Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-37556

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support volunteer-led community tourism in rural areas.

The Scottish Government, along with our tourism agency VisitScotland, acknowledges the significance of community tourism. VisitScotland has teams strategically located throughout rural Scotland that are instrumental in collaborating with regional stakeholders to identify local needs and opportunities.

Community Led-Tourism

VisitScotland fully recognises and supports the unique role of community led tourism in Scotland. Community-led tourism enterprises deliver many visitor experiences and services across Scotland, making them an important part of the wider visitor economy. Such enterprises encompass a variety of inclusive ownership models and provide opportunities to generate community wealth. Partnership and collaboration is at the heart of the work that VisitScotland do to grow Scotland’s visitor economy including their work with Scottish Community Tourism (SCOTO) Community Tourism Network CIC, the organisation which connects Scotland’s network of community tourism enterprises.

Business & Experience Development

VisitScotland’s business support programme is accessible for all tourism and events businesses in Scotland – including SMEs (majority of businesses in the sector) and community-led tourism organisations. Over time, VisitScotland will continue to give community tourism organisations access to practical information and resources to build capability and develop.
Community tourism is integrated in the Scottish Thistle Awards programme, which celebrates and spotlights the best in Scotland’s best tourism and events sector.
VisitScotland also promote enterprises of this type through their integrated marketing approach, showcasing the unique and enriching experiences visitors can have by engaging with communities.

Place Development

VisitScotland’s focus on place ensures that the experiences and welcome offered by industry and communities in destinations are combined with the appropriate investment cases and infrastructure to address issues of quality, sustainability, inclusivity, capacity and drive net zero.
As part of the place development work, VisitScotland manage the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF) on behalf of Scottish Government. The fund aims to improve the visitor experience in rural parts of Scotland that are experiencing visitor management issues. In particular, it aims to help address pressure on local infrastructure or any negative impacts on communities.
Since 2018 RTIF has awarded £20 million of grant funding to 75 projects. While RTIF criteria and assessment processes consider community issues and concerns arising from visitor pressure points, the purpose of RTIF is to fund visitor infrastructure which addressed visitor and community pressures arising from visitor numbers as opposed to a community fund to support purely local community needs or asks. Only National Park Authorities and Local Authorities can apply for RTIF funding, however more than 63% have done so in partnership with local community groups or third-party agencies and charities (RSBP, FLS, NTS etc.)
Where community-based organisations are involved in RTIF projects, there are further opportunities to engage with those organisations, to assess the community tourism development opportunities associated with the creation of new tourism infrastructure. This would allow more community benefit and opportunity released from investment, in turn benefitting both visitor and resident.

Question reference: S6W-37598

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has made of any impact that fire contaminants may have on the health of an unborn child.

Question reference: S6W-37620

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding reducing the VAT rate that public electric vehicle chargers are subject to, in light of reports that this is one of the reasons why charging on rapid chargers can cost over 75p per kWh.

Question reference: S6W-36969

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recommendation by the Care Inspectorate, in its Guidance for children and young people’s services on the inclusion of transgender including non-binary young people, to “Use gender-inclusive language, such as ‘come on everybody’ instead of ‘come on boys and girls’”.

Question reference: S6W-37758

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any oversight over the total level of bonuses paid out by the Scottish National Investment Bank.

Question reference: S6W-37154

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that all perspectives, including those of women’s rights campaigners, are included in future stakeholder consultations on sex-based rights and equality policy.

Question reference: S6W-37750

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the urgent question by Kate Forbes on 14 May 2025, whether it will provide an outline of the work of the small review team that will now meet weekly to discuss the completion of the MV Glen Rosa.

Question reference: S6W-37781

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to expand the deployment of solar panels across the NHS Scotland estate.

Question reference: S6W-37631

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of what the risk of legal challenge would be for any public bodies that continue to apply policies of gender self-identification in relation to access to single-sex spaces.

Question reference: S6W-37248

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 3 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its work to promote Scottish businesses, and in light of its guidance on due diligence and human rights, whether the Minister for Business raised the issue of human rights on his recent trip to China.

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