- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many jars of honey were produced from the Parliament’s beehives in each of the last five years.
Answer
We have produced 144 jars in the last five years. Each jar is 227g. We received 99 jars in the financial year 2022/23 and 45 jars in 2024/25.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the average notice period given by the beekeeper, for visits to the Parliament’s estate, has been in each of the last five years.
Answer
Notice is not required to be given as the beekeeper has a security pass and is fully security cleared.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32613 by Angus Robertson on 14 January 2025, what tangible benefits are delivered by its international network, and how these benefits are (a) measured and (b) reported.
Answer
The International Network annual report 2023-24, published on 18 November 2024, demonstrates how our network delivers tangible benefits across the three main pillars of work set out in the International Strategy. The International Network annual report is available at the following URL:
We are committed to a process that ensures our work is measurable, transparent and available to the public. We will publish the 2024-25 annual report later in the year.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of lost or stolen government-issued mobile phones have been reported in the last five years, and what actions were taken in response.
Answer
In the five calendar years from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024 134 mobile phones were reported lost or stolen. The Scottish Government has robust processes and procedures in place when mobile phones are reported lost or stolen. This includes removing access to corporate data and suspending or cancelling the mobile number.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) plastic, (b) paper, (c) metal and (d) glass straws it has procured in each of the last 10 years, and what the average cost was.
Answer
As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to reducing single use plastics, the use of plastic straws was discontinued in Scottish Government buildings in February 2018.
Since August 2022, there has only been one purchase of 1,500 paper straws in 2023 at a cost of £17.21.
Due to a change of catering contractor following a contract re-let, information is not available prior to August 2022.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated to community-led health initiatives in rural areas over the last five years, and what the outcomes were.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the particular health challenges faced by those in rural areas. In addition to the support outlined in response to S6W-33562 on 3 February 2025, we have invested in a number of funding streams which have included allocations for community-led health initiatives in rural areas, including:
- £66 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults since 2021, with more than 4,800 grants made to local projects across Scotland over the first three years. Of these more than 900 grants were made to community projects supporting people disadvantaged by geographical location (including rural areas) -
- Over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, including those in rural areas -
- Over £29 million of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) funding since 2021 to deliver over 1000 grassroots community-led projects across rural & island Scotland in partnership with rural organisations. Some of which have health related benefits ranging from mental health and wellbeing to physical health. Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which may include community led health and social care provision
- A further £11.4 million in 2024-25 to support Community-led Local Development and similar initiatives in our rural and island communities.
Links to the most recent evaluation reports of each of these initiatives, including information on outcomes, are included above where available. A review of CLLD funding began in 2024-25, and will continue throughout 2025-26.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 4 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the frequency and severity of storms that have affected Aberdeenshire over the last five years, and what plans it has to improve infrastructure resilience in the region.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data on the frequency and severity of storms. This information is collected and held by Met Office.
We have recently made available £5m per annum capital budget over 4 years to fund the extension of the public water network to enable the removal of Private Water Supplies which should improve resilience to affected water supplies during power outages. Milton of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire has been shortlisted as one of the communities who will benefit from this funding.
The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) published in December 2022, provides guidance on long term investment in Scotland’s strategic transport network. STPR2 recommends future investment to ensure that Scotland’s trunk road network remains safe (), adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change () and resilient ().
Recommendation 31 provides a basis for identifying, prioritising and implementing transport infrastructure improvements. Measures could include but are not limited to strengthening or replacing sea walls, upgrading coastal fences and stabilising embankments, slopes and hillsides.
Scottish Government have also initiated a Significant Local Infrastructure process in which Local Resilience Partnerships are mapping infrastructure within their geographic areas. This will allow better understanding of this local infrastructure and will collate a rich picture to support further work, including identifying dependencies and interdependencies and allow improvements to business continuity and emergency response plans.
We would recommend that, should you require further information on storms and infrastructure in Aberdeenshire, you contact Aberdeenshire Council.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Court of Session’s decision regarding the Rosebank oil field and the Jackdaw gas field.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2025
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to foster improved trust from distillers and small-scale spirits producers, in light of the reported issues with the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answer
Scotland’s DRS was due to launch in March 2024 and we would have been enjoying the benefits of a DRS now if the previous UK Government had agreed a full Internal Market Act exclusion to our scheme.
The Scottish Government continues to engage with businesses regarding Scotland’s Circular Economy and the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes, including the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).
In 2023, following a significant amount of engagement with businesses, including small-scale drinks producers, we amended DRS Regulations so that any product with fewer than 5,000 units on the market may be registered as a low volume product. As part of the development of the 3 nations scheme our officials shared the experience of developing the Scottish Scheme and due to this low volume products will be exempt from most of the requirements of the deposit return schemes across the UK.
Draft regulations recently notified to the WTO confirmed that glass will no longer be included in Scotland’s scheme. Because spirits are normally packaged in glass bottles, this means that the majority of distillers and small-scale spirits producers will be out of scope of DRS when it launches in October 2027.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the current regulations are for the (a) labelling and (b) marketing of Scotch whisky, and how these are enforced.
Answer
The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 set out requirements for the marketing and labelling of whisky alongside the Food Labelling (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1989 and The Spirit Drinks Regulations 2008. This is enforced by the relevant food authority in the UK or port health authority. The protection Scotch Whisky has under the GI scheme and associated legislation is certified and enforced by HMRC. The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 also sets out additional regulations on the display and promotion of alcohol, which are enforced by the relevant local authority.
Furthermore, retained EU Regulation 110/2008, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 as well as Regulation 2019/787, amended by the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1637) and the Agricultural Products, Food and Drink (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 continue to apply to the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of GIs for spirit drinks.
