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-34549

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the development of whisky trails that connect multiple distilleries and regions.

Question reference: S6O-04418

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of referrals to audiology services at NHS Grampian are seen within the 18-week target.

Question reference: S6W-34805

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it has given to the Aberdeen Energy Transition Zone in each of the last three financial years.

A breakdown of the funding support provided by the Scottish Government to the Energy Transition Zone project over the past three financial years is provided in the following table.

	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Total
Energy Transition Fund	£9,000,000	£5,541,000	£2,505,000	£17,046,000
Just Transition Fund - National Energy Skills Accelerator	£39,960	£960,040	Nil	£1,000,000
Just Transition Fund - Energy Transition Skills Hub	£1,180,000	£470,000	£2,850,000	£4,500,000
Just Transition Fund - Supply Chain Pathway and Energy Transition Challenge Fund	£1,280,000	£2,840,000	£2,840,000	£6,960,000
Total	£11,499,960	£9,811,040	£8,195,000	£29,506,000

Question reference: S6W-34540

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is implementing or considering to support homeowners in the North East Scotland region who are experiencing property value depreciation due to new energy infrastructure projects in their vicinity.

Compensation provisions do exist where land, or rights over land, are acquired by compulsion for the development of energy infrastructure under the Electricity Act 1989. However, there is no statutory provision or process set out in the Act to financially compensate those who consider their property value may be affected.

More generally, the Scottish Government continues to use all levers available to deliver sustainable, meaningful and impactful outcomes from the energy transition, informed by the voices of our diverse communities. Voluntary community benefits schemes from renewable energy developments are well-established in Scotland, enabling communities to benefit from their local resources, as well as helping to foster better relationships with the renewables sector. Despite the powers to mandate community benefits being reserved to the UK Government, over £30 million worth of benefits has been offered to communities in the last 12 months supported by our Good Practice Principles. We continue to press the UK Government for mandatory action in this area.

Question reference: S6W-34650

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of zonal pricing in the electricity market on (a) electricity prices for consumers in Scotland, (b) investment in renewable energy projects in Scotland and (c) the overall development of Scotland's energy infrastructure.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the UK Government on their review of electricity market arrangements (REMA), including on any potential impacts that zonal pricing could have on all market participants, including consumers, communities and industry. The UK Government is working on modelling to further understand this, and we will continue to scrutinise this closely. Modelling conducted for UK Government by LCP Delta and Grant Thornton indicates that indicates that Scotland’s consumers could potentially benefit from lower wholesale electricity prices. However, we are also aware of modelling which suggests potentially negative impacts for Scotland’s renewables industry.

We are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including the renewable industry and consumer organisations to ensure that the impacts of zonal pricing are fully considered by the UK Government ahead of any decisions on market reform. We have also gathered views on electricity reform via the first Scottish Forum on Future Electricity Markets held in December 2024 and our Scottish Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) which meets four times a year.

The Scottish Government commissioned independent research through ClimateXChange to assess the potential impact of locational pricing for a just transition to net zero, which was published on 12 August 2024.

Question reference: S6W-32896

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has corresponded with (a) Hampton Group International, (b) the UK Chinese Business Association and (c) Pitch@Palace in the last 12 years; what any such correspondence related to; whether Yang Tengbo is named in any such correspondence, and, if so, whether it will conduct an urgent review of any correspondence relating to Yang Tengbo.

Question reference: S6W-34638

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners released under any early release programmes in each of the last five years have subsequently reoffended within (a) six months and (b) one year of their release.

There have been two instances where groups of prisoners have been granted early release from their sentence at the order of Scottish Ministers in the last five years – firstly in May 2020, and secondly in June and July 2024.

Data was made available on the number of individuals who returned to prison custody (either held on remand or sentenced) amongst the individuals released in those processes. For the May 2020 Coronavirus specific emergency early release process, as of November 2020, 142 of the original 348 individuals who were released early had returned to custody.

For the June and July 2024 emergency early release process, as of December 2024, 61 of the 477 individuals who were released early had returned to custody before their original date of liberation.

The information requested on reoffending is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S6W-34648

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the ScotWind leasing round, how many jobs have been created to date as a result; how many of these jobs are based in Scotland; how it monitors the number and location of jobs created through ScotWind projects, and what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of any such monitoring mechanisms.

Question reference: S6W-34514

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure a fair consulting process for electricity infrastructure, in light of reports that it could benefit financially by £4 million per year for each GW of power from ScotWind that is installed and has a grid connection agreement.

The consulting process provided for under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 and the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 ensures that public bodies, communities and members of the public are consulted on proposals for electricity infrastructure. The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful and fair consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations. The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the pre-application consultation process by working with the UK Government on their proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-34236

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 28 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role Food Standards Scotland plays in investigating counterfeit alcohol products.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) performs a national lead role in the investigation of counterfeit alcohol products. This is particularly the case when there are concerns over food safety and the contents present a danger to public health. FSS work in partnership with local authorities, other law enforcement agencies, public health, industry and stakeholders, with representation at various strategic and tactical fora to raise public awareness on known risks, coordinate efforts to remove the product from the market and report those found responsible. FSS is a member of the Scottish Multi-agency Tasking and Delivery Board (MATDB), which is a tactical collaboration between Police Scotland and law enforcement partners to address serious and organised crime. FSS has received full support from the MATDB in leading the investigation into the production, distribution and supply of counterfeit vodka nationally.