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: S6W-34548

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 what marketing campaigns aimed at international tourists are in place to highlight Scotland’s whisky heritage.

Question reference: S6W-34652

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much VisitScotland has allocated to influencers to promote Scotland in each of the last five years, and how it monitors the return on investment of any such expenditure.

VisitScotland fees paid to influencers 2020 – 2024.

Calendar year	Total influencer fees paid
2020	£4,983.67
2021	£27,283.00
2022	£194,124.95
2023	£120,908.83
2024	£63,668

Please note:

Lower spend in 2020 and 2021 was due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions.
Lower spend in 2024 was due to in-year return of marketing budget and pause on marketing.
Increased spend in 2022 was due to the growing impact of influencers on travel and booking habits and the opportunity to reach new audiences at a critical point in the recovery from COVID-19.

To evaluate influencer partnerships, VisitScotland review content performance such as view rates, comments and sentiment, shares, saves and other metrics.

VisitScotland’s Net Economic Impact (NEI) assessment looks at the incremental influence and impact of marketing activities on visitor spend. This is reviewed annually and reported in VisitScotland’s annual performance report. In 2023-24 VisitScotland’s holistic consumer marketing activities resulted in an NEI of £56.7m.

Question reference: S6W-34512

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the previous announcement by the former First Minister, Humza Yousaf, in October 2023, how much has been spent to date on preparation work for it issuing bonds.

Question reference: S6W-34511

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the previous announcement by the former First Minister, Humza Yousaf, whether it still plans to issue bonds to finance key infrastructure in Scotland in the current parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government published a further update to the work on Scottish Government bonds alongside the 2025-26 Scottish Budget .

This explains the outcome of the initial phase of due diligence and the work required in the next stage in the due diligence process. This phase will include timing considerations for an inaugural issuance given market conditions and related events.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring Parliament is updated on this work as it progresses.

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-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-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-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-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