Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-02472

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) cabinet secretaries and (b) junior ministers there are, broken down by salary scale, and how this compares with each year since 1999.

Since August 2021, there have been nine Cabinet Secretaries (including the Deputy First Minister), and 17 junior Ministers.

The following table sets out the numbers of (a) Cabinet Secretaries (Ministers appointed under section 47 of the Scotland Act 1998) and (b) junior Ministers (appointed under section 49 of the same Act) in each year since 1999, with the dates from which any changes were made:

	Cabinet Secretaries (Ministers)	junior Ministers
First Administration 1999-2003
May 1999	9	10
October 2000	10	9
November 2001	9	10
Second Administration 2003-07
May 2003	10	7
June 2005	10	6
January 2007	10	7
Third Administration 2007-11
May 2007	5	10
December 2009	6	9
Fourth Administration 2011-16
May 2011	8	11
September 2012	7	13
April 2014	9	11
November 2014	9	13
Fifth Administration 2016-21
May 2016	9	12
September 2016	9	13
June 2018	11	14
December 2020	11	15

Sixth Administration 2021-
May 2021	9	15
August 2021	9	17

Ministerial and MSP salaries are set and paid by the Scottish Parliament, and the Scottish Government has no role in this. Salary entitlements are agreed by the whole Parliament in line with proposals put forward by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body. Further information about officeholder salaries can be found on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/msps/msp-salaries

Question reference: S6W-02468

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the First Minister has not previously required the services of a Strategic Policy and Political Adviser.

Question reference: S6W-02467

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the recently-appointed Strategic Policy and Political Adviser to the First Minister was appointed following an interview process, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-02469

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the job description is of the post of Strategic Policy and Political Adviser to the First Minister.

Question reference: S6W-02470

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 28 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the recently-appointed Strategic Policy and Political Adviser to the First Minister was paid any salary during her four-month absence from May 2021 as Chief of Staff and, if so, what the (a) reasons were for its position on this matter and (b) source was of this income.

Question reference: S6W-02475

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the hire of ministerial cars from private companies in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-02473

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many ministerial cars are available for use; how this compares with each year since 1999, and what plans it has to increase the size of the fleet.

The Government Car Service currently has 28 operational vehicles. This comprises 24 vehicles that are allocated to drivers and 4 spare vehicles, which are used during periods of maintenance.

There are currently no plans to increase the fleet size.

The following table provides a yearly breakdown of the total number of vehicles used on the Government Car Service since 2001.

Year (1)	Total number of vehicles used (2)
01-02	23
02-03	26
03-04	29
04-05	33
05-06	29
06-07	26
07-08	36
08-09	31
09-10	28
10-11	24
11-12	28
12-13	35
13-14	31
14-15	28
15-16	25
16-17	25
17-18	27
18-19	33
19-20	41
20-21	41
21-22	28

(1) Information is not held for period prior to 2001.

(2) During each year there are a number of purchases and disposals. While we generally keep an operational fleet of between 25 – 30 vehicles at any given point, this number grew over 18-19 – 21-22 whilst surplus vehicles were awaiting disposal.

Question reference: S6O-00198

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to report on the findings of the consultation on New Year’s Day trading for large shops.

Question reference: S6W-02805

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many overseas offices it has, broken down by location; what the annual running cost is for each office, including (a) accommodation and (b) staffing costs, and how many staff each office employs.

The following table details staff headcount including the current annual budget allocation for the Scottish Government’s overseas offices, including salary costings, upkeep, day-today running and hospitality costs.

OFFICE	BUDGET FOR (2021-22)	STAFF HEADCOUNT
Beijing, China	550,000	4
Berlin, Germany	555,000	3
Brussels, Belgium	2,310,000	17
Dublin, Ireland	596,000	3
London, England	2,197,000	14
Ottawa, Canada	570,000	4
Paris, France	556,000	3
Washington DC, United States	805,000	4

Question reference: S6W-02905

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many overseas offices it plans to establish in each of the next five years, also broken down by location; what the expected annual running cost will be for each office, including (a) accommodation and (b) staffing costs, and how many staff each office will employ.

As was announced in the programme for government, we will open a Scottish Government office in Copenhagen next year to increase Scotland’s economic and cultural visibility in the Nordic region. In this parliamentary session, we will also open an office in Warsaw, as part of our continued commitment to enhancing our external reach and voice.

We anticipate that the new offices will be similar in budget and staffing numbers to existing Scottish Government overseas offices. The budget for these additional offices will be established as part of ongoing planning processes and upcoming budget considerations.

Year	Expenditure
2016 -17	£183,416
2017 -18	£198,328
2018 -19	£286,216
2019 -20	£274,441
2020 -21	£22,016