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: S5W-19192

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding what proportion of people who register as self-employed each year do not start their own businesses.

Question reference: S5W-19049

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) estimated and (b) actual cost was of the recent work carried out by Scottish Water at the A814 in Rhu.

Question reference: S5W-19025

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much of its Flexible Workforce Development Fund has been accessed each year by private sector organisations that contribute to the UK Apprenticeship Levy.

Question reference: S5W-19048

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the advantages are of issuing procurement notices for investment programmes rather than tendering individual project contracts.

Public bodies must ensure taxpayers get the best possible value for money.

Once a requirement has been identified, and as part of the process of developing the appropriate sourcing strategy, it is important to consider what the right approach for the particular goods, services or works to be purchased is. This includes balancing the advantages that may be gained from aggregating demand against those which may be gained from opening competition up to a broader supply base.

A framework agreement covering many individual requirements is one possible route to market. Framework agreements are generally used for purchases where there is a requirement for a high volume of goods, works or services, or a repeat need where exact quantities or timings are unknown. They offer a quick and relatively inexpensive route to market. They establish in advance the terms under which subsequent call-off contracts are awarded and can remove the need for subsequent contract awards to follow a new advertised competition .

Question reference: S5W-19054

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether its procurement guidance supports the use of locally-sourced materials in construction projects.

Question reference: S5W-19026

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what portion of its Flexible Workforce Development Fund has been accessed in each year by each sector.

Question reference: S5W-19029

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it is providing to implement its retail strategy, and whether it plans to provide additional resources to assist with this.

Question reference: S5W-19051

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how Scottish Water monitors performance on cost for individual infrastructure projects.

Question reference: S5W-19050

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which delivery partners have been appointed by Scottish Water for its 2015-21 investment programme, also broken down by (a) where they are headquartered and to (b) what extent they hire local sub-contractors.

Scottish Water has appointed a range of delivery partners to deliver its 2015-21 investment programme:

3 Alliance partners
13 Tier 1 contractors
55 Rural contractors

Further details are provided in the table.

Delivery vehicle	Contractor name	HQ	% work self-delivered	% work using local sub-contractors
Alliance partner	Amey Black & Veatch (ABV) Joint Venture	ABV HQ is in Scotland but the HQs of the individual companies are in England	51%	41%
Alliance partner	Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA) Joint Venture	CWA HQ is in Scotland but the HQs of the individual companies are in England	60%	40%
Alliance partner	Efficient Service Delivery (ESD) Joint Venture	ESD HQ is in Scotland but the HQs of the individual companies are in England	2%	63%
Tier 1	Amey Group (Byzak)	England	45%	13%
Tier 1	Enisca	Northern Ireland	100%	0%
Tier 1	Farrans Construction	Northern Ireland	100%	0%
Tier 1	Farrans Construction (Trading as a division of Northstone (NI) Ltd) and Environmental Techniques JV (FET)	Scotland	80%	20%
Tier 1	Fast Flow	England	40%	59%
Tier 1 Contractor & Rural contractor	Ferrier Pumps Ltd	Scotland	60%	30%
Tier 1	Galliford Try & I D Systems UK Joint venture	Scotland	82%	18%
Tier 1 Contractor & Rural contractor	Galliford Try Infrastructure Ltd (Trading as Morrison Construction)	Scotland	98%	2%
Tier 1 Contractor & Rural contractor	George Leslie Ltd	Scotland	69%	24%
Tier 1 Contractor & Rural contractor	MacKenzie Construction Ltd	Scotland	80%	20%
Tier 1	Ross-Shire Engineering Ltd	Scotland	85%	15%
Tier 1	WGM Engineering Ltd	Scotland	85%	12.5%
Tier 1 Contractor & Rural contractor	Coffey Construction Ltd	England	50%	0%
Rural contractor	PSI Limited	Scotland	90%	10%
Rural contractor	Morgan Sindall	England	60%	40%
Rural contractor	Aird Walker & Ralston Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Barr & Wray	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Clancy Docwra Ltd	Scotland	90%	10%
Rural contractor	Dustacco Engineering Ltd	Scotland	85%	10%
Rural contractor	Enisca Ltd/Cleantech Civils Ltd Joint venture	Northern Ireland	90%	0%
Rural contractor	Global Infrastructure Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	ID Systems / Robertson Construction Joint venture	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Prime Pumps Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Coe Contracts Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Frank L. Johnston (Shetland) Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Rodger (Builders) Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Angus Mackay & Sons Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Chalmers Construction Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Eric Wright Water	England	63%	37%
Rural contractor	MacAulay Askernish Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	EEG Contracts Ltd	Scotland	99%	1%
Rural contractor	A&L Mechanical Installations Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	A&W Sinclair Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	AMD Contract Services Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	AMK Plant & Tipper Hire Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Andrew Sinclair Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Argon Engineering (Airdire) Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Armitage Groundworks Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Calmax Construction Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Corrie Construction Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	D.S. Nicolson Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Davidson Land Services	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Duncan Mackay & Sons	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Garriock Bros. Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Innovative Utilities Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	JGC Engineering & Technical Services Ltd	Scotland	95%	5%
Rural contractor	John Thomson Construction Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Lanes Group PLC	England	99%	1%
Rural contractor	Luce Bay Plant Hire Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	M&N Electrical & Mechanical Services Ltd	Scotland	95%	5%
Rural contractor	MacInnes Bros Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	McFadyens Contractors (Campbeltown) Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	MM Miller Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Ness Engineering Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Nicol of Skene Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	R.S. Merriman Ltd	Scotland	95%	5%
Rural contractor	Seivwright Brothers Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Storie (Argyll) Limited	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	TSL Contractors Limited	Scotland	93%	7%
Rural contractor	Tulloch Developments Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	UB CIVILS LTD	Scotland	100%	0%
Rural contractor	Wm Donald Ltd	Scotland	100%	0%

Question reference: S5W-19027

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its retail strategy, and how it will monitor the effectiveness of the strategy.