (b) mobile abattoirs.

Question reference: S6W-10621

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available to support the work of (a) permanent and (b) mobile abattoirs.

Question reference: S6W-10623

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it can provide to the owners of (a) permanent and (b) mobile abattoirs who are seeking to sell their business, in order for a new owner to be found.

Question reference: S6W-10859

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the consequences are for passengers who consume alcohol and breach the ban on ScotRail trains.

Question reference: S6W-10839

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of peatland have been restored through its initiatives in each of the last 15 years.

Official annual restoration totals are only available from 2012-13 when the Scottish Government began funding Peatland ACTION, the national peatland restoration programme delivered by NatureScot. However, data from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is available prior to this time and around 60,000 hectares of degraded peatland have been put on the road to recovery since 1990.

We are committed to further increasing the annual area of peatland and have committed £250 million to restoring 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-10619

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help (a) permanent and (b) mobile abattoir businesses recruit new workers.

We are aware that employers across many sectors across the country, including, the meat processing sector, are experiencing challenges in attracting and retaining workers. These significant workforce challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the impact of Brexit. We are working with business organisations and industry representatives to better understand the challenges we face and to develop mitigating activity, with a focus on employability, skills and fair work, investing an additional £500m over the course of this Parliament to support new jobs and reskill people for the good, fair and green jobs of the future.

However, we do not have control of all the levers we require to support the food and drink sector, including migration. While the UK Government introduced temporary visa routes for pig and poultry workers in the run up to Christmas last year, only a tiny proportion of butchery visas and less than half of poultry worker visas had been issued by mid-December. We continue to call on the UK Government to revise its restrictive migration policy, and to establish a specific Labour Market Shortages Taskforce with the Devolved Governments to enable constructive discussion on the measures required to tackle labour shortages

We have supported many of our abattoirs with grants through the Food Processing, Marketing & Cooperation Scheme. The scheme provides grant funding to businesses (or groups of businesses) within the Scottish food and drink sector which includes the meat processing sector.

Throughput for abattoirs is vital to ensure that plants are fit for purpose and have a viable future, however it is a commercial decision as to what abattoir producers wish to use for processing their animals. As any commercial arrangement is between producers and processors, the Scottish Government does not decide or influence the number of animals processed in a particular plant, which may be to the detriment of others. In addition, the size of the abattoir and its layout and structure will be decisive factor in establishing the abattoir’s throughput.

Changing ownership of an abattoir is an entirely commercial decision, therefore the government has no influence on it. There could be no interested parties in the uptake of the abattoir, as was highlighted in the closure of the abattoir in Orkney, where the local council were also involved, and provided a £50k challenge fund which did not entice anyone to come forward.

In 2019 we commissioned a feasibility study which provides details of what would be required to operate mobile abattoirs in Scotland, including the regulatory framework, and offers a cost-benefit analysis of possible operational models. However, the report also highlights the difficulty in achieving a sustained economic return from a mobile abattoir in Scotland. The full report can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/assessing-viability-sustainability-mobile-abattoirs-scotland/