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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

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Question reference: S6W-42668

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 8 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of predation of livestock by white-tailed eagles were reported to its agencies in each year since 2021.

Due to the complexity of this issue, NatureScot does not hold annual data on the instances of predation of livestock by white-tailed eagles. Confirming the number of white-tailed eagle predation instances on individual holdings is challenging, especially in extensive sheep systems, where often lambs go missing without trace or there is very little carcass material left for analysis.

NatureScot work closely with farmers and crofters to better understand white-tailed eagle interactions with livestock on individual holdings.

This work includes analysis of flock performance data, white-tailed eagle prey remains analysis, installation of cameras on white-tailed eagle nests and funding for measures such as enhanced shepherding, which supports additional shepherds on extensive areas to collect data on a range of variables. In 2025, the Sea Eagle Management Scheme supported 36 shepherds across 19 holdings in this work. A report of this collaborative work will be available in due course.

Question reference: S6W-42840

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has paid for services from the Global Disinformation Index since it was founded in 2018, and, if so, whether it will provide details of this, broken down by each year.

Question reference: S6W-42830

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is currently providing to fruit and vegetable producers that are (a) recognised and (b) not recognised as producer organisations.

Question reference: S6W-42817

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the proposed non-domestic rates revaluation on the viability of small-scale hydroelectric schemes, in light of reports that this could make such schemes unviable.

Question reference: S6W-42816

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has received from economists regarding the potential implications of the recently proposed 2026 non-domestic rates revaluation for the income generated by non-domestic rates, in light of reported concerns expressed by the Federation of Small Businesses, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Agritourism, the Association of Scotland's Self Caterers, and Scottish Land and Estates, that the revaluation "poses a serious threat to the viability of thousands of businesses across the country".

Question reference: S6W-42479

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 6 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to enforce community (a) benefit payments and (b) equity ownership from onshore renewable energy developments as a mandatory requirement for planning application considerations.

Powers to mandate community benefits and shared equity ownership are reserved to the UK Government. We continue to press the UK Government to use its reserved powers to mandate community benefits and shared ownership for mature onshore technologies, so communities share in Scotland’s natural wealth through locally shaped, lasting arrangements.

In order to maintain a robust, impartial process in which people can object to proposals while still discussing any benefits on offer, financial arrangements such as community benefits and shared ownership schemes sit independently from our planning and consenting systems.

Consequently, the Scottish Government has no plans to make community benefits or shared ownership a mandatory consideration in planning applications.

We remain committed to a just energy transition that delivers real benefits for communities: around £30 million was offered last year under our voluntary Good Practice Principles, which we are refreshing following consultation analysis published on 22 October.

Question reference: S6W-42815

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of SEPA's formal weekly water scarcity reporting season running from May to September, whether it has considered instructing the agency to collect such scarcity data over the winter months as a guide for future mitigation measures for droughts and other causes of water scarcity.

Question reference: S6W-42691

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation took place with pelagic catching sector representatives regarding the revised mackerel and herring Economic Link requirement, and when that consultation concluded.

Question reference: S6W-42665

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much of the £150 million that it announced on 12 December 2024 to "support the growth of the offshore wind sector" has been distributed, broken down by how much each organisation has received.

Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is supporting supply chain and ports across Scotland including at Nigg, Lerwick, Stornoway, Montrose and Kishorn – and creating jobs in our offshore wind sector across the country. Due to commercially sensitive negotiations, the full pipeline of projects cannot be made public at this stage. We are working across public sector delivery partners to ensure that funding is delivered to projects as quickly as possible.

Question reference: S6W-42662

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 5 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the efficacy of its investment in rainforest restoration through the Nature Restoration Fund.

NatureScot have adopted a range of rainforest-specific metrics for both the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) and other funding for rainforest restoration. These include: areas of existing rainforest under appropriate herbivore management; the number of jobs created; and the area cleared of Rhododendron ponticum.

An interim evaluation of the NRF (to March 2024) was published in August 2025. A number of important early actions to restore rainforest restoration were included in that evaluation, and these continue to be measured across the fund. There is also a suite of landscape scale rainforest restoration projects underway as part of the NRF including projects that have been ongoing for a number of years, such as the Arkaig Landscape Restoration project, the Saving Morvern Rainforest project and the Saving Argyll’s Rainforest projects.

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