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-10262

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how much of the population and (b) where will be covered by "skeleton restoration" in the event of a black start.

Question reference: S5W-10266

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the likelihood of a black start has increased or decreased.

Question reference: S5W-10356

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the spending on each fuel poverty programme compared with the budget allocated 2016-17, and how any underspend has been re-allocated.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Constitution announced the 2016-17 provisional outturn figures on 22 June. These are currently subject to the final audit process.

The final 2016-17 Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency budget was £119m. An increase of £16m on the draft budget. This reflects additional funding allocated in year to support delivery of our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme and to assist social landlords in meeting the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing.

The provisional budget outturn for 2016-17 notes a variance of £3m in the outturn in the Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency Budget. This occurs in our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS): Area Based Schemes, covering standard ABS projects and phase 1 of the Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme (SEEP) Pilots. The nature of these schemes involves technically difficult measures being installed on properties which can lead to delays in completion and invoicing. Officials are in regular contact with local authority counterparts seeking updates and reassurance on forecast spend. Despite repeated reassurances during the year, some councils declared an underspend very late in the financial year, by which time it was too late to use the allocated budget for this purpose. As is normal practice, this budget underspend was used to help offset additional spend elsewhere in the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-10398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08107 by Keith Brown on 28 March 2017, whether there is sufficient data (a) collected and (b) available on the ethnicity pay gap.

The official source of information on the ethnicity pay gap is the Labour Force Survey, collected and published by the Office for National Statistics. ONS have previously published information on the ethnicity pay gap for the UK at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/adhocs/006860lfsearningsandpaygaptableswithnotes

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the relevance of Labour Market Statistical outputs against customer needs through various mechanisms including engagement with external stakeholders through SCOTSTAT http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat and we will produce and develop new statistical outputs where possible in response to customer need.

We are aware that witnesses, at the recent Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee, on the Gender Pay Gap, raised questions of intersectionality of data and the need to consider issues like age, race and disability in conjunction with existing pay gap data and we will look to develop dissemination of Official sources, where possible in this area.

Question reference: S5W-10397

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08107 by Keith Brown on 28 March 2017, whether it will request that the Office for National Statistics produces pay gap data on personal characteristics such as ethnicity and nationality.

A request has been sent to ONS on the 28^th of July requesting Labour Force Survey (LFS) earnings and pay gap tables. We have requested:

1. Information on the ethnicity (white/Non-white) pay gap and the nationality (UK national/Non-UK national) pay gap for Scotland.

2. Pay estimates for white/non-white by gender and UK national/non-UK national by gender, so that the gender pay gap can also be calculated for these 2 groups.

Once the analysis has been performed, it will be made available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings

Question reference: S5W-10646

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-10354

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many housing completions there have been by (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations and (c) the private sector in each year since 2007-08.

The following table shows the number of new build housing completions by (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations and (c) the private sector in each year since 2007-08:

Financial Year	Local Authority new build	Housing Association new build	Private sector new build
2007-08	28	4,097	21,663
2008-09	336	4,577	16,109
2009-10	413	5,576	11,133
2010-11	614	5,111	10,703
2011-12	1,114	4,776	10,109
2012-13	963	3,244	9,862
2013-14	1,140	2,911	10,833
2014-15	1,157	3,064	12,018
2015-16	1,138	2,320	12,782
2016-17	1,085	2,748	Not yet available*

* Figures on private led completions for 2016-17 are not yet available as figures for January - March 2017 have not been published. These are scheduled for publication in September.

The above figures form part of the Official Statistics and can be found at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild

Question reference: S5W-10355

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many affordable homes were built in 2016-17, and how many were for social rent.

A total of 7336 affordable homes were delivered in 2016-17 and of these, 4580 were for social rent. Of the total affordable homes delivered 4634 were newly built homes, including 3671 newly built homes for social rent.

The Official Statistics on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild/AHSPtables

Question reference: S5W-10251

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the steering group for its Marine Litter Strategy has met, and whether the issue of litter at the head of Loch Long in Arrochar has been discussed.

Question reference: S5W-10114

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Growth Commission's report on the economic case for independence.