- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 24 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) 999 and (b) 101 calls Police Scotland has received from registered farm businesses in each year since 2021, also broken down by how many times a police officer provided an on-site visit in response, and what the average time taken was to provide the response.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 24 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action Police Scotland is taking to provide frontline officers with a better understanding of the agricultural industry to improve their knowledge of rural crime.
Answer
The Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) is a multi-agency partnership which works across all Police Scotland divisions to deliver the SPARC strategy’s key rural crime priorities. The service’s National Rural, Acquisitive and Business Preventions Team (RAB-PT) has trained over 100 officers across North, East and West on rural machinery thefts. Through this partnership working, 12 officers will shortly enter through a stolen vehicle examiners accreditation course which is dovetailed with rural machinery theft training giving Police Scotland additional capacity for such investigations across Scotland. RAB-PT have also developed metal theft training with partners and will deliver this in areas most affected by renewables and metal thefts in the coming year.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government on the subject of gene editing, within devolved competence, following the agreement of the new trade deal between the UK and EU.
Answer
Scottish Ministers have long argued for a comprehensive Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal with the EU, and have therefore welcomed the commitment made at the UK - EU summit of 19 May 2025 that the UK Government and European Commission should work towards establishing a Common SPS Area by way of an SPS Agreement. It is vital that the details of the SPS Agreement to be developed should benefit all parts of the UK and reflect the interests of Scottish producers and consumers.
The UK Government has argued that there are some areas in which it will need to retain its own rules, rather than align with EU regulation. Scottish Government policy is to seek dynamic alignment with the EU where it benefits Scotland to do so – including on gene editing, where neither the EU nor Scotland currently recognise a legal distinction between gene editing and genetic modification, and Scots and EU law remain aligned. We are engaging proactively with the UK Government on the exceptions they are seeking to the SPS agreement which overlap with devolved competencies.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-39892 by Graeme Dey on 1 September 2025, how many of the students from each university were domiciled (a) in Scotland, (b) in the rest of the UK and (c) internationally, broken down by year.
Answer
The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university and domicile, have been provided in the following table.
The table only covers those entering pre-clinical medicine and do not include other students entering medical schools on clinical medicine or students on continuing years of study.
First degree entrants to pre-clinical medicine at Scottish Universities, by domicile, 2020-21 to 2023-24
Provider | Domicile | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
The University of Aberdeen | Scotland | 140 | 175 | 225 | 245 |
rUK | 30 | 25 | 30 | 40 |
Non-UK | 40 | 25 | 20 | 15 |
All | 215 | 220 | 280 | 300 |
The University of Dundee | Scotland | 140 | 140 | 140 | 160 |
rUK | 20 | 20 | 35 | 45 |
Non-UK | 25 | 25 | 20 | 30 |
All | 185 | 185 | 195 | 230 |
The University of Edinburgh | Scotland | 115 | 130 | 190 | 150 |
rUK | 95 | 95 | 70 | 100 |
Non-UK | 25 | 30 | 20 | 25 |
All | 235 | 255 | 285 | 275 |
The University of Glasgow | Scotland | 205 | 240 | 235 | 240 |
rUK | 60 | 50 | 40 | 55 |
Non-UK | 70 | 35 | 20 | 40 |
All | 335 | 325 | 295 | 335 |
The University of St Andrews | Scotland | 50 | 95 | 75 | 85 |
rUK | 65 | 90 | 70 | 70 |
Non-UK | 60 | 60 | 50 | 40 |
All | 175 | 250 | 190 | 190 |
Total | Scotland | 650 | 780 | 865 | 880 |
rUK | 275 | 275 | 245 | 310 |
Non-UK | 225 | 175 | 130 | 145 |
All | 1,145 | 1,230 | 1,240 | 1,335 |
Source: HESA Student data, SG Secondary Analysis
1) Pre-clinical medicine as defined by HECOS subject classification 100276. Note: this will not include all students doing medical degrees and exclude some specialist courses (e.g. The University of Edinburgh’s HCP-Med for Healthcare Professionals MBChB course)
2) Entrants covers new students only.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-39892 by Graeme Dey on 1 September 2025, how many of the graduates took up an NHS placement, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects data on the destinations of graduates 15 months after graduation via the Graduate Outcomes Survey. The survey is voluntary and hence does not represent the outcomes of all graduates from each year.
Scottish NHS Health Board of Clinical Medicine graduates, from Scottish providers, who said they worked in the NHS 15 months after graduating, 2020-21 to 2022-23
NHS Health Board | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 10 | 15 | 15 |
Borders | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 10 | 10 | 5 |
Fife | 5 | 10 | 10 |
Forth Valley | 5 | 15 | 15 |
Grampian | 45 | 35 | 40 |
Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 110 | 110 | 95 |
Highland | 10 | 20 | 15 |
Lanarkshire | 15 | 20 | 20 |
Lothian | 50 | 50 | 55 |
Orkney | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Shetland | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tayside | 30 | 30 | 25 |
Total known and working for NHS Scotland | 305 | 320 | 285 |
Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23
The survey is voluntary and hence does not represent the outcomes of all graduates from each year.
Health Board is estimated from Local Authority of work address.
Only includes graduates flagged as working for the NHS (using HESA variable NHSORG)
Clinical Medicine as defined by HECOS subject classification 100267. Note: this will not include all students completing medical degrees and exclude some specialist courses.
Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants are employed in its AI policy team.
Answer
The Scottish Government currently employs four civil servants in its AI Policy Team, with plans to increase this number in the coming weeks. However, this Team does not represent the full range of staff who currently work on, or have an interest in AI. This complement extends across the Scottish Government and its agencies to other publicly funded organisations and beyond. That is why the Scottish Government has committed to launching AI Scotland, a new national transformation programme founded on a partnership of business, academia, agencies and government, to operate as a focus for our collective effort to harness the full potential of AI to drive sustainable economic growth.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40091 on 8 September 2025 by Shirley-Anne Somerville, whether APS Group (Scotland) has ever issued a product recall in instances where items included in baby boxes have been reported as faulty or damaged, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this.
Answer
APS Group (Scotland) have never had to issue a product recall of any of the items contained in Scotland’s Baby Box. As detailed in response to PQ S6W-40091, out of over 352,000 Baby Boxes issued since August 2017, APS have only received reports of 190 faulty or damaged items. These individual items were from 14 different lines of items provided within Baby Box and not across a complete line, which would have necessitated a product recall.
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: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 22 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when applicants to the Future Farming Investment Scheme will be informed whether their application has been approved.
Answer
There has been a significant and welcome interest in the Future Farming Investment Scheme. Applications received are currently being considered and applicants will be informed of the outcome as soon as practicably possible after assessment has been undertaken.
Once a grant offer has been made, successful applicants will have 14 days to accept the terms and conditions of their offer. After acceptance, payments will be issued within 30 days. Applicants will have nine months from being made the Offer of Grant to purchase all items listed in part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Offer of Grant letter and provide evidence of the investment to the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID).
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 22 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it received to the Future Farming Investment Scheme in 2025.
Answer
There has been significant interest from the agriculture sector in the Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS). 7,584 applications have been received, demonstrating the strong commitment of Scotland’s farmers and crofters to support key outcomes, from reducing emissions to supporting nature restoration.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 22 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered increasing the budget allocated to the Future Farming Investment Scheme in the event that it is oversubscribed.
Answer
The First Minister announced on 7 February that around £14 million will be allocated to delivering the Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS). Despite the current constraints on the Scottish Budget, given the significant level of demand for the scheme, the possibility of allocating additional funding to the scheme is being considered.
In the wider financial context, FFIS is but one way in which the Scottish Government is supporting farmers and crofters deliver sustainable and regenerative agriculture. The 2025-26 budget allocates more than £665 million for the purpose of supporting farmers, land managers, rural communities and rural businesses. In contrast with the rest of the UK, the Scottish Government continues to provide farmers and crofters with reformed direct payments to support sustainable food production.