Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-36114

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken or plans to undertake an independent review of the safety aspects and any agricultural impacts of the route selected for the Tealing to Kintore upgrade project.

Question reference: S6W-36099

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that the Tealing to Kintore upgrade project fully complies with the Construction (Design Management) Regulations 2015, specifically with regard to assessing and mitigating any safety risks to farmers and agricultural workers arising from overhead power lines.

Question reference: S6W-36105

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the design criteria for electricity infrastructure projects prioritise cost and visual impact at the expense of agricultural safety, and what representations it has made to regulators or electricity network companies regarding this issue.

Question reference: S6W-36116

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any requests from landowners or farming stakeholders for design changes to the Tealing to Kintore upgrade project on safety grounds, and how any such requests have been addressed.

Question reference: S6W-36111

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will seek assurances that any safety risks identified by agricultural stakeholders are fully addressed in the final planning application for the Tealing to Kintore upgrade project.

Question reference: S6W-36100

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential impact on agricultural productivity and safety of the minimum pylon heights proposed by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks for the Tealing to Kintore upgrade project.

Question reference: S6W-36230

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Professor Dame Carol Black's assessment in her report, Review of drugs part two: prevention, treatment and recovery, that “each £1 spent on [drug] treatment will save £4 from reduced demands on health, prison, law enforcement and emergency services".

We are supportive of Professor Dame Carol Black's report highlighting the importance of spending on drug treatment. The figures used in her review are sourced from Public Health England, so cannot be directly applied to Scotland.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) have been commissioned to conduct a comprehensive and independent evaluation of the National Mission. As part of the evaluation, PHS have also commissioning an external study of how National Mission funds have been allocated and spent, and the benefits which that expenditure has (or is likely to have) delivered.

The study will have a number of different research objectives including a summary of existing review-level evidence on treatment effectiveness and cost-effectiveness for treatments in scope, as well as an overview of evidence gaps. The economic evaluation report is anticipated to be published in the first half of 2026. The final evaluation report will be published in 2026.

Question reference: S6W-36115

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any potential economic impacts on farming businesses from safety restrictions required due to the construction of overhead power lines along prime agricultural land.

Question reference: S6W-36175

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current (a) average and (b) longest wait is for (i) an adult and (ii) a child disability payment from application to payment.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes statistics on Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment processing times, which include information on the median average processing times.

Latest statistics show that the median average processing time was 42 days in January 2025 for Adult Disability Payment and 73 days in December 2024 for Child Disability Payment.

Social Security Scotland does not currently publish information on the longest processing times for Adult Disability Payment or Child Disability Payment.

The latest Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment official statistics publications can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics.

Question reference: S6W-36110

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks regarding the potential hazards associated with agricultural irrigators near high-voltage overhead power lines, and how these have influenced project design.

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