Chamber and committees

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

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1552 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-27251

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to secure 8GW to 12GW of installed onshore wind by 2030.

As of December 2023, Scotland’s operational onshore wind capacity is around 9.5 GW. Within the project pipeline there is additional 13.9 GW of potential onshore wind capacity in Scotland. This consists of:

1.7 GW under construction.
4.8 GW awaiting construction.
7.4 GW in planning.

Energy Trends: UK renewables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Renewable Energy Planning Database: quarterly extract - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

A key industry commitment from the Onshore Wind Sector Deal was to publish a pipeline report on how Scotland may achieve its ambition of 20 GW of onshore wind by 2030. Scottish Renewables have committed to updating the report on a biannual basis. Scottish Onshore Wind Project Pipeline Analysis Dec 23 FULL REPORT (scottishrenewables.com)

Question reference: S6W-27269

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 14 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what public consultation process it carries out with local community groups when significant harvesting plans are proposed in areas that could affect national and local conservation projects.

The Scottish Government is committed to the principle that local communities should be involved in the decisions about land that affect them, including those relating to forestry.

Consultations are an essential part of the decision-making process in forestry, and last year Scottish Forestry updated guidance that sets out the Engagement and Consultation Processes for forestry plans and proposals in Scotland.

Where significant harvesting plans are proposed this will normally involve two stages, firstly applicants are expected to engage with communities and neighbours, providing them with an opportunity to input `before plans have been finalised, and secondly Scottish Forestry runs a formal public consultation exercise as part of decision making process for applications involving significant tree harvesting.

Question reference: S6W-27257

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 14 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to accelerate woodland creation to 18,000 hectares a year by 2024-25.

Scotland’s woodland creation planting target is set out in the Climate Change Plan. The plan includes ambitious targets for woodland creation, aiming to increase woodland cover from around 18% to 21% of the total area of Scotland by 2032, with the planting target increasing to 18,000 hectares annually.

Although Scotland faces the most challenging budget settlement since devolution, the Scottish Government remains committed to maximising the important contribution forestry makes in tackling the climate emergency.

We fund woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme, which has made £39.2 million available to support woodland creation in 2024-25.

Woodland creation projects, including both planting and natural regeneration schemes are being approved on an ongoing basis and whilst this funding will not allow us to reach this year’s target, it will help create over 9,000 hectares of new woodland. This will help maintain the level of planting close to the average achieved over the last 5 years and allow for increased planting in the future should funding from the UK Government be forthcoming. Putting this in context, it will still allow Scotland to create more woodland than the rest of the UK combined.

Question reference: S6W-27248

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will report on the climate compatibility assessment for the dualling of the A96 route between Inverness and Aberdeen to assess direct and indirect impacts on the climate and the environment.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving the A96. This is despite stark challenges we face as a result of the severe budgetary restrictions imposed by the UK Government including an almost 9% cut in our capital budget.

The current plan is to fully dual the route and as part of this process we are undertaking a transparent, evidence-based review of the programme, which includes a climate compatibility assessment and other statutory assessments.

The significant interest in the review’s initial consultation, with nearly 4,600 responses, generated 11,000 options to improve the corridor. It is only right that appropriate time has been taken in order to properly examine and fully appraise these.

It is expected that the draft outcomes from the Review, including the climate compatibility assessment, will be consulted on in the coming months, before a final decision can be reached.

Question reference: S6W-27455

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason non-compliance with the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice 2013 is a criminal offence in the rest of the UK, but not in Scotland, and whether it has any plans to introduce a criminal offence for such non-compliance.

Question reference: S6W-27244

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17939 by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023, whether it will provide an update on how many young people have now received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority area, based on the latest information available.

As of 1 May 2024, there were 732,654 cardholders under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. The following table shows the number of cardholders broken down to local authority level.

Aberdeen City	30,715
Aberdeenshire	36,247
Angus Council	14,305
Argyll & Bute	9,022
City of Edinburgh	85,314
Clackmannanshire	5,130
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	2,963
Dumfries and Galloway	13,637
Dundee City	23,109
East Ayrshire	17,381
East Dunbartonshire	13,712
East Lothian	16,357
East Renfrewshire	14,633
Falkirk	18,543
Fife	57,821
Glasgow City	82,026
Highland	22,727
Inverclyde	11,696
Midlothian	13,686
Moray	10,757
North Ayrshire	19,937
North Lanarkshire	48,400
Orkney Islands	2,189
Perth & Kinross	18,514
Renfrewshire	23,856
Scottish Borders	12,385
Shetland Islands	3,197
South Ayrshire	11,947
South Lanarkshire	44,416
Stirling	11,126
West Dunbartonshire	13,690
West Lothian	23,216

Total	732,654

This data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

Question reference: S6W-27258

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-27267

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many beavers have been translocated to Scotland’s national forests to date, broken down by the number of locations.

Question reference: S6W-27250

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its commitment to generate 50% of Scotland’s overall energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030 and decarbonising the energy system almost completely by 2050.

The Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) will set clear ambitions for increasing Scotland’s renewable energy capacity. It will outline a route map of actions for the Scottish Government, the UK Government and others to take to deliver these ambitions whilst supporting a just transition.

In 2023, Scotland generated over 33 Terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from renewable sources. The most recent consumption statistics (from 2021) show that Scotland generated the equivalent of 23.7% of its energy consumption from renewable sources.

Energy Statistics for Scotland - Q2 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Energy Trends: UK renewables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-27268

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many new locations Forestry and Land Scotland has identified for the translocation of beavers to Scotland’s national forests in 2024.