Parliamentary questions
Rhoda Grant
2,396 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
13 Jun 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its assessment is of whether it is on track to reinstate consultant-led maternity services to Moray in 2026.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The member will be aware in March of this year the previous Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care approved the plan for integrated maternity services across the North of Scotland with consultant-led obstetric services at Dr Gray’s Hospital, supporting …
5 Jun 2023 · Topical Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported demonstrations in South Uist due to ferry withdrawal.
29 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15219 by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023, whether it will provide an update on when an announcement will be made on the long-term solution for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government is committed to an infrastructure solution to address landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and shares the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route. The identifica…
26 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16433 by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023, whether the representatives of the Scottish public sector on the independent project board steering the work (a) commented on the specific final draft content and estimates of the Green Finance Institute and (…
Answer · Lorna Slater: This work was produced externally to the Scottish Government. Scottish public sector representatives on the project board were sighted on the methodologies and evidence used to calculate relevant estimates and were involved in discussions with the report auth…
26 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what explicit, quantified (a) commitments and (b) targets it has set to ensure that seafloor habitats are (i) healthy and (ii) sustainable.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: The First Minister’s vision for Scotland published in April 2023 sets out the commitment for enhancing protection for our most precious marine areas. This commitment also includes making progress towards halting biodiversity loss and reversing declines, prote…
26 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17413 by Mairi Gougeon on 9 May 2023, what the level of underspend referred to was in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23; how many hectares of peatland were restored with grant support in each of those years; what the average cost per hectare …
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: As per our delivery partners’ published accounts ( Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park - Annual Report & Accounts , Cairngorms National Park Authority Annual Reports and Accounts , Forestry and Land Scotland Annual reports and accounts , NatureSc…
26 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what explicit, quantified commitments, targets or plans it has to (a) provide access to (i) green and (ii) blue spaces, (b) set minimum time limits for populations to access green spaces from home, (c) improve areas of outstanding scenic quality and enhance landscape features and (d) cre…
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Access to green and blue spaces in Scotland is underpinned by the rights of responsible access to land and inland water enshrined in Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 . From a marine perspective, as part of our Blue Economy Vision for Scotland , b…
24 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff Transport Scotland currently has, broken down by directorate.
Answer · Mairi McAllan: These figures are for staff directly employed by TS as of 31st May 2023. Aviation, Maritime, Freight & Canals - 21 Ferries - 45 Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel - 88 Chief Executive Office - 4 Finance and Corporate Services - 67 Low Carbon Economy -…
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether access to local outdoor spaces, such as forests, should be free of charge.
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The rights of responsible non-motorised access to land established through Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 mean that access to local outdoor spaces, such as forests, should normally be free of charge. There is a very limited range of circumstan…
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to Forestry and Land Scotland to enable car parking charges to be avoided, in order to allow free access to outdoor spaces.
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Although through The Land Reform (Scotland) Act, access is free to most outdoor spaces and the use of public and active transport is encouraged, The Scottish Government appreciates that many of our rural outdoor spaces can only be easily accessed by motorised…
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is in relation to reports that Forestry and Land Scotland is extending parking charges to more forests throughout Scotland.
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The Scottish Government is aware of the planned roll out of car park charges at a number of additional Forestry and Land Scotland recreation car parks as part of the agency’s sustainable forest and visitor management strategy. Equality mitigations already pla…
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17405 by Shona Robison on 5 May 2023, whether it plans to change the financing arrangements for Scottish Water, currently through customer charges and Scottish Government borrowing, in order to permit (a) private investment via an equity stake being…
Answer · Mairi McAllan: There are no plans to privatise or to change the financing arrangements for Scottish Water. Scottish Water is performing well as a publicly owned corporation; evidence of its performance is clearly demonstrated by the fact that Scottish Water is matching the …
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the current (a) proposals and (b) timescales for the provision of a replacement (i) hospital, (ii) dental clinic and (iii) GP unit on the Isle of Barra, and whether it will propose scheduling a ministerial statement in order to provide a detailed upda…
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government remain committed to delivery of quality health and care facilities on Barra. However, the Scottish Government's ability to fund capital projects has been affected by a reduction in the amount of capital grant from the UK Government ove…
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much the Barra and Vatersay Community Campus project has cost to date, and what future funding provision it has made for its delivery.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much the Barra and Vatersay Community Campus project has cost to date - this information is held by Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar. Initial design and development costs have been incurred on the school and …
16 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which elements of the Barra and Vatersay Community Campus project it now plans to deliver through the contract with hub North Scotland, and within what timescale.
Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The procurement route for the school and leisure element of the campus is the decision of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, this is currently being procured by the local authority through hub North Scotland. The project is expected to be delivered by April 2026.
11 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-02223 by Gillian Martin on 11 May 2023, how it calculated the figure of £1.3 billion.
Answer · Lorna Slater: The figure of £1.3 billion was included in the 2021 Green Finance Institute (GFI) report on the finance gap for nature related outcomes, and was for estimated woodland creation and maintenance costs up to 2031. Costs are calculated by multiplying the total ta…
5 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many Highland-based organisations have received support from its CashBack for Communities programme in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 to date.
Answer · Siobhian Brown: The CashBack for Communities fund is a unique programme that reinvests money recovered from the proceeds of crime to support young people across Scotland. Phase 5 of the CashBack for Communities programme ran from 2020 to 2023. Twelve organisations received …
5 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many accident-related temporary closures of the A9 Inverness to Scrabster road have taken place in (a) one and (b) both direction(s) in each of the last five years, broken down by month.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Closures of the A9 between Inverness and Scrabster due to an accident between 2018 and 2023 (to date), month by month are detailed in the following table: Year/ Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 1 2 3 0 1 2 0 0 …
5 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many accident-related temporary closures of the A9 Inverness to Perth road have taken place in (a) one and (b) both direction(s) in each of the last five years, broken down by month.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Closures of the A9 between Inverness and Perth due to an accident between 2018 and 2023 (to date), month by month are detailed in the following table: Year/ Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 5 1 2 1 1 1 3 2 0 …
5 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how long the A9 Inverness to Perth road has been closed due to an accident in (a) one and (b) both direction(s) in each of the last five years, broken down by month.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The length of closures (in hours / minutes) of the A9 between Inverness and Perth due to an accident between 2018 and 2023 (to date), month by month are detailed in the following table: Year/ Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec…
5 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how long the A9 Inverness to Scrabster road has been closed due to an accident in (a) one and (b) both direction(s) in each of the last five years, broken down by month.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The information extracted does not provide for the differentiation between a closure of the road in both directions or when the road is only closed in one direction and each incident has been recorded as a ‘road closure.’ The length of closures (in hours / m…
2 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) its and (b) NatureScot officials are providing to landowners and managers any introductions to the private financiers involved in the Memorandum of Understanding with NatureScot.
Answer · Lorna Slater: Scottish Government officials are not involved in the detail of the individual pilot projects, nor engagement with land managers. In both pilot projects the project team includes local delivery partners such as the Tweed Forum, who will be making introduction…
2 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16434 by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023, whether any representatives of community ownership organisations were involved in the workshops referred to on alternative ownership models; who (a) organised and (b) attended the workshops; whether a record o…
Answer · Lorna Slater: The Scottish Land Commission was asked to run two initial workshops for the project partners in order to inform partners about the policy context, expectations and guidance for community engagement and benefit and consider how these are built into the way the…
2 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to questions S6W-16435 and S6W-16430 by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023, whether the ethical framework referred to as yet to be “agreed and approved” will be subject to open consultation prior to its agreement and approval; by whom the ethical framework will be appro…
Answer · Lorna Slater: The ethical framework will be approved and monitored by the project governance board. NatureScot will make available a draft version to interested parties on request to gather feedback.
2 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16430 by Lorna Slater on 25 April 2023, whether the project board envisaged will approve investment cases; what status any such approval will have; whether any investment cases approved by the project board will confer any beneficial status on inves…
Answer · Lorna Slater: The detailed workings of the project governance board and what role it will have in the approval of investment cases are still to be agreed. This will be agreed by the board later in 2023, prior to investment decisions being taken. Consideration of an investm…
2 May 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how the figure of £2 billion of private investment, which is referred to by NatureScot as being available under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed between NatureScot and private financial interests, was calculated.
Answer · Lorna Slater: The £2 billion figure represents the current, combined investment appetite from the private partners. It is an indicative sum, subject to detailed negotiation of investment in specific projects. Detailed financial modelling and risk assessment will be underta…
21 Apr 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an indicative timeframe for the completion of its work in developing a model to tackle the demand for prostitution.
Answer · Siobhian Brown: The Scottish Government continues to make progress to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to develop a framework for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution, and to support those with experience of it. P…
19 Apr 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether its commitment to peatland restoration is tied to the fulfilment of any domestic or international climate action agreements; what its position is on whether its current policy on peatland restoration is in line with the expectations of the Climate Change Committee; what annua…
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: I refer the member to the question S6W-16845 on 25 April 2023 which details how we arrived at our restoration targets. We are currently reviewing the proposals put forward in the Climate Change Committee’s Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland: 2022 Repo…
19 Apr 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what explicit, quantified (a) commitments and (b) targets it has set for improved soil health, and what agricultural support programmes can assist with improving soil health.
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: While the Scottish Government does not currently have targets directly relating to soil health, I would refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17413 on 9 May 2023 which provides our current restoration target for peatland soils. The Scottish Governmen…
19 Apr 2023 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its commitment is to increasing forestry cover, including any timescales; whether any such commitment is tied to the fulfilment of any domestic or international climate action agreements; whether current policy towards extending tree cover meets the expectations of the Climate Chang…
Answer · Mairi Gougeon: Scotland’s Forestry Strategy has committed to increasing forest and woodland cover from around 18% to 21% of the total area of Scotland by 2032. To achieve this the Forestry Strategy Implementation Plan and Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan both commi…