Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-33567

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how often healthcare needs assessments are conducted in rural areas, and what changes have been implemented in the last 10 years as a result.

Question reference: S6W-33573

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many jars of honey were produced from the Parliament’s beehives in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33644

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what specific efforts have been made in each of the last five years to improve support for older adults with sensory impairments in Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish Government See Hear Strategy, published in 2014 and endorsed by COSLA, sets out a framework where everyone with a sensory impairment, including older adults, should expect seamless provision of assessment, care and support. The recommendations contained within the See Hear Strategy are being implemented via local partnerships, including statutory and third sector partners, to ensure alignment with local priorities and approaches. Funding is made available to each local authority area to support implementation of the strategy. For the last five years, Aberdeenshire has received £15,340 per annum for this purpose, with Aberdeen City receiving a further £13,281 per annum.

Details of how this funding has been spent, including to support older adults, is a matter for the relevant local authority. Information on provision of optometry and audiology services to older adults with sensory impairments is a matter for the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership. This information is not held centrally.

Scottish Government also funds two projects through the Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund which support people in Aberdeenshire experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to sensory impairment.

- Grampian Society for the Blind, operating as North East Sensory Services (NESS) and based in Aberdeen (Moray), offers social groups and activities for people with a visual impairment. Over the period 2023-2026 they will receive £55,083.

- The British Deaf Association (based in Glasgow but covering Aberdeen) provides information and support to the deaf community, online and in person. Over the period 2023-2026 they will receive £71,794.

These projects support people of any age experiencing social isolation and loneliness due to a sensory impairment. However, the likelihood is that older people will be benefitting from these services.

Question reference: S6W-33577

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the average loss/profit per jar of honey sold in the Parliament shop has been in each of the last five years.

The purpose of having bees at the Parliament is not to produce honey but to partially demonstrate our compliance with the biodiversity duty under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 which places a statutory duty on all public sector bodies in Scotland to further the conservation of biodiversity. The honey is a by-product from having bees and is sold at a profit minus any costs for bottling and labelling.

Question reference: S6W-33574

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many visits the beekeeper has made to the Parliament’s estate in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-33576

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it has any plans to review or change the current delivery of beekeeping services at the Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-33377

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker (on behalf of the SPCB) on 5 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, further to the answer to question S6W-32347 by Claire Baker on 14 January 2025, how it verifies that the beeswax used for the Great Seal of Scotland comes from the Parliament’s bees and whether it provides any payment for the wax to the beekeepers.

Question reference: S6W-32896

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has corresponded with (a) Hampton Group International, (b) the UK Chinese Business Association and (c) Pitch@Palace in the last 12 years; what any such correspondence related to; whether Yang Tengbo is named in any such correspondence, and, if so, whether it will conduct an urgent review of any correspondence relating to Yang Tengbo.

Question reference: S6W-33666

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been allocated to community-led health initiatives in rural areas over the last five years, and what the outcomes were.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular health challenges faced by those in rural areas. In addition to the support outlined in response to S6W-33562 on 3 February 2025, we have invested in a number of funding streams which have included allocations for community-led health initiatives in rural areas, including:

£66 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults since 2021, with more than 4,800 grants made to local projects across Scotland over the first three years. Of these more than 900 grants were made to community projects supporting people disadvantaged by geographical location (including rural areas) - Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults Year 3 – Monitoring and Reporting Summary
Over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, including those in rural areas -

Independent-Evaluation-of-Community-Mental-Health-Supports-and-Services-April-2023.pdf

Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services: summary report - January to June 2023 - gov.scot

Over £29 million of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) funding since 2021 to deliver over 1000 grassroots community-led projects across rural & island Scotland in partnership with rural organisations. Some of which have health related benefits ranging from mental health and wellbeing to physical health. Communities are empowered and supported to design and implement the solutions to the challenges and opportunities they identify in their local area, which may include community led health and social care provision
A further £11.4 million in 2024-25 to support Community-led Local Development and similar initiatives in our rural and island communities.

Links to the most recent evaluation reports of each of these initiatives, including information on outcomes, are included above where available. A review of CLLD funding began in 2024-25, and will continue throughout 2025-26.

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: S6W-33738

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the frequency and severity of storms that have affected Aberdeenshire over the last five years, and what plans it has to improve infrastructure resilience in the region.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the frequency and severity of storms. This information is collected and held by Met Office.

We have recently made available £5m per annum capital budget over 4 years to fund the extension of the public water network to enable the removal of Private Water Supplies which should improve resilience to affected water supplies during power outages. Milton of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire has been shortlisted as one of the communities who will benefit from this funding.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) published in December 2022, provides guidance on long term investment in Scotland’s strategic transport network. STPR2 recommends future investment to ensure that Scotland’s trunk road network remains safe (Recommendation 30), adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change (Recommendation 31) and resilient (Recommendation 32).

Recommendation 31 provides a basis for identifying, prioritising and implementing transport infrastructure improvements. Measures could include but are not limited to strengthening or replacing sea walls, upgrading coastal fences and stabilising embankments, slopes and hillsides.

Scottish Government have also initiated a Significant Local Infrastructure process in which Local Resilience Partnerships are mapping infrastructure within their geographic areas. This will allow better understanding of this local infrastructure and will collate a rich picture to support further work, including identifying dependencies and interdependencies and allow improvements to business continuity and emergency response plans.

We would recommend that, should you require further information on storms and infrastructure in Aberdeenshire, you contact Aberdeenshire Council.

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