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-24164

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19768 by Christina McKelvie on 7 July 2023, whether it will provide an updated breakdown of any performance payments that Historic Environment Scotland has awarded to staff at executive level in 2023.

As stated in my answer to question S6W-19768 given previously, no such payments have been made since the establishment of Historic Environment Scotland in 2015. Scottish Government pay policy for public bodies has not permitted performance-related payments for Chief Executives or for staff at director/executive level over this period.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-24200

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates its proposed £2,441,000 reduction in resource funding for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, as set out in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, will have on its ability to maintain and operate regional airports.

The resource grant funding budget of £39,446,000 for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) in 2024-25 is intended to close the gap between HIAL’s commercial revenue and operating costs. As passenger numbers and commercial revenue have continued to recover post-pandemic, the subsidy requirement to maintain HIAL’s operations has lowered. The amount of grant funding required in 2024-25 will be determined by ongoing growth in passenger numbers, the delivery of new commercial opportunities and measures to reduce operating costs.

Question reference: S6W-24160

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many sites that are managed by Historic Environment Scotland and its predecessor agencies have been (a) open, (b) temporarily closed and (c) permanently closed in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-24169

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses have applied to the VisitScotland Quality Assurance scheme in each year since 2016.

VisitScotland has provided the following data:

Year End Date	Count
end Dec 2016	281
end Dec 2017	196
end Dec 2018	181
end Dec 2019	188
end Dec 2020	116
end Mar 2022	204
end Mar 2023	173

It should be noted that:

The figures show only new applicants in each year, the figures do not include renewals.
Figures include re-joined businesses, meaning those who left the scheme and subsequently re-joined.
Figures show unique sites and one business may have multiple sites.
Reporting period changed in 2021 from calendar to fiscal year.

Question reference: S6W-24170

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses and attractions were awarded a (a) one star, (b) two star, (c) three star, (d) four star and (e) five star rating through VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance scheme in each year since 2016.

VisitScotland has provided the following data:

YE Date	1 Star	1-3 Star	2 Star	2-3 Star
end Dec 2016	15	2	167	17
end Dec 2017	12	1	138	14
end Dec 2018	10	1	105	11
end Dec 2019	6	1	100	8
end Dec 2020	6	1	88	7
end Mar 2022	6	0	77	6
end Mar 2023	6	0	58	4

YE Date	2-4 Star	2-5 Star	3 Star	3-4 Star
end Dec 2016	6	1	1747	101
end Dec 2017	5	1	1524	90
end Dec 2018	4	1	1380	89
end Dec 2019	3	1	1221	79
end Dec 2020	3	1	1120	65
end Mar 2022	4	1	1053	65
end Mar 2023	2	1	735	48

YE Date	3-5 Star	4 Star	4-5 Star	5 Star
end Dec 2016	8	2479	56	513
end Dec 2017	7	2342	60	525
end Dec 2018	8	2244	59	549
end Dec 2019	11	2083	50	551
end Dec 2020	12	1952	47	531
end Mar 2022	12	1829	45	512
end Mar 2023	7	1444	34	457

YE Date	Pass	Await	Total
end Dec 2016	166	101	5379
end Dec 2017	171	77	4967
end Dec 2018	172	36	4669
end Dec 2019	174	52	4340
end Dec 2020	159	130	4122
end Mar 2022	149	308	4067
end Mar 2023	128	204	3128

It should be noted that:

The data is a snapshot of the number of sites in QA membership at the end of the membership year. A business may have multiple sites.
Increase in Awaiting Grading figures since 2020 are due to a two-year suspension of live visits due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Award ranges apply to some sectors where one site has a range of properties at different grades. Historic breakdown for these individual properties is not available.
Reporting period changed in 2021 from calendar to fiscal year.

Question reference: S6W-24201

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates its proposed £17,496,000 reduction in funding for Ferguson Marine, as set out in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, will have on its ability to deliver Hull (a) 801 and (b) 802 within its respective revised timescale.

Question reference: S6W-24171

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many complaints have been made to VisitScotland in each year since 2016, and how many of those complains were (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully resolved.

VisitScotland handles two types of complaints: Visitor complaints - complaints and feedback submitted by visitors about their holiday experience in Scotland; and Corporate complaints - complaints about VisitScotland’s actions or services, as per the Ombudsman’s definition.

The following data relates to visitor complaints regarding various issues, and are not categorised into successfully or unsuccessfully resolved. The number of complaints of this nature made to VisitScotland from 2016 to 2023 is as follows:

Calendar year	Complaints received
2016	564
2017	527
2018	498
2019	361
2020	96
2021	164
2022	241
2023	342

The following complaints are about VisitScotland and are not categorised into successfully or unsuccessfully resolved. All complaints have been responded to. When appropriate and in line with VisitScotland's complaints handling processes, on completion of an investigation-stage complaint response all complainants are directed to the SPSO. The number of corporate complaints made to VisitScotland from 2016 to 2023 is as follows:

Calendar year	Complaints received
2016	125
2017	134
2018	113
2019	42
2020	51
2021	52
2022	102
2023	83

Question reference: S6W-24173

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been made available for the (a) Access to Music Making and (b) Strengthening Youth Music Fund for (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-24163

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of Historic Scotland there were at the end of each month in 2023.

Question reference: S6W-24176

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many registered GlobalScots there were in 2023.