Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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-39601

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic contribution of the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant to the Fife economy, including (a) direct employment, (b) supply-chain expenditure and (c) gross value added, in each of the last three calendar years.

Question reference: S6W-39596

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has made to the UK Government regarding the security of supply and future operation of the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant since 1 January 2020, and what the outcomes were of any such representations.

Question reference: S6W-39603

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many domestic properties rely on (a) heating oil and (b) liquefied petroleum gas as their primary heating fuel, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-39598

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received on how many tonnes of (a) propane, (b) butane and (c) natural gasoline were exported from the Mossmorran natural gas liquids plant in each of the last three financial years.

Question reference: S6W-38835

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 18 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many tonnes of waste it has directly generated in each of the last five financial years; how many tonnes of this waste were sent to landfill; how many tonnes it estimates it will generate in 2026, and how many tonnes of this waste it estimates will be sent to England from January 2026.

The Core Scottish Government reports the following figures for waste generated by its operations across premises over the past five financial years:

2019-2020: 1,497 tonnes total waste , includes 92.76 tonnes of landfilled waste
2020-2021: 867 tonnes total waste, includes 128.94 tonnes of landfilled waste
2021-2022: 1,648 tonnes total waste, includes 136.72. tonnes of landfilled waste
2022-2023: 1,760 tonnes total waste, includes 69.28 tonnes of landfilled waste
2023-2024: 1,127 tonnes total waste , includes 58.61 tonnes of landfilled waste

No landfilled waste was sent to England during this period.

The Core Scottish Government does not forecast future waste generation. Waste data is reported retrospectively after the end of each financial year.

The Core Scottish Government remains committed to reducing all forms of waste across its operations and continues to implement measures to improve sustainability and resource efficiency.

Question reference: S6W-38832

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 16 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how much waste generated by the Scottish Parliament will be transported to England once the Scottish Government's landfill ban comes into effect at the end of 2025, and what excess carbon dioxide will be generated as a result.

Currently no waste generated by the Scottish Parliament is sent to landfill. General waste is sent to the Viridor Energy Recovery Centre in Dunbar and food waste is sent to the Anaerobic digestion centre at Millerhill. Other materials such as paper and glass are recycled. We expect this to remain the same when the Scottish Government's landfill ban comes into effect at the end of 2025. Carbon emissions from all waste processing including recycling are included in our Sustainable Development Annual Report.

Question reference: S6W-38657

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of its amendment to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, to reduce the threshold at which provisions apply to land from 3,000 hectares to 1,000 hectares, on the (a) likely number of sales and transfers of land and (b) costs to rural businesses.

Amendment 38 to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, agreed to by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at Stage 2, lowered the threshold in relation to the land which community engagement obligations (the primary of these being the land management plans) may be imposed from 3,000 to 1,000 hectares. This aligns the thresholds for these provisions with those for the pre-notification and transfer test provisions, which relate to transfers of land. The threshold for pre-notification and transfer test provisions were already set at 1,000 hectares at Bill introduction.

To understand the impact of all the Bill's proposals on businesses, the Scottish Government conducted a Scottish firms impact test, involving engagement with landowners, land agents and representative organisations of land-based businesses. The assessment of the potential impacts of the Bill provisions applying to land over 1,000 hectares on a) transfers of land and b) costs for rural businesses can be found in the .

Question reference: S6W-38653

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any consultation with the financial services sector was undertaken during the development of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Government undertook a range of consultation to develop the proposals in the Bill. Engagement with landowners and wider stakeholders is set out in the and the results of our public consultation is set out in our

As part of further development during Stage 1, consultation was undertaken with a range of stakeholders including the following bodies:

UK Infrastructure Bank (now National Wealth Fund)
Scottish National Investment Bank
Scottish Futures Trust

This engagement highlighted the importance of clarity for both landowners and lenders on the timescales and decision process for the transfer test provisions in the Bill. Amendments have now been agreed by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at Stage 2 which will introduce timescales for Ministerial transfer test decisions and place a duty on Ministers to publish guidance on the process.

Question reference: S6W-38654

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill on the cost of borrowing for rural businesses.

To understand the impact of Land Reform Bill proposals on businesses, the Scottish Government conducted a Scottish firms impact test, involving engagement with landowners, land agents and representative organisations of land-based businesses.

Assessment of potential impacts relating to delays in the disposal of land (which would include any additional borrowing costs relating to the delay) related to pre-notification and the transfer test can be found in the .

Question reference: S6W-38652

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what work it plans to undertake to ensure that any ministerial decisions taken in accordance with the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill are compliant with the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.

A lotting decision only takes place in a situation where a landowner is voluntarily selling their land. The lotting provisions cannot be used to compel an owner to sell land where there is no intention to dispose of it in the first place, nor sell a particular business or employer entity. If Ministers decide to order lotting, they must specify the lots, and the lots must then be transferred to different purchasers. All aspects of each sale would otherwise be determined between the seller and the prospective buyer.

In the event that a transfer of a particular lot specified by Ministers amounted to or formed part of a transfer of an undertaking, it would accordingly be for the parties to the transaction to determine the relevance of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.