- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 8 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many payments from the Tenant Grant Fund have been used to fully pay off rent arrears, in each month that the fund has been available.
Answer
Local authorities were responsible for the administration of the Tenant Grant Fund given their knowledge of local need. Each local authority provided the Scottish Government with quarterly returns showing spend against their funding allocation. Data on full versus partial mitigation of arrears was not provided routinely by all local authorities.
The quarterly information collected was published on the Scottish Government website here: Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and is summarised below.
Quarters | Number of grants |
Q4 | 297 |
Q3 | 254 |
Q2 | 403 |
Q1 | 656 |
Until 31 Mar 2022 | 5,015 |
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 8 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many victims’ requests to silently observe a parole hearing had been refused at the time that the author of the publication, Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme, wrote that seven victims had been allowed to observe these hearings.
Answer
We cannot specify the precise number of victim observations which took place at any one given time during the development of the independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme because the number of requests will have varied throughout the drafting process.
The Parole Board for Scotland has provided the following information on the number of victim requests to observe parole hearings to 30 May 2023 – both approved and denied. It should be noted the first period coincides with the Board’s wish to consider and protect the safety of all parole hearing participants as they emerged from Covid restrictions, therefore no applications were approved during this time.
Dates | Requests received | Requests approved | Requests denied |
08-03-21 – 11-03-22 | 38 | 0 | 38 |
12-03-22 – 16-02-23 | 57 | 47 | 10* |
17-02-23 – 30-05-23 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
*Reasons for refusal
The following reasons were given for refusing an application to observe a hearing:
- 6 out of the 10 were because of the sensitive nature of the information to be discussed at the Tribunal;
- 1 where the case was considered under Rule 20 or the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 (i.e. an oral hearing arising from a Part III case, where there is no entitlement to observe);
- 1 where the prisoner did not have a solicitor;
- 1 where the Panel thought written reps more suitable; and
- 1 where the panel concluded a summary of the decision would be sufficient
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to tourism and other businesses within island communities to mitigate the impact of any connectivity issues affecting them.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 14 June 2023
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) site checks and (b) full site condition monitoring assessments have been carried out by NatureScot in each year since 2017.
Answer
The following number of Site Checks and Site Condition Monitoring assessments for protected areas were completed by NatureScot since 2017:
Year | Site Checks | Site Condition Monitoring |
2017 | 149 | 252 |
2018 | 99 | 93 |
2019 | 51 | 21 |
2020 | 30 | 20 |
2021 | 98 | 41 |
2022 | 31 | 5 |
2023* | 52 | 144 |
* Figures presented to 31 March 2023
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17750 by Lorna Slater on 19 May 2023, how many beaver carcasses have been submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem, since it became a legal requirement.
Answer
The beaver kit dependency period is between 1 April and 16 August and no licences to control beavers have been issued in this period. As such, there has been no legal requirement for carcasses to be submitted to NatureScot for an independent post-mortem.
The legal requirement for licence holders to submit carcasses for independent post- mortem to NatureScot will take effect when new licences granted by NatureScot commence on 17 August 2023 and thereafter.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 7 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research’s updated report, published in April 2023, Infants Born into Care in Scotland, including the reported finding that around one in every 100 children born in Scotland enters care before their first birthday.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to Keeping the Promise and ensuring that families are supported to stay together when it is safe to do so. While we still have more work to do, it is positive progress that the recent Infant's Born into Care Report confirms that the proportion of children entering care before their first birthday in Scotland has fallen since 2018 - from 122 in every 10,000 to 91 in every 10,000 in 2021.
The Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach ensures that children and families can access support across maternity, health visiting, family nursing and social work services to help them thrive. Where it is deemed that a child requires statutory support for their care, the Local Authority becomes their Corporate Parent and are responsible for working with partners to ensure that the right services are in place to deliver a personalised plan to meet their needs.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 7 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), how many cases have occurred in which SSSIs have been compromised by management activities, and whether NatureScot has entered into any agreements to provide compensation for any such cases; how many (a) charges and (b) convictions resulted from individuals intentionally or recklessly damaging the protected natural features of an SSSI, in each year for which data is available, and whether it will provide a list of any SSSIs that have been intentionally or recklessly damaged since 2013.
Answer
There are records of 212 instances of damaging or unconsented activities on SSSIs that have not been attributed to third parties. No compensatory agreements have been entered into as a result of these cases.
NatureScot is only obliged to offer compensation to a land manager if the SSSI consenting process restricts the established management of their land and where this leads to a loss of income. NatureScot has 89 active compensatory Management Agreements with land managers to prevent damaging activity. The majority date back to before 2013. The majority of active Management Agreements entered in to by NatureScot contain provisions for proactive management to restore or maintain biodiversity.
The following table sets out the charging and convictions data requested:
Year | Charged | Charged & Convicted |
2004 | 1 | |
2007 | 1 | |
2008 | | 3 |
2015 | | 1 |
2021 | | 1 |
2022 | | 1 |
Issues of motivation are judged on a case by case basis and so are not recorded in a way that can be aggregated.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 6 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16710 by Jamie Hepburn on 16 May 2023, what mechanism or measure it would potentially plan to use to determine whether “the people of Scotland wish that to be the case”.
Answer
The Scottish Government will always be guided by the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Scotland on constitutional matters.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands has to meet with shellfish businesses in Inverclyde, including Inverclyde Shellfish and its 13 staff, regarding its plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Answer
It has always been our intention to develop these ambitious proposals in close collaboration with those impacted by them – in particular, people living and working in our island and coastal communities.
Prior to the consultation, we met with over 20 stakeholder groups representing a wide range of marine industries and users. We also ran ten online information sessions from February - April to help anyone wishing to provide a response to our consultation. These meetings included fisheries organisations such as the Communities Inshore Fisheries Alliance.
We continue to engage with communities and industry as we consider the many thousands of responses to our initial, broad consultation.
Local representatives of Scotland’s fishing industry are an important part of that.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the recommendations in the report of the Short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce, published on 23 June 2022, have been implemented to date, and how many staff will be employed in the new dedicated Food Security Unit announced on 18 May 2023.
Answer
The Short-Life Food Security and Supply Taskforce set out a number of short and long-term recommendations in its report and all of the immediate actions are either complete or substantially complete, including the establishment of a Food Security Unit, with other actions becoming legacy activity for it.
As the Food Security Unit becomes more established, the number of staff involved directly will vary depending on business needs. The Food Security Unit will work collaboratively with the wide range of teams across the Scottish Government that work on aspects of food security.