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-25685

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the results from the 2024 Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

Question reference: S6W-25583

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what sources of funding for new woodland creation, other than the Forestry Grant Scheme, it expects to become available for the 2024-25 planting season, and for each subsequent planting season.

The Forestry Grant Scheme will remain the principal source of funding from the Scottish Government for woodland creation in the 2024-5 planting season. The scheme will continue beyond that date but no budget has been set at this stage.

The Woodland Carbon Code has been attracting additional funding for woodland creation and this is expected to rise further. The level of funding will depend on the number of carbon credits generated in future and the price paid for them.

Question reference: S6W-25582

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of proposed new woodland creation are currently being processed by Scottish Forestry for the 2024-25 planting season, and for each subsequent planting season.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded in line with financial years. Scottish Forestry has already approved 5,715 hectares of applications to plant new woodland in the 2024-25 financial year, with an additional 6,313 hectares submitted for assessment. A further 3,225 hectares of applications have been received to create new woodland in 2025-26, 2,494 hectares in 2026-27, 2,327 hectares in 2027-28, and 1,244 hectares in 2028-29.

Question reference: S6W-25581

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of new woodland creation have been approved for the 2024-25 planting season, and for each subsequent planting season.

Question reference: S6W-25584

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of new woodland creation the Forestry Grant Scheme will deliver in the 2024-25 planting season, and for each subsequent planting season.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded in line with financial years. The Scottish Government expects to deliver 9,000 hectares of new woodland creation through the Forestry Grant Scheme in the 2024-25 financial year, and would expect a similar area to be delivered in the 2024-25 planting season.

As the Scottish Government budget has not been finalised for 2025-26 or future years, it is not possible to confirm how much planting will be supported by the Forestry Grant Scheme in future years or planting seasons.

Question reference: S6W-25585

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of new woodland creation it expects will be delivered through sources of funding other than the Forestry Grant Scheme in the 2024-25 planting scheme, and for each subsequent planting season.

The Scottish Government supports new woodland creation on privately owned land through the Forestry Grant Scheme. Planting is recorded against financial years and in 2022-23, that last year for which published data is available, all recorded new woodland creation in Scotland was supported by Forestry Grant Scheme funding. Many of the new woodland creation schemes in 2022-23 benefited from other sources of funding, although no significant new woodland creation took place without Forestry Grant Scheme funding.

Whilst other sources of funding improve the attractiveness of woodland creation to landowners and can reduce the level of public funding required, we would expect very little new woodland creation on private land to be delivered in 2024-25 without receiving some support from the Forestry Grant Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-24867

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much grant funding has been awarded in real terms under the Scottish Dental Access Initiative in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area in each of the last two years.

Question reference: S6O-03139

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-24866

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 15 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the average processing time, from application to a final decision, has been for applications under the Scottish Dental Access Initiative in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area in each of the last 12 months.

Question reference: S6O-03097

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that women in Wigtownshire have the choice to give birth as close to home as possible.

2024-25 (ha)	2025-26 (ha)	2026-27 (ha)	2027-28 (ha)	2028-29 (ha)
5,715	1,694	1,778	1,122	47