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.

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Question reference: S6W-28533

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether its webpage, fairdeliveries.scot, which was planned to provide an online data hub and interactive parcel delivery map and be updated on a monthly basis, is available, and, if this is not the case, what the reasons are for it not being available.

In August 2020, the Scottish Government launched an interactive website, fairdeliveries.scot, which provided users with information allowing them to measure the fairness of delivery pricing, improve transparency, and drive positive behavioural change from parcel delivery companies.

In January 2023, fairdeliveries.scot was decommissioned as the low levels of traffic did not represent best value for money. As an alternative, Highland Council Trading Standards runs the Delivery Law UK website which provides comprehensive information for consumers and businesses on their rights and obligations in relation to parcel delivery.

Postal services is a reserved policy which places a limit on any actions that the Scottish Government can take. We will continue to work collaboratively with our partners in Consumer Scotland and Trading Standards to advocate for a fair approach to parcel delivery for both households and business.

Question reference: S6W-28377

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support housing associations to retrofit their housing stocks, with the aim of reducing fuel poverty, lowering energy consumption and preventing the occurrence of mould, and how it plans to ensure that any measures are implemented effectively.

The Scottish Government is supporting housing associations to retrofit their housing stock through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund. We are making available up to £200m this Parliamentary Session to support clean heat and energy efficiency projects in socially rented homes.

‎ Projects are eligible for up to 60% of the costs of clean heating systems and 50% of energy efficiency measures, including Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) which also helps to prevent the occurrence of mould and condensation.

The Scottish Government monitors grant funded projects closely, requiring frequent updates to ensure they are implemented effectively and that benefits are realised.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard requires social landlords to meet minimum energy efficiency standards and to have in place satisfactory ventilation, as well as ensure that there is no rising or penetrating damp. The Scottish Housing Regulator wrote to all Social Landlords in December 2022 on the importance of appropriate systems to identify cases of mould and damp.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government consulted on a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard. This included proposals to require landlords to devise a ventilation and monitoring strategy to accompany energy efficiency interventions where mechanical ventilation isn’t installed. We are now considering the consultation responses received before progressing.

Question reference: S6W-28240

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Royal Mail and (b) other delivery companies regarding the additional cost of parcel delivery in the Highlands and Islands region, and what measures are being implemented to ensure that residents in these areas are not disproportionately affected by (i) such costs and (ii) any proposed changes to the universal service obligation.

The Royal Mail and postal delivery services are reserved matters.

Postal delivery companies are commercial organisations, operating in an unregulated market. The Scottish Government has long called for an end to unfair delivery charges, but only the UK Government has the power to regulate them. Where there are opportunities to do so, the Scottish Government urges these companies to be fair and transparent in their pricing policies.

The Scottish Government supports the maintenance of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and makes regular representations to the UK Government and Royal Mail on behalf of Scottish consumers.

I will meet with Royal Mail in September and will continue to seek assurances that any reform of the USO does not cause detriment, particularly to consumers in rural and island communities.

Question reference: S6W-28106

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any impact on its climate change policies and targets, how ministers plan to take account of the advisory opinion delivered by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on 21 May 2024 on the request submitted to the tribunal by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law.

The Scottish Government welcomes the advisory opinion and the clarity that it provides on the specific obligations of State Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in relation to climate change and ocean acidification.

The relationship between climate change and ocean health is long-established in Scottish legislation and action to tackle the impacts of climate change is at the heart of decision making for the marine environment. Under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 Scottish Ministers and public authorities must act in the way best calculated to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change in exercising any function that affects the Scottish marine area. Further, the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires that the climate change plan must set out the Scottish Ministers' proposals and policies regarding the consideration of the potential for the capture and long-term storage of carbon, known as blue carbon, when designating marine protected areas.

The Scottish Government’s commitment to ending Scotland’s contribution to global emissions by 2045 at the latest is unwavering. We are already around half-way there and continue to decarbonise faster than the UK average.

Question reference: S6O-03629

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the potential impact on the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme of the roll-out of BT’s Digital Voice to rural and island areas in Scotland, in particular in relation to areas without adequate mobile phone provision.

Question reference: S6W-27890

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 18 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the report by a professor at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) on the impacts of the new agricultural support framework on agricultural businesses in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles has not yet been published.

Question reference: S6W-28122

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 14 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the deadline is for relevant authorities to publish a Good Food Nation plan.

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 requires relevant authorities to publish a Good Food Nation Plan within 12 months of the date that Section 10 of the Act comes into force. It is the Scottish Government’s intention to commence this part of the legislation at around the same time as the final version of the national Good Food Nation Plan is published in 2025. Relevant authorities will therefore be required to publish their own Plans in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-27899

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) ScotRail and (b) Transport Scotland regarding the reported 12 extra services per day that would operate on the Aberdeen, Inverness and Elgin route and which have not been included in the new train timetables.

Question reference: S6W-27904

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an analysis of its consultation on the implementation timescales for a new environmental quality standard (EQS) for emamectin benzoate, as used in fish farms, which closed on 24 July 2023.

Question reference: S6W-27905

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many fish farms have been allowed to continue using the pesticide, emamectin benzoate, at the level set by the 2017 environmental quality standard (EQS), in light of the subsequent interim EQS applying only to new and expanded fish farms.

All farms that discharge emamectin benzoate are being regulated against the previous environmental standard of 763 ng/kg of wet weight sediment or against the revised environmental standard recommended by UKTAG of 272 ng/kg of dry weight sediment.

Farms authorised to discharge emamectin benzoate
	No. farms	No. farms that have used emamectin benzoate at least once between 2017 and 2024
Regulated against previous environmental standard (763 ng/kg of wet weight sediment).	332	194
Regulated against updated environmental standard (272 ng/kg of dry weight sediment) recommended by UKTAG.	22	15