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: S6T-00951

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to mitigate the threat of avian influenza outbreaks among domestic poultry populations, in light of its impact on wild bird populations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-11652

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what funding is available for flood defences for individual homes, in particular for homes susceptible to flooding.

Grants towards the cost of flood resilient repairs and/or protection measures for individual homes are available from some local authorities. For example, the Scottish Borders Council make flood protection products available through a discount scheme. Further details are available through the attached link FINAL_Subsidised_Flood_Protection_Products_June_2021 (1).pdf or from the Council.

The Scottish Flood Forum, a charity funded by the Scottish Government, can provide households with informed impartial help and guidance in making the best choice of property flood protection. They can arrange a community Property Flood Protection Exhibition to show householders what options are available to help them reduce flood risks at homes and can arrange to carry out assessments of individual homes on request.

In recognition of the importance of reducing flood risk the Scottish Government has provided, since 2008, a total of £42 million a year through the General Capital Grant to local authorities to allow them to invest in flood protection measures. In addition the 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions.

Question reference: S6W-11745

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities established a short-term let licensing scheme, as required, by 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6O-01506

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its consultation on a new Agriculture Bill.

Question reference: S6W-11098

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will define any harm or ill it seeks to prevent through the licensing of muirburn.

Muirburn undertaken inappropriately has the potential to have serious negative impacts on wildlife, soil quality, carbon sequestration, and the wider environment. These potential negative impacts are outlined in detail in the Muirburn Code. For example, muirburn conducted on steep slopes or on thin soils can cause soil erosion.

Increased regulatory control through licensing linked to compliance with the Muirburn Code will mitigate these negative impacts by ensuring muirburn is undertaken in the appropriate manner and environment.

Question reference: S6W-11097

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 17 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline its (a) rationale and (b) evidential basis for the licensing of muirburn.

The Scottish Government accepted the Grouse Moor Management Group’s recommendation that muirburn should be subject to tighter regulation and only be undertaken under licence.

In considering our response to the Grouse Moor Management Group report, we took into account a wide range of reports and evidence, including:

Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Scottish Government commissioned research on the socio-economic impacts of grouse moor management.
The recommendations of the Independent Deer Working Group.
The Climate Change Committee report published in January 2020.

We also consulted with other Scottish Government agencies and non-departmental public bodies such as NatureScot, SEPA, and Scottish Forestry, as well as considering the evidence and views put forward by a wide range of stakeholders.

We recognise the benefits muirburn can have for certain types of land management, and although some aspects of muirburn, are already controlled, e.g. close seasons, our assessment is that increased monitoring and regulation of muirburn will reduce the negative impacts muirburn can have on biodiversity and carbon management.

Question reference: S6W-10732

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the scale of landholdings affects the ability of land managers to effectively manage deer populations in connection with its consultation, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation.

Deer management is currently carried out across land holdings of varying size from 10Ha to over 10,000Ha. The extent of the deer management and any required collaboration is more dependent on the species and land type rather than any minimum size. For ‘territorial’ species such as roe deer the scale of management will often be at the individual farm unit; whereas for open hill red deer, that range across multiple large properties, the management scale expands to Deer Management Groups that cover many thousands of hectares.

The prescribes to everybody who owns or manages wild deer on someone else’s land (irrespective of the size of that land holding), how they should deliver sustainable deer management. A of compliance with the Deer Code published 2019 concluded that where it was relevant to them, a majority of owner-occupiers, across varying land holdings, had undertaken actions to meet each of the themes outlined in the Deer Code. NatureScot, in their role as Scotland’s deer authority, work with a range of partners, including the Association of Deer Management Groups, local deer management groups and individual land managers to develop effective planning and deliver deer management across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-10958

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its Programme for Government 2022-23, whether its proposal to impose a moratorium on evictions will apply to tenants who have been ordered to leave their home as a result of a criminal (a) disposal and (b) court order, including, but not limited to, a domestic abuse protection order.

The cost crisis is placing huge pressures on households, particularly on those who rent their home. The moratorium on evictions will prevent negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of tenants caused by being evicted and/or being made homeless at a time when they are already struggling as a result of financial stress. It will also relieve pressures on housing and homelessness services in the short term.

We fully recognise however the significant impact that criminal behaviour can also have on other tenants, household members and the wider community.

Details of the moratorium and the exclusions which will apply are still being finalised. However I can confirm that it is our intention that where a tenant has been convicted of:

a) using the house or allowing it to be used for immoral or illegal purposes, or

b) an offence punishable by imprisonment committed in, or in the locality of, the house; and

c) the court has also granted an eviction decree on grounds a) and/or b) above, the moratorium on evictions will not apply.

Domestic Abuse Protection Orders set out in the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 are not yet in force.

Question reference: S6O-01401

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its peatland restoration plans.

Question reference: S6W-10729

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it used to determine that 3,000 hectares was the appropriate threshold to categorise an area as a "large-scale landholding" in its consultation paper, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation.

The purpose of the consultation document, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation, is to seek views on a range of proposals for land-related reforms, including specific measures that could be included in the next Land Reform Bill. As part of that, views are sought on criteria that could be used to classify landholdings as 'large-scale'.

The criteria put forward for consultation in the document are based on the principle of proportionality. They are:

a. A fixed threshold of 3000 hectares

b. Land that accounts for more than a fixed percentage of a data zone (or adjacent data zones) or local authority ward(s) designated as an Accessible Rural Area or Remote Rural Area, through our six-fold urban/rural classification scheme

c. Land that accounts for more than a specified minimum proportion of a permanently inhabited island.

Meeting one or more of these criteria would mean that a landholding would be considered 'large-scale'.

The proposal to set the fixed threshold at 3000 hectares reflects a suggestion made by the Scottish Land Commission that the 'aim should be to establish a threshold that would ensure that family farms and small businesses would not fall in scope, but that modest estates that could pose risks [of harm to the public interest] would.'

As set out in the consultation document, the proposed threshold of 3000 hectares has been informed by data held on land and property titles by the Registers of Scotland, and the Scottish Government's Integrated Administration and Control System (which records data on all businesses with agricultural and non-agricultural land in Scotland that receive public subsidies.) Based on this data we consider that setting the threshold of 3000 hectares would be proportionate, in that it would bring into the scope of measures proposed for the Bill a substantial proportion of land in Scotland, while affecting a very small proportion of landowners, few of whom would be considered 'family farms'.