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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 MSPs 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: S6W-43099

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 23 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what enforcement mechanisms are in place in situations where inaccurate or potentially misleading information on antibiotic use is provided to regulators by salmon farming companies or representative bodies.

The regulation of veterinary medicines as a reserved matter for the UK Government and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is responsible for market authorisation of antibiotics, including publication of antibiotic sales and sectorial usage statistics, and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

The VMD publish antibiotic sales and usage figures annually in the Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Sales and Surveillance (VARSS) Report. Figures for antibiotics sales figures, including aquaculture, are provided by the veterinary pharmaceutical companies marketing these products to the VMD, and this is a statutory requirement. The VARSS report also includes data on usage in different animal sectors, including fish, and the VMD works in partnership with various animal sectors to develop, facilitate and coordinate antibiotic usage data collection systems. These data are reported on a voluntary basis.

For the purpose of environmental protection, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) places licence conditions on marine fish farm operators to record and report antibiotic treatments to SEPA, including the product and volume used. The requirement for enforcement action associated with non-compliance in returns is assessed in line with SEPA’s enforcement approach.

Question reference: S6W-42748

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports regarding poor housing standards experienced by seasonal farm workers, what consideration it has given to implementing section 315(6) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.

Question reference: S6W-42882

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what initiatives it supports to raise public awareness of Common Good assets, their registers and decision-making processes.

Question reference: S6W-42880

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its current position is on modernising or replacing the 1491 Common Good legislation, in line with recommendations from the Scottish Land Commission.

Question reference: S6W-42881

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to strengthen oversight of local authorities’ management of Common Good assets to ensure accountability and community benefit.

Question reference: S6W-42879

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures consistency in the application of guidance and protocols on Common Good governance across all local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-42876

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its energy strategy, what action it is taking to ensure that the grid connections for planned data centres reserved by National Energy System Operator are matched with the most preferential sites in Scotland, as set out in the report, Short list for Data Centre Site Development, which was published in May 2025.

Question reference: S6W-42875

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any implications for its energy strategy, what assessment it has made of the maximum data centre energy demand that can be accommodated in Scotland while aligning with its climate change targets.

Question reference: S6W-42673

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee 1st Report 2025, Follow-up inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland (SP Paper 720), what specific "burden" it considers would arise from implementing the recommendation that all fish mortality data be made public; which Scottish Government directorate, agency or public body would bear that burden; what additional tasks or functions would be required to implement the recommendation; what assessment has been made of the associated costs, resource implications or operational impacts, and what analysis or evidence was used to reach the conclusion that publication of this data would constitute a "burden".

All mortality data collected by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in relation to Scottish salmon farming is already made public on Scottish Government and Scotland’s Aquaculture websites, resulting in a high level of transparency and more data being available for salmon farming in Scotland in comparison to other farming sectors.

A formal assessment of impacts of data collection has not been undertaken. However, additional data is not required for regulation and its provision would generate data collection, handing and processing by producers at both a site and company level, as well as by the Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspectorate, and this is disproportionate to the regulatory need.

Question reference: S6W-42653

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported commitment to integrate skills strategies into sectoral strategies, when these skills strategies will be published and which (a) sectors and (b) regions each will cover.