Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35784

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the brokerage discussions with NHS Grampian regarding the overspend for 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-35632

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it being approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for the rest of the UK, for what reason the medication, Givinostat, for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is not available through NHS Scotland.

A conditional marketing authorisation was granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for givinostat (Duvyzat®) on 20 December 2024. A conditional marketing authorisation is an early temporary licence.

The pharmaceutical company that markets Duvyzat® has offered a national Early Access Programme which provides free of charge access to the medicine for the treatment of ambulant young people aged six years and older with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This has been in place since late December 2024.

It is for individual Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new medicine, and ultimately for the clinician in charge of a person’s care to advise on suitable treatment options. The Scottish Government is aware that Health Boards are currently considering how to schedule offering this medicine in the most fair and equitable manner.

Question reference: S6W-35665

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35018 by Alasdair Allan on 24 February 2025, whether it will provide an update on what engagement and analysis it has undertaken with the UK Government to understand what the financial impact will be on consumers facing a change in tariff as a result of the ending of the Radio Teleswitch Service, such as those with Total Heating Total Control meters.

Question reference: S6W-35714

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has asked the UK Health Security Agency to conduct a review into any health effects of electromagnetic fields from overhead lines.

Question reference: S6W-35693

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will investigate the recent fire at the battery energy storage system site at Rothienorman in Aberdeenshire.

Question reference: S6W-35622

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to backdating the 36-month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6W-35251

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 11 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether community councils are statutory consultees regarding applications under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, where the development concerned requires an environmental impact assessment, and, if not, whether it plans to include them.

Statutory consultees are those set out in legislation as requiring to be consulted on submission of an application.

Community councils are not referred to as statutory consultees of applications for energy consents under sections 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989. However, consultation responses from non-statutory consultees such as community councils and public bodies are important considerations during the determination process.

The Scottish Government is committed to further strengthening engagement for communities by making pre-application consultation a statutory requirement as part of the UK Government’s proposed reforms to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-35267

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to changing the funding process of distributing community benefit from the current model of local community benefit funds administered by the communities impacted by developments to a central fund distributed by it.

Community benefits from renewable energy developments are voluntary arrangements between communities and developers. Despite the powers to mandate community benefits being reserved to the UK Government, Scotland has made significant progress with a voluntary approach through our Good Practice Principles. Over the past 12 months, renewables developers have offered more than £30 million to local communities.

We are currently consulting on our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore renewable energy developments, to ensure we continue to support sustainable and meaningful outcomes for people in Scotland. This includes seeking views on local, regional and national approaches to community benefits. The consultation closes on the 11 April and we will consider all responses as we work towards updating the guidance by the end of 2025. We want to gather a wide range of views from across communities, industry, the third sector and public sector partners, and encourage everyone to take part.

Question reference: S6O-04419

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline its funding strategy for health and social care partnerships in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S6W-34318

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-33251 by Ivan McKee on 23 January 2025, how much revenue has been raised from non-domestic rates levied on properties with pylon infrastructure in each of the last three years; whether any other levies are applied to pylons based on their height or size, and, if so, how much revenue was raised in 2024 from each of these levies.

The estimated non-domestic rates revenue from energy transmission infrastructure from 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 is presented in Table 1. This includes overhead transmission lines and pylons, underground lines, and sub-stations, operating at or above 132kV. We are unable to separately estimate the amounts related to pylon infrastructure only.

There are no Scottish Government levies charged on the basis of pylon height or size. We are not aware of any other levies charged on this basis.

Table 1: Estimated non-domestic rates income from electricity transmission infrastructure

Financial year	Non-domestic rates income (£)
2022-2023	81,744,000
2023-2024	112,398,000
2024-2025	114,595,000

Source: Designated electricity transmission entries on the Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 October 2022, 1 October 2023, 1 October 2024.

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