Parliamentary questions

Donald Cameron

1,854 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

13 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether any (a) ministers and (b) officials have met with Meta regarding its so-called metaverse.

Answer · George Adam: The Scottish Government's Communications Division has not had any meetings with Meta on this topic. Information on Ministerial engagements is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-en…

13 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the five-year target is for take-up of the Home Energy Scotland Scheme grants announced on 2 December in the Highlands and Islands region.

Answer · Patrick Harvie: There is no five-year target for take up of the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan scheme in the Highlands and Islands region. The scheme is demand-led and the number of households which can be supported is linked to the annual budget. The budget alloc…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12376 by Mairi McAllan on 1 December 2022, whether it applied any monitoring and evaluation criteria to the initial £2 million of loss and damage funding that was announced on 11 November 2021, prior to funding being awarded to projects.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Scottish Government undertakes monitoring and evaluation of all funded programmes once they are live. Monitoring and evaluation is used to assess progress against agreed targets so can only be done once a project has started and there is progress to asses…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12375 by Mairi McAllan on 1 December 2022, whether it can provide a breakdown of the £1.7 million worth of loss and damage funding that has already been allocated to projects.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Of the £2 million previously committed at COP26, £1.7 million has been delivered through grants. £1 million was grant funded to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). Created in 2016, CJRF is one of the first major funding initiatives framed explicitly a…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been awarded in Private Water Supply Grants to (a) homes and (b) commercial premises in the Highlands and Islands region in each year since 2007.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: A total of £1,892,440 in private water supply grants has been awarded by Highland Council from financial years 2007-08 to 2021-22. Yearly totals are set out in the following table. The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the breakdown of a…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many waste water treatment plants there are in the Highlands and Islands region.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Scottish Water operates 759 wastewater treatment works in the Highlands and Islands region. (includes Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, parts of Moray and parts of Argyll and Bute)

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02381 by Mairi Gougeon on 2 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on its progress in developing a Crofting Bill during the current parliamentary session.

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The Scottish Government remains committed to reforming crofting law. A decision on the timing of a Bill will be taken by Cabinet in the context of setting the content of future legislative programmes in the normal way. The Crofting Bill Group was reinstated …

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many communities (a) each year and (b) in the last 12 months have (i) registered an interest in acquiring and (ii) acquired land under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and how much funding it has made available to support these communities in each case.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The following table shows the number of communities which have registered an interest in acquiring land, and the number of communities which have acquired land, under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (the Act) only, each year since 2003. Communities may re…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it currently monitors leading edge erosion on wind turbines, and whether it has any plans to increase this monitoring.

Answer · Michael Matheson: As per the answer to S6W-12989 on 22 December 2022, it is the responsibility of the wind farm operator to properly maintain their wind turbines, in accordance with their planning permission and any conditions imposed. The Scottish Government is not responsibl…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many fines have been issued for failing to maintain wind turbines properly since 2007, and what the individual amounts of any fines were.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Conditions may be attached to planning permissions for wind farm developments which “require wind turbines to be constructed and operated in accordance with the approved details and maintained in the approved colour, free from external rust, staining or disco…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of sewage services in the Highlands and Islands region are provided privately for (a) commercial activities and (b) domestic properties.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government does not hold this data. However, some 126,339 properties are connected to Scottish Water’s sewer network in the North region (which includes Highlands and the Western Isles). In 2021, the National Records of Scotland reported the tota…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether average farm income has increased in real terms for each financial year since 2016-17, and, if so, by how much.

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The latest estimates from the Farm Business Survey suggest that in the accounting year 2020-21, the average Farm Business Income (FBI) for businesses in the survey was £39,347. This represented an increase of 20 per cent (£6,517) in real terms from 2016-17, w…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to conduct a study on the impact of microplastic pollution and toxic compounds from wind turbines.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Water Framework Directive does not currently include the requirement for the monitoring and assessment of microplastic pollution and specifically Bisphenol A in the water environment. However, the Scottish Government continues to support active research …

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many bed days were lost due to delayed discharge for each hospital in the NHS Highland area, in each year since 2017-18.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The following table shows the number of bed days occupied by people delayed in their discharge in hospitals in NHS Highland for all delay reasons over the period April 2017 to March 2022 by financial year. The hospital of delay represents the location of dela…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans in the next three years to construct new sewage systems in the Highlands and Islands region.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Scottish Water is currently progressing over £23 million of investment in the Highlands and Islands to improve wastewater treatment, enable growth and to maintain its wastewater assets throughout the area. This is primarily to upgrade and improve existing ass…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has provided any financial assistance towards the ongoing maintenance and repair of wind turbines, and, if this is the case, how much it has provided in each year since 2007.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Organisations which develop and install wind projects should always allow for a sinking fund for repair and maintenance costs, or take out insurance for repairs, maintenance, breakdown and loss of earnings. Our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) d…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many water quality (a) tests and (b) reports were conducted across the Highlands and Islands region in each year since 2007, and how many of these were deemed to have fallen below their acceptable level.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Scottish Water is required to test both drinking water and wastewater in line with legislative requirements and to submit these to the relevant regulator. Annual reports are provided by both the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland and the Scottis…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many students have taken up a medical school place at the University of (a) Glasgow, (b) Edinburgh, (c) Aberdeen, (d) St Andrews and (e) Dundee, in each year since 2016-17.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The numbers of entrants to first degree pre-clinical medicine courses, by university, have been provided in the following table. The tables only cover those entering ‘pre-clinical medicine’ and do not include other students entering medical schools on ‘clini…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the Highlands and Islands region, how (a) many there are and (b) much it has allocated for this purpose, broken down by each local authority area.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Scotland is leading the way on electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with more EV chargers per capita than the rest of the UK. The latest figures showing that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from 60 public charge points per 100,000 population. T…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patient bed places there are in each hospital in the NHS Highland area.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Beds data by NHS board and hospital are already published by Public Health Scotland. The most recent quarterly publication is ‘ Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Quarter ending 30 June 2022 ’, which was published on 29 November …

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether there have been any recorded incidents of bisphenol A pollution discharges in drinking water sources, and, if this is the case, whether it has any plans to address this issue (a) at present and (b) in future.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Given Bisphenol A is not currently required to be monitored in drinking water, there are no recorded incidents. However, it has been introduced as a new parameter to be monitored from the 1 January 2023 as part of the Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Amendmen…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent wind turbine erosion as a result of rain and hail.

Answer · Michael Matheson: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12989 on 22 December 2022, it is the responsibility of the wind farm operator to properly maintain their wind turbines, in accordance with their planning permission and any conditions imposed. The Scottish Gove…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland has expressed any concerns about the drinking water quality in the Highlands and Islands region, and, if this is the case, whether it will publish details of these concerns.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland publishes extensive information about drinking water quality in all regions across Scotland on its website, including but not limited to annual reports, water quality incidents and enforcement notices. This ca…

5 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to introduce guidelines to safeguard people’s health from microplastic pollution as a result of wind turbine erosion.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Emerging contaminants of concern, including microplastics and Bisphenol A, are continuously being risk assessed by the EU under the Water Framework Directive for inclusion as priority substances. The EU Commission has recently proposed a revised list of prior…

1 Dec 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03099 by Kate Forbes on 28 September 2021, whether it will provide an update on whether the subsea cables to (a) Colonsay, (b) Iona, (c) Lismore, (d) Eigg, (e) Eday, (f) Flotta, (g) Hoy, (h) Rousay, (i) Sanday, (j) Shapinsay, (k) Stronsay, (l) Fair …

Answer · Ivan McKee: All of the 16 new R100 subsea cables connecting 15 Scottish islands - Colonsay, Iona, Lismore, Eigg, Eday, Flotta, Hoy, Rousay, Sanday, Shapinsay, Stronsay, Fair Isle, Unst, Whalsey and Yell – were laid during Summer 2022. Planned post-laying activity is now…