- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the way the justice system handles crimes involving animals.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2025
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 18 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many funding packages, whether loans or grants, have been provided by the Scottish National Investment Bank to supply chain businesses involved in supporting ScotWind projects.
Answer
The Scottish National Investment Bank is operationally independent of the Scottish Government, it invests on a purely commercial basis and does not distribute grants of any kind.
Full details of the Bank’s portfolio can be found on its website and this provides a breakdown of the Bank’s investments by primary mission and also provides further details on each investment such as listing any co-investors and a summary of what the investment will achieve:
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will authorise a review of fire safety procedures at waste management facilities.
Answer
Following the fire at the WEEE Solutions site in Linwood in June 2024, I asked my officials to consider the safety of these sites and battery energy storage (BESS) sites. In particular, this was to examine whether existing safety provisions and regulations are sufficiently robust, whilst also considering compliance and enforcement aspects. This concluded that the current legislative and regulatory framework is sufficiently robust, recognising however that it is complex and requires interagency cooperation to be effective.
The investigation into the cause of the recent fire at Friarton is still underway and I will decide once the findings are known whether to take any reviews forward. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Health and Safety Executive and SEPA will continue to engage with the site and my officials liaise with them on any issues of safety at BESS sites.
It would not be appropriate to commit to a review of fire safety procedures at waste management facilities until HSE, SEPA and SFRS have had time to look at the particular case and can give informed information to governments if required.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the findings were of the investigation into the fire at Shore Recycling in Perth on 28 February 2023, and which recommendations from that investigation were taken forward.
Answer
The investigation following the fire at Shore Recycling in February 2023 remains ongoing and is being led by the Health and Safety Executive. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) cannot comment on the findings until the investigation is concluded. SFRS continue to engage with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service as necessary.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32129 by Shona Robison on 8 January 2025, whether it will confirm whether it records, in an easily accessible format, the (a) amount of public money spent on court cases that it is a party to, as opposed to general government legal costs, and (b) number of court cases that it has been a party to, and, if so, how the public can access any such information.
Answer
A) The Scottish Government does not record the information you have requested in an easily accessible format. The costs for each case are recorded in the individual case files or across multiple sources of information. As set out in the answer to question S6W-31821 on 9 December 2024 the costs to provide this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The requester asked for information spanning 18 years.
B) The Scottish Government does not record the information you have requested in an easily accessible format. To retrieve this information, it could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
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: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32391 by Gillian Martin on 8 January 2025, what plans it has to conduct any of the analytical methods outlined, and how it will ensure accurate monitoring of potential continued supply and usage of the single-use plastic items prohibited for supply under the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.
Answer
Research into the implementation of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 is underway and is scheduled to be published in early 2025. The findings of this research will include both qualitative and quantitative data which has been gathered from stakeholders from across the single-use items value chain.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 17 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when remote electronic monitoring will be fitted to inshore trawlers to ensure that fish caught in Scottish inshore seas is landed in local ports.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s amended economic link conditions took effect in 2023 to increase landings of key stocks into Scotland and ensure there is a significant economic benefit to Scottish coastal communities from this fishing opportunity.
Indications are that the policy change has succeeded in delivering greater pelagic landings into Scotland – widening the benefit arising from Scotland’s fishing opportunities.
Economic link conditions apply to vessels greater than 10 metres in length and for 2025 requires vessels to land at least 55% of their total combined landings of herring, mackerel, Nephrops, haddock, anglerfish, cod, hake and whiting into Scotland or provide the Scottish Government fishing opportunities (in the following year) that we give to the broader fleet.
We monitor progress and compliance with the economic link conditions via established data gathering programmes, remote electronic monitoring is not required for that purpose.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2023, what action it is taking to promote low-impact, sustainable fishing, in light of it reportedly being a more stable and reliable part of the fleet.
Answer
The Scottish Government acts on many fronts to promote low-impact, sustainable sea fishing.
Our Future Fisheries Management Strategy sets out our vision for Scotland to be a world class fishing nation, delivering responsible and sustainable fisheries management, and actions we will take to deliver that vision. This ten year Strategy includes our Future Catching Policy which aims to develop new rules, in cooperation with stakeholders, to regulate activity at sea in order to support the increased accountability and sustainability of Scottish fisheries: .
On a day-to-day basis our compliance and operational staff oversee compliance with regulation and administrative requirements (whether that be in our 18 coastal offices or marine protection vessels), and our scientists provide data to help inform management decisions at a Scottish, UK and international level.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many animal disqualification and deprivation orders were issued in the period 2022-24; how this compares with 2017-22, and what underlying causes are behind any increase in number.
Answer
The number of disqualification or deprivation orders imposed in 2022-24 was 307. In the period 2017-22 the number imposed was 255.
While numerous factors can contribute to fluctuations in these numbers, it is likely that amendments to the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (the 2006 Act), that were introduced by The Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 (the 2020 Act), have resulted in an increase in the number of disqualification orders being imposed by the courts.
Previously, section 40(1) of the 2006 Act provided that where a person is convicted of a relevant offence, the convicting court may make a disqualification order, but it did not specify when such an order should be made. An amendment introduced by the 2020 Act places a stronger requirement on courts to consider issuing a disqualification order in every case where a person is convicted of a relevant offence and makes clear that such an order should be imposed for the purposes of protecting animal welfare.
Section 4(4) of the 2020 Act, also inserted a new section 42A into the 2006 Act to require the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to establish and maintain a record of the reasons relating to disqualification orders.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 12 actions in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030 Delivery Plan have been achieved to date.
Answer
Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy is a ten year strategy and most of the actions relate to the ongoing delivery of our management functions. The progress being made with these will help ensure a stable context for fishing businesses to operate within. We intend to publish an updated Future Fisheries Management Delivery Plan in the coming months, which will provide information on the progress made for each of the 12 actions.
