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-22317

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the natively grown sustainable fibres that it has identified for support in any of its economic or environmental strategies or plans.

The Scottish Government does not collect data specific to the production of flax or other sustainable fibre crops. Currently, flax is not a major crop in Scotland, however we recognise there are potential benefits to flax production, and we are keen to speak with those interested in growing this and other sustainable fibre crops.

The Scottish Government does not offer support specific to the production of flax or other sustainable fibres. However, non-crop specific agricultural support is provided to farmers in a variety of ways, including through the Basic Payment Scheme, and we encourage those looking for further information to read more about these measures on our official website at .

We are aware of ongoing research by the Soil Association Scotland, which is running trials to compare several varieties of flax, and also work by the Rowett Institute to explore flax production.

Question reference: S6W-22319

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has had any recent engagement with industry representatives or stakeholders that are seeking to expand flax production in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-02698

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the social justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding how to improve access to energy efficient housing in rural communities

Question reference: S6W-22041

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 31 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of (a) its and (b) each of its agencies' vehicle fleet is comprised of zero-emission vehicles, and what information it has on how this compares with other public bodies.

a) Presently, Scottish Government's overall fleet is comprised of 69% ultra-low and zero emission vehicles. Zero emission vehicles make up 26% of the total Scottish Government fleet.

b) Data held by Transport Scotland on the % of zero emission vehicles in Scottish Government agency fleets at the end of 2022 is summarised in the following table.

Executive Agencies	Zero Emission %
Accountancy in Bankruptcy	No Fleet
Disclosure Scotland	No Fleet
Education Scotland	Data Not held
Forestry and Land Scotland	4%
Scottish Forestry	8%
Scottish Pensions Agency	No Fleet
Scottish Prison Service	2%
Social Security Scotland	50%
Student Awards Agency for Scotland	Data Not held
Transport Scotland	50%

The data available also indicates that at the end of 2022 approximately 12% of Scottish public sector fleet vehicles were zero emission.

Question reference: S6W-21948

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many air quality emissions monitors have been installed on local and trunk roads, broken down by local authority area, since the publication of the Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 progress report that committed to "establish a comprehensive network of cutting-edge remote sensing air quality monitors on local and trunk roads in the early 2020s", broken down by local authority area.

Transport Scotland has contracted Hagar Environmental & Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT) to deploy remote sensing equipment on both local and trunk roads in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Remote sensing equipment uses laser spectroscopy to measure the real-world emissions of vehicle exhaust plumes as the vehicles pass underneath.

This equipment has been deployed in the Glasgow City Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Aberdeen City Council and Dundee City Council areas.

HEAT have partnered with the ICCT (International Council for Clean Transportation) and Element Energy to deliver this project.

Question reference: S6O-02661

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what discussions the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth has had with ministerial colleagues regarding efforts to ensure that circular economy practices are embedded in public procurement.

Question reference: S6W-22042

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it remains committed to providing the full £100 million of funding to the Green Jobs Fund over the lifetime of the initiative.

The Green Jobs Fund was created to support new and increased opportunities for green job creation across Scotland, by providing up to £100 million capital investment over a five year term.

Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise are working to deliver £50 million to businesses which provide sustainable or low carbon products and services to help them develop, grow and create jobs. Up to a further £50 million is aimed at supporting businesses and their supply chains create and safeguard jobs by investing in equipment, premises, research and development.

The aim is to fully utilise all available funding, where possible, and this twin aim of supporting existing businesses to transition to a low carbon environment and looking to fund new and innovative projects, which will take time to develop and deliver, could result in more funding being required over the latter part of the five year term, as these newer markets grow and mature.

Question reference: S6W-21971

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 24 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last requested updated advice from Zero Waste Scotland on identifying circular economic opportunities in the textiles sector.

Question reference: S6O-02637

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the education secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding action to reduce instances of vaping in schools.

Question reference: S6W-21383

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 9 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what proportion of species at risk of extinction it considers there is currently (a) sufficient and (b) insufficient data on (i) abundance and (ii) distribution.

The IUCN Red List classifies species at risk of global extinction into nine categories: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct. NatureScot, working with stakeholders, have identified approximately 12,000 species in Scotland which fall into one of these categories, of which around 75% (8,381) are considered to be of Least Concern and not, therefore, considered to be at imminent risk of extinction.

1,748 species have been assessed as at some risk of extinction, with 148 assessed to be Critically Endangered, 295 Endangered, 673 Vulnerable and 632 Near Threatened.

Historically, monitoring of species has been influenced by various factors including the taxa, visibility and popularity, which has resulted in some data deficiencies, including in respect of some critically endangered species. NatureScot is working with stakeholders to address this, including through projects such as Species at Risk, which aims to bring all taxa onto a level playing field and focus more attention toward the lesser-known species. With new datasets and analytical tools becoming available, we are able to present trends in status for more species than ever before.

Our Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 recognises the importance of good quality biodiversity data to achieving our goals, and together with NatureScot we are providing £580,000 over two years to support the Better Biodiversity Data Project, led by the National Biodiversity Network Trust. The project will establish a Scottish Data Hub which will bring together biodiversity data from a range of sources and make it more accessible for analysis. More information on this is available at: .

Further details can also be found in the latest State of Nature Scotland Report for 2023, a collaborative work between government agencies and eNGOs, published on 28 September 2023. The report is available at: .