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 2189 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-28407

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) discussions it had, (b) action it took and (c) meetings were held in relation to the decision of the City of Edinburgh Council to defer the planned friendship agreement with the Taiwanese port city, Kaohsiung.

Question reference: S6W-28124

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) grants have been awarded to, (b) contracts have been entered into with and (c) payments have been made to Highland Rewilding by (i) it and (ii) any of its agencies; for what purpose any such funding was provided, and what due diligence was undertaken in relation to Highland Rewilding's financial status and ownership structure prior to any such funding being agreed.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on the grants, contract and payments made by public bodies. Contracts let by public bodies are held on public record and can be found at Public Contracts Scotland ( www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/ )

Highlands Rewilding received a payment of £5,000 plus VAT on 24 February 2023 for their participation in the CivTech 8 cohort Exploration Stage after applying with a solution for CivTech Challenge 8.6. Highlands Rewilding did not progress further than the Exploration Stage and as such only received the Exploration payment of £5,000 plus VAT. This money was not grant funding and was for work carried out during the exploration stage to develop their proposal as per the contract.

Participants are selected for the Exploration Stage after an open procurement process followed by a thorough sift, selection and interview process. There is no specific financial due diligence required at this stage of the process due to the nature of the procurement.

More information on the CivTech process can be found here:

www.civtech.scot/process

More information on the CivTech Challenge 8.6 can be found here:

www.civtech.scot/civtech-8-challenge-6-simplifying-and-enabling-investment-in-scotlands-nature

Highlands Rewilding was offered a grant of £81,517 through the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) for a project entitled Beldorney Pond Creation for Biodiversity and Resilience to Climate Change. The Scottish Government does not hold information on payments made further to that offer, which would be administered by NatureScot.

Further details about the NRF, including eligibility and other criteria for applicants, can be found here: www.nature.scot/funding-and-projects/scottish-government-nature-restoration-fund-nrf

Highlands Rewilding was offered a grant of £97,350 through the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) in September 2023, administered by NatureScot, with match funding of £97,350 also provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project is titled Joint Ventures for Scalable Community Benefits from Rewilding. The Scottish Government does not hold information on payments made further to that offer.

Further details about FIRNS, including eligibility and information on successful applications, can be found here: https://www.nature.scot/funding-and-projects/firns-facility-investment-ready-nature-scotland

The NRF and FIRNS conform to the conditions for such schemes set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM). The SPFM is issued by Scottish Ministers and provides guidance to the Scottish Government and relevant bodies on the proper handling and reporting of public funds. It covers the relevant statutory, parliamentary and administrative requirements and promotes good practice and high standards of propriety.

Further information on the SPFM can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-public-finance-manual/

Question reference: S6O-03650

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its consideration of the impact of the change in subsidised air service provider between Uist and Stornoway on access to services, including health services, for people with reduced mobility.

Question reference: S6W-27928

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take regarding reports that UHI Inverness plans to withhold 100% of pay for lecturing staff taking part in action short of strike, including any steps that are being taken to end the ongoing pay dispute, and what its position is on whether any such action by UHI is in line with fair work practices.

Operational decisions on pay, resourcing and staffing matters are for individual colleges; Scottish Ministers have no locus to intervene in these negotiations, however I meet regularly with trade unions and employers, urging both sides to continue to negotiate and reach a settlement.

On 6 February, all colleges, with the exception of New College Lanarkshire, agreed to take forward initial mitigations in the form of pay deductions for staff taking part in ASOS.

In circumstances where deductions are to be made, colleges must ensure employees are reminded in advance of their contractual obligations and advised where taking part in ASOS is considered to be a breach of contract.

EIS-FELA’s own guidance for Members acknowledges that colleges may not accept partial performance and may advise of pay deductions.

Question reference: S6W-26881

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 5 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much private finance, which involves paying returns to private investors, was (a) arranged under the support of the private finance pilot and (b) spent on (i) tree planting and (ii) peatland restoration between the launch of the £2 billion private finance pilot on 1 March 2023 and the last day of February 2024; who the private finance providers involved were; how much was invested and on which projects, and whether it considers any finance awarded by any lottery funds to be private finance.

The Nature Investment Partnership (formerly referred to as the Private Finance Pilot) has not yet invested any private finance in to projects on the ground, or delivered any return to investors.

The Partnership is focussed on building the pipeline of projects to enable that investment to flow, and engaging with a range of investors and communities to establish the best fit for each project. NatureScot have published a detailed FAQs page ( Private finance pilot for nature: FAQs | NatureScot ). The first pilot – the Wild Heart Expansion Project - has been established in the South of Scotland and is now engaging with communities and land managers to test the appetite for nature finance and design the potential investment.

We consider lottery funding to be philanthropic funding.

Question reference: S6W-27620

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expedite protection of the Gairloch Erradale area of sea, in light of reports of the local community's discovery of a herring egg-laying site.

Protecting our marine environment is vital for both the viability of our marine industries and to halt the loss of biodiversity. Marine protected areas remain a high priority for the Scottish Government and we are putting in place the remaining fisheries management measures required to protect those and other key biodviersity areas. The area where herring spawning recently occurred near Gairloch is mostly within the proposed Port Erradale Priority Marine Feature management area and where bottom contacting mobile fishing gear would be prohibited. Therefore, in light of advice which we have actively sought on the matter from NatureScot, we are prioritising bringing in protection for these priority marine features, as part of the wider package of fisheries management measures for inshore MPAs.

Question reference: S6O-03478

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-27195

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Market Framework for Natural Capital – Engagement Framework, as referenced on page 4, what amount of investment in natural capital markets is required to reach a level "sufficient to meet Scotland's climate and nature restoration goals" and that would provide for the estimated job creation potential, including the estimated investment needed to achieve peatland restoration in Scotland.

Page 4 of the Market Framework for Natural Capital - Engagement paper references estimates from the November 2023 Scottish Government research publication 'Assessing the cumulative and cross-sector economic benefits of investment in natural capital in Scotland'. It estimates that £12.5 billion of further investment in natural capital is required in order to meet policy goals, and that this further investment would create 146,000 direct and 197,000 direct and indirect jobs.

However, there is an error at Page 4 of the Market Framework for Natural Capital - Engagement paper in that it references these estimates in relation to 'natural capital markets ' rather than to 'natural capital ' as stated in the research report which does not distinguish between the role of public and private investment in providing the additional £12.5 billion of further investment. This error will be corrected by deleting 'markets' from the sentence on page 4 of the Engagement paper on the Scottish Government website.

Question reference: S6F-03136

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2024

To ask the First Minister, in light of reports that only four homes have been approved nationally under the affordable housing initiative for key workers scheme, whether he will provide an update on what efforts the Scottish Government will make to address the reported housing crisis in rural and island areas.

Question reference: S6W-27057

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many temporary "drive on left" signs have been installed on the A9, and what the ongoing cost is.

Eight temporary electronic variable message signs have been deployed on the A9 between the Birnam and Moy, which display a number of road safety messages to drivers. These include “Don’t Drive Tired” and “Don’t Use Mobile Phones When Driving” to encourage responsible and considerate driving, as well as “Drive on the Left” in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian to assist visitors from overseas. For 2024, these signs were installed during the last week in March and will be in place until the start of November to cover the main tourism season. The estimated cost for installing and maintaining the signs in the 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 financial years is £155,439.57 excluding VAT. The use of these signs on the A9 in future years will be considered through Transport Scotland’s ongoing assessment of the safety performance of the trunk road network.