Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35158

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered any impact of local authorities continuing to use delegated powers on licensing committees, and what action it has taken in this regard.

Question reference: S6W-35165

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered any impact of requiring specific MOT testing for licensed taxi (a) licensing, (b) testing and (c) retesting.

I refer the member to the answers given for S6W-35156 and S6W-35159 on 27 February 2025.

It is for independent licensing authorities to consider their own approaches on requirements for MOT testing, subject to meeting legal requirements.

Chapter 5 (vehicles) of the Scottish Government best practice guidance for local licensing authorities and taxi and private Hire Car (PHC) operators on the licensing of taxis and PHCs and their drivers, provides examples of best practice that independent licensing authorities may wish to consider in relation to MOT testing for taxis and PHCs: https://www.gov.scot/publications/taxi-private-hire-car-licensing-best-practice-licensing-authorities-taxi-private-hire-car-operators-3rd-edition/pages/7/

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-34776

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment has been made of the uptake of the Fair Work Framework among employers in Scotland’s (a) offshore oil and gas, (b) offshore wind and (c) maritime industry.

Question reference: S6W-34777

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33222 by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025, what the future funding arrangements are for the Energy Skills Passport, and how many applications the Energy Skills Transition Hub has received to date from offshore oil and gas workers.

Question reference: S6W-34775

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32232 by Gillian Martin on 19 December 2024, which states that fisheries management measures are not a national or regional planning matter, how it will ensure that the views of environmental, recreational and commercial representatives are adequately reflected in inshore fisheries management and governance.

Question reference: S6W-34779

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding the employment rights of offshore oil and gas workers in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-34778

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 7 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Energy Skills Passport launched with the UK Government on 22 January 2025, whether it will make participation in the passport a statutory requirement for developers in the ScotWind process.

Question reference: S6W-33581

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the equivalent weight in (a) pounds and (b) kilograms is of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season.

Question reference: S6W-33582

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the carcasses of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season yielded meat suitable for the human food chain.

This information is not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-33200 on 21 January 2025 and S6W-33202 on 17 January 2025 which set out the information we do hold on how the carcasses of the 138,534 deer reportedly culled in the 2022-23 season were processed. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6W-33220

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 24 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it monitors the number of redundancies among oil and gas contractors in Scotland, and, if so, how many redundancies were made in 2023-24, and, based on asset owners' decommissioning schedules, how many it estimates will be made in each year from 2024-25 to 2029-30.

There is no obligation on private companies to inform the Scottish Government of their redundancy figures, therefore we do not hold this information centrally. However, the Scottish Government engages regularly with the oil and gas industry and the relevant trade unions and monitors company announcements.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

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