Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36939

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Electricity Act 1989, whether statutory consultees on section 36 and section 37 planning applications should receive a copy of any (a) gate check and (b) other reports submitted by the applicant.

As part of the process to determine applications made under Section 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, consultees are asked by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) to provide comment on the contents of gate checks. The purpose of a gate check is to set out how comments made by consultees and Scottish Ministers in the scoping opinion are to be addressed by the applicant and taken forward in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, should an application be submitted. Application documents, including EIA reports, are publicly available on the ECU portal: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx

Question reference: S6W-37596

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide resources to support local authorities to develop a renewable energy mapping tool, enabling residents to understand the cumulative impact of proposed renewable projects across their local authority.

We have taken forward a package of changes to planning fees to better resource the system, however it is a matter for local authorities to determine how their financial resources are allocated based on their priorities. Planning authorities are nevertheless required by legislation to keep a public register of live and determined planning applications for development in their areas, and we welcome where certain planning authorities and developers have already developed renewable energy mapping tools as a complement to this.

Question reference: S6W-37466

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 19 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that the year 2023-24 is dealt with as a transitional year for licensed self-catering operators when supplying annual data to the assessor.

The requirement to provide evidence of letting to assessors to ensure compliance with the thresholds for self-catering holiday accommodation to be included in the valuation roll was introduced from April 2022 to counter a known tax avoidance tactic for second homes.

Assessors undertake annual audits to ensure that self-catering accommodation entered on the valuation roll meets the statutory requirements to be classed as non-domestic property. To provide clarity to self-catering accommodation providers on these requirements, and to provide greater certainty regarding the consequences of failure to meet the requirements, a statutory deadline to respond to requests for evidence was introduced from 1 April 2024. If evidence is not provided to the Assessor by the deadline, or if it is insufficient to establish if the requirements have been met, the Assessor must remove the property from the valuation roll under the current statutory framework.

The Scottish Government has no immediate plans to alter the rules for self-catering properties, however we do keep all policies under review and routinely engage with stakeholders on any issues with the operation of the system and associated legislation.

Question reference: S6W-37499

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what COVID-19 vaccines are available for those who are immunocompromised and have a respiratory illness, in light of reports that VidPrevtyn, manufactured by Sanofi Paseur, is no longer available.

Question reference: S6W-36940

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Electricity Act 1989, what information it has on how many respondents to section 36 planning applications were not contacted by its Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) in advance of a public inquiry, when they should have been, in each of the last five years, broken down by inquiry.

Question reference: S6W-37310

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10461 by Humza Yousaf on 20 September 2022, whether it will provide an update on the support it is giving to the development of the VLA15 vaccine for Lyme disease.

As noted in the response to S6W-10461, Scottish Enterprise has provided support to the Valneva facility in Livingston although the Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15 is not directly supported by Scottish funding.

The introduction of any new national vaccine programme in Scotland is based on the independent expert advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). If VLA15, were to be authorised for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and recommended for use by the JCVI, then the Scottish Government would consider the introduction of any such programme.

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: S6O-04698

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent current projects will be included when making a cumulative impact assessment for a section 36 application under the Electricity Act 1989.

Question reference: S6W-36815

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13059 by Keith Brown on 9 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland (OPG) backlog of power of attorney applications; how many cases are currently affected, and what funding is available to support the OPG to address this backlog.

Question reference: S6W-36402

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, whether the eight schemes stated as withdrawn and the one stated as no longer required were included in the 16 out of 33 remaining schemes marked as complete.

Question reference: S6O-04626

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's recent comments regarding the mothballing of nurseries, what systems are in place to ensure local authorities comply with national guidance.

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