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 1770 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-18090

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many victims’ requests to silently observe a parole hearing had been refused at the time that the author of the publication, Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme, wrote that seven victims had been allowed to observe these hearings.

We cannot specify the precise number of victim observations which took place at any one given time during the development of the independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme because the number of requests will have varied throughout the drafting process.

The Parole Board for Scotland has provided the following information on the number of victim requests to observe parole hearings to 30 May 2023 – both approved and denied. It should be noted the first period coincides with the Board’s wish to consider and protect the safety of all parole hearing participants as they emerged from Covid restrictions, therefore no applications were approved during this time.

Dates	Requests received	Requests approved	Requests denied
08-03-21 – 11-03-22	38	0	38
12-03-22 – 16-02-23	57	47	10*
17-02-23 – 30-05-23	11	11	0

*Reasons for refusal

The following reasons were given for refusing an application to observe a hearing:

6 out of the 10 were because of the sensitive nature of the information to be discussed at the Tribunal;
1 where the case was considered under Rule 20 or the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 (i.e. an oral hearing arising from a Part III case, where there is no entitlement to observe);
1 where the prisoner did not have a solicitor;
1 where the Panel thought written reps more suitable; and
1 where the panel concluded a summary of the decision would be sufficient

Question reference: S6W-18095

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to increase competition in the tenancy deposit scheme market, in light of there being currently only three companies, with one of them reportedly having almost 70% of the market share.

A review of the tenancy deposit schemes was undertaken at the end of 2018. It was clear from the findings that the current regulations continued to provide a robust regulatory and operational framework.

Following the review a number of revisions to the operating procedures were made under The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 . The schemes submitted revised procedures in October 2019 and were reapproved in November 2019.

Should any additional companies wish to operate a tenancy deposit scheme in Scotland they would be required to apply to Scottish Ministers for approval demonstrating they can meet the requirement of the Regulations before they can operate.

Question reference: S6W-18298

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many payments from the Tenant Grant Fund have been used to fully pay off rent arrears, in each month that the fund has been available.

Local authorities were responsible for the administration of the Tenant Grant Fund given their knowledge of local need. Each local authority provided the Scottish Government with quarterly returns showing spend against their funding allocation. Data on full versus partial mitigation of arrears was not provided routinely by all local authorities.

The quarterly information collected was published on the Scottish Government website here: Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and is summarised below.

Quarters	Number of grants
Q4	297
Q3	254
Q2	403
Q1	656
Until 31 Mar 2022	5,015

Question reference: S6W-18093

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it gives to customers of the tenancy deposits schemes if they have an issue, dispute or complaint with one of the tenancy schemes that do not offer an independent dispute resolution procedure.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes were introduced to deal with the problem of landlords and letting agents who unfairly withheld deposits from tenants. In Scotland a custodial scheme is operated by 3 schemes approved by Scottish Ministers.

Tenants benefit from having deposits safeguarded by an independent third party. Section 33 and 34 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 sets out the requirements for all approved schemes to provide a free and independent dispute resolution service, so that the deposit can be returned quickly and fairly.

Scottish Government cannot intervene with individual deposit disputes and cannot intervene in decisions made by the independent adjudicator in relation to a tenancy deposit case.

Question reference: S6O-02362

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to tourism and other businesses within island communities to mitigate the impact of any connectivity issues affecting them.

Question reference: S6W-18258

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17750 by Lorna Slater on 19 May 2023, how many beaver carcasses have been submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem, since it became a legal requirement.

The beaver kit dependency period is between 1 April and 16 August and no licences to control beavers have been issued in this period. As such, there has been no legal requirement for carcasses to be submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem.

The legal requirement for licence holders to submit carcasses for independent post- mortem to NatureScot will take effect when new licences granted by NatureScot commence on 17 August 2023 and thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-18171

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research’s updated report, published in April 2023, Infants Born into Care in Scotland, including the reported finding that around one in every 100 children born in Scotland enters care before their first birthday.

The Scottish Government is committed to Keeping the Promise and ensuring that families are supported to stay together when it is safe to do so. While we still have more work to do, it is positive progress that the recent Infant's Born into Care Report confirms that the proportion of children entering care before their first birthday in Scotland has fallen since 2018 - from 122 in every 10,000 to 91 in every 10,000 in 2021.

The Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach ensures that children and families can access support across maternity, health visiting, family nursing and social work services to help them thrive. Where it is deemed that a child requires statutory support for their care, the Local Authority becomes their Corporate Parent and are responsible for working with partners to ensure that the right services are in place to deliver a personalised plan to meet their needs.

Question reference: S6W-18226

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) site checks and (b) full site condition monitoring assessments have been carried out by NatureScot in each year since 2017.

Question reference: S6W-18223

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), how many cases have occurred in which SSSIs have been compromised by management activities, and whether NatureScot has entered into any agreements to provide compensation for any such cases; how many (a) charges and (b) convictions resulted from individuals intentionally or recklessly damaging the protected natural features of an SSSI, in each year for which data is available, and whether it will provide a list of any SSSIs that have been intentionally or recklessly damaged since 2013.

There are records of 212 instances of damaging or unconsented activities on SSSIs that have not been attributed to third parties. No compensatory agreements have been entered into as a result of these cases.

NatureScot is only obliged to offer compensation to a land manager if the SSSI consenting process restricts the established management of their land and where this leads to a loss of income. NatureScot has 89 active compensatory Management Agreements with land managers to prevent damaging activity. The majority date back to before 2013. The majority of active Management Agreements entered in to by NatureScot contain provisions for proactive management to restore or maintain biodiversity.

The following table sets out the charging and convictions data requested:

Year	Charged	Charged & Convicted
2004	1
2007	1
2008		3
2015		1
2021		1
2022		1

Issues of motivation are judged on a case by case basis and so are not recorded in a way that can be aggregated.

Question reference: S6W-18227

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that at least 11 sites that have specially protected status, including Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar sites and Special Protection Areas, received an intake of sewage overflow in 2022-23, what discussions it has had with Scottish Water on this matter, and what steps are being taken to prevent sewage from entering and damaging protected areas.

Year	Site Checks	Site Condition Monitoring
2017	149	252
2018	99	93
2019	51	21
2020	30	20
2021	98	41
2022	31	5
2023*	52	144