- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs in Scotland’s offshore wind sector, and its supply chain, have been created since 1 January 2023.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Precise job numbers for Scotland’s offshore wind sector and its supply chain are challenging to pinpoint due to the evolving nature of the industry and transferability of skills across the wider energy sector. It is clear that the sector has seen significant growth since 1 January 2023, with increasing opportunities across a wide range of roles as we continue to invest in infrastructure, manufacturing, and skills development. Examples of this growth include the £100m joint credit facility from the Scottish National Investment Bank and National Wealth Fund for Ardersier Port in the Highlands, which is estimated will enable around 3,000 jobs and reskilling opportunities for the community over the next decade, and Sumitomo’s £350m subsea cable manufacturing plant under construction at the Port of Nigg, set to create hundreds of high-quality jobs.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review its Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan in light of recent reports that UK natural gas reserves are, as stated by Centrica, “concerningly low”.
Answer
Security of supply for gas and electricity is a reserved matter and is delivered by the National Electricity System Operator (NESO) across the whole of Great Britain, under regulation from Ofgem. The National Grid has also confirmed that Great Britain’s eight main gas storage sites remain healthy. However, we remain engaged to plan for any challenging scenarios that might emerge this winter, and engage regularly with the UK Government on issues of energy security.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, 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 Angela Constance on 22 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Lord Advocate on 22 September 2021 regarding diversion from prosecution, how many recorded police warnings were issued for possession of drugs for the three years (a) before and (b) after the statement, broken down by (i) type and (ii) class of drug involved, and what the impact has been on police time spent on dealing with people experiencing harmful substance use.
Answer
A table containing the number of recorded police warnings for drugs possession by month, year and drug type has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 65596)
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, 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 Angela Constance on 22 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce levels of serious violent crime, in light of the Police Scotland quarterly data recording that, in the last decade, incidents have nearly doubled to over 1,000 per month, and what data it has collected as to the reasons for the increase, including data on the reasons for any variation between (a) each city, (b) urbans areas and (c) rural and island areas.
Answer
The accredited official statistics on recorded crime categorically do not show a doubling in serious violent crime over the past decade. Police recorded non-sexual crimes of violence increased by 9% between 2014-15 and 2023-24, with most of that rise due to the introduction of new crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and an increase in cyber-enabled threats and extortion (most often ‘sextortion’ type cases on which the Scottish Government launched a social media campaign across Scotland in November 2024, and will refresh in February 2025). As a subset of non-sexual crimes of violence, recorded serious assault and attempted murder also increased by 9% since 2014-15. However, levels have fallen over the past six years, down 21% from 4,361 in 2018-19 to 3,457 by 2023-24. This is replicated in other sources, with hospital admissions related to assault down by a third between 2014-15 and 2023-24. Information on rates of non-sexual violence by local authority area are available in the . Despite this encouraging progress the Scottish Government are determined to do more. For further information on the actions being taken to reduce violence in Scotland, I refer the member to the answer for question S6W-32880 on 15 January 2025.
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: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 21 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that there is sufficient gas storage capacity for Scotland, and, if not, what it is doing to address this.
Answer
Security of supply for gas and electricity is reserved to the UK government and delivered by the National Electricity System Operator (NESO) across the whole of GB, under regulation from Ofgem.
The UK has a reliable gas system that can meet demand and is well-positioned to continue to do so. The UK has a diverse supply of gas, including gas from the North Sea, Norway, and other countries, as well as a large capacity for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG). In addition, the gas industry has well established arrangements to deal with emergency situations concerning gas supply.
As we transition to a net zero energy system and reduce our dependence on fossil fuel generation, long-duration energy storage technologies, including pumped hydro storage, will play a larger role in ensuring a secure and resilient electricity system.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 21 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when its ministers last officially raised concerns regarding gas storage capacity for Scotland, and whether it will provide the minutes of any such meeting.
Answer
Security of supply for gas and electricity is a matter reserved to the UK Government and is delivered by the National Electricity System Operator (NESO) across the whole of GB, under regulation from Ofgem. The National Grid has also confirmed that Great Britain’s eight main gas storage sites remain healthy. However, we remain engaged to plan for any challenging scenarios that might emerge this winter.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether its five-year review of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 will include an assessment of qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS), in light of those rules coming into effect in June 2021.
Answer
The Scottish Government is considering the scope of the review in light of the delayed implementation of some aspects of the Act.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the five-year review of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, in light of it being overdue.
Answer
Work on the five-year review of Parts 1 to 3 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 is in progress and the Scottish Government will publish the review as soon as possible.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its five-year review of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, what consideration is being given to when qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) may be disapplied due to fraud, abuse of process or unreasonable behaviour by the pursuer.
Answer
Section 8 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 makes provision for a qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) regime in Scotland and sets out when QOCS may be disapplied.
As set out in section 23(2) of the Act, the report on the 5 year review of Parts 1 to 3 must, in particular, contain information about the effect of the operation of section 8 on access to justice and the administration of Scottish courts.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 16 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, what its position is on the suggestion of a "portal" for case management.
Answer
The Scottish Government considers that proposals for a case management portal is worth exploring and has been in discussion with stakeholders.