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: S5W-14990

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to update the legislation regarding the licensing late hours catering, including introducing a system of neighbourhood notification.

Under section 42 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, Licensing Authorities may operate a late night catering licensing regime for premises providing “food” between 11pm and 5am. Prior to the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, the 1982 Act referred to “meals or refreshments”. The 2010 Act changed that definition to “food” bringing late-night grocers and 24-hour stores within the scope of the provisions.

Licensing Authorities may impose conditions on a licence, including conditions fixing the days and hours of opening. Operating hours may differ for consumption on the premises and for consumption off the premises. It is for Licensing Authorities to determine which classes of premises actually require to be licensed.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to further amend legislation regarding the licensing of late hours catering.

Question reference: S5O-01917

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to incorporate the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into Scots law.

Question reference: S5O-01896

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the health secretary has had with the housing minister regarding action that can be taken to mitigate the cost of health inequalities brought about by poor or unsuitable housing.

Question reference: S5O-01776

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to regulate the commercial short-term letting of domestic flats.

Question reference: S5W-13800

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to implement the outstanding recommendations of the paper, Report on Succession, which was published by the Scottish Law Commission in 2009, and what its position regarding whether women should be given a legal right to inherit land.

The Scottish Government has consulted twice on the recommendations in the Scottish Law Commission’s 2009 Report on Succession (Scot Law Com No 215).The first consultation resulted in the Succession (Scotland) Act 2016.

In the Programme for Government published on 5 September 2017, the First Minister announced that the Scottish Government would publish its response to the remaining issues during 2018 - http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00524214.pdf.

Inheritance rights are not gender specific and apply universally. In Scots law, the legal rights of surviving spouses/civil partners and children, regardless of gender, to a proportion of a deceased’s moveable estate are a form of protection from disinheritance. The 2015 consultation sought views on whether the law on legal rights should be changed so that rights would apply to a proportion of the whole of a deceased’s estate, both heritable and moveable.

Question reference: S5O-01714

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to meet the health needs of homeless people, and whether the cabinet secretary considers that their health outcomes could be improved by adopting a "housing first" approach.

The Scottish Government has taken a series of actions to address rough sleeping and homelessness, which will have a positive effect on meeting the health needs of homeless people.

The short term Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group has moved rapidly to produce recommendations on minimising rough sleeping this winter, which are already being implemented in our cities with support from the Scottish Government, to help those that are most vulnerable to the detrimental effects that rough sleeping can have on their health.

The Group is now working on recommendations for ending rough sleeping for good and transforming temporary accommodation, which are due in the spring. The further development of the Housing First approach, which is already working successfully in parts of Scotland, will be part of this, along with advice on best use of the £50m Ending Homelessness Together Fund, established by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-13525

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of private forestry land are owned by (a) individuals, (b) families, (c) resident owners, (d) absentee owners, (e) charitable bodies and (f) corporate bodies.

The Scottish Government does not hold data about these categories of ownership of private forestry. Information showing the estimated number of hectares of privately owned forests in the UK in the following classifications was published by the Forestry Commission in 2005, as part a one off assessment drawing on data from the last national forest inventory: forest land owned by individuals, owned by families, owned by forest industries, owned by private institutions, owned by co-operatives owned by religious institutions, owned by educational institutions, and owned by other private institutions.

This data is available at www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-7aqk5z

As part of the current National Forest Inventory, Forest Research has collected a limited sample data-set on the ownership of woodlands in Scotland, England and Wales. This data was collected by means of a questionnaire. The data is currently being assessed for quality assurance purposes.

Question reference: S5W-13527

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the residency status of the owners of private forestry land.

Question reference: S5W-13523

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of privately-owned forest land are owned by women.

Question reference: S5W-13556

Asked by: Andy Wightman, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what research (a) it has and (b) its agencies have commissioned on the development of a genetic test to identify Scottish wildcats; how much this cost, and whether it will publish the findings.

The Scottish Government has not directly commissioned research on the development of a genetic test to identify Scottish wildcats but Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has, from the early 1990s to the present day, commissioned research into the classification and genetics of Scottish wildcats.

In 1992, SNH initiated a comprehensive study into the morphology, genetics and behavioural ecology of wild-living cats in Scotland. This work was largely taken forward by SNH staff and resulted in several publications (Balharry D, Daniels MJ (1998) Wild living cats in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage Research, Survey and Monitoring Report No 23; Beaumont M, Barratt EM, Gottelli D, et al. (2001) Genetic diversity and introgression in the Scottish wildcat, Molecular Ecology 10, 319-336).

In 2009, SNH commissioned the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford to carry out a comparison of genetic data and pelage criteria. This work cost SNH £14,988 and is published (Kilshaw, K, Drake, A., Macdonald, D.W. & Kitchener, A.C.(2010) The Scottish wildcat: a comparison of genetic and pelage characteristics. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No.356).

In 2012, SNH issued a contract to the value of £5,778 to the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Chester, for genetic analysis to help assess the purity of the contemporary population of Scottish wildcats within the Cairngorms National Park. No findings have been received by SNH from this contract and SNH has been in correspondence with the University of Chester to resolve the situation.

In 2013, SNH commissioned an independent review of information on wildcat genetics, carried out by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, as part of a Conservation Genetics Knowledge Transfer project. The outcome of the review is published (Neaves, L.E. & Hollingsworth, P.M. 2013. The Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris); A review of genetic information and its implications for management. Conservation Genetic Knowledge Exchange, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh).

In 2013, SNH in partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) funded a trial to identify the presence of wildcat and feral cat populations within the wildcat range based on genetic testing of droppings. Droppings were collected by trained volunteers and submitted for testing using pre-paid sample kits. The results of this work are available to SNH, but were not published as a commissioned report as many of the samples submitted turned out not to be from cats, but rather from foxes and pine marten. This work cost SNH £6,000.

In 2013, SNH issued a contract valued at £11,000 to the Wildgenes Laboratory at the RZSS for the genetic testing of samples from potential wildcat priority areas. Findings are included in SNH Commissioned Report 768 and in the report ‘Wildcat Hybrid Scoring for Conservation Breeding under the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan’ (Littlewood, N.A., Campbell, R.D., Dinnie, L., Gilbert, L., Hooper, R., Iason, G., Irvine, J.,Kilshaw, K., Kitchener, A., Lackova, P., Newey, S., Ogden, R. & Ross, A. 2014. Survey and scoping of wildcat priority areas. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 768. Senn HV and Ogden R, Wildcat Hybrid Scoring For Conservation Breeding under the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan (2015), Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, May 2015. https://www.nature.scot/wildcat-hybrid-scoring-conservation-breeding-under-scottish-wildcat-conservation-action-plan).

Since 2015, as part of a commitment under the Scottish Government’s Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, £13,900 has been paid to the Wildgenes Laboratory for the genetic testing of samples collected during the project, including £2,100 to cross-reference previously analysed samples against a more detailed genetic test. Data has been made available to SNH and an update was provided to project stakeholders and partners during a Wildcat Forum held in November 2017. A report has not yet been published because data collection and analyses are on-going.