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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 8823 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5O-01082

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 June 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has confidence in the chairperson of the Scottish Police Authority.

Question reference: S5W-09372

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 31 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to prevent so-called social dumping by contractors engaged in public procurement projects.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a sustainable procurement duty, which places sustainable and socially responsible purchasing at the heart of public procurement processes for construction projects valued at £2m or more, where the process commenced on or after 18 April 2016. The duty requires public bodies to consider how in conducting the procurement process it can improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of their area. In addition, for all procurements commenced on or after 1 June 2016 with a value of £4m or more, public bodies must state in the contract notice the community benefits to be delivered under the contract or a statement why there is no such requirement under the contract.

Furthermore, under the 2014 Act, Scottish Ministers published statutory guidance in October 2015 on Addressing Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage, in Procurement, which requires that, where appropriate, fair work practices are considered as part of the procurement process.

Question reference: S5O-00997

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 17 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the transfer of UK Government staff to the new social security agency and the Cabinet Office statement of practice are on the agenda for the next meeting of the Ministerial Working Group on Welfare.

Question reference: S5W-08987

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the size of the public sector is relative to the private sector, and how this compares with the rest of the UK.

Table 1 shows the number and proportions of all in employment, employed in the private and public sectors for the UK and countries:

Table 1: Public and private sector employment (headcount), UK and countries, Q4 2016

Region	Public Sector Employment	Public Sector Employment - Percentage of all in employment	Private Sector Employment	Private Sector Employment - Percentage of all in employment
	(000's)		(000's)
Scotland	542	20.9	2,053	79.1
England	4,384	16.3	22,429	83.7
Wales	291	20.9	1,099	79.1
Northern Ireland	205	25.4	603	74.6
UK	5,439	17.1	26,421	82.9

Note: Not seasonally adjusted

The definition of public sector is in line with National Accounting principles

Sources: Public sector employment, UK: Dec 2016, (ONS) (Table 6, Table 7)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/publicsectoremployment/dec2016

Question reference: S5W-08984

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported reduction in the gender pay gap is primarily due to a reduction in male earnings rather than an increase in female earnings.

The gender pay gap for Scotland and earnings by gender are published by the Scottish Government at

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings

Between 2015 and 2016, the gender pay gap in Scotland, based on median full-time hourly earnings (excluding overtime) has decreased from 7.7% to 6.2%.

Over the year median full-time hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for males increased by 0.4% to £13.85 in 2016, while median full-time hourly earnings for females increased by 2.0% to £13.00 in 2016.

Question reference: S5W-08986

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the value of male earnings has been in each of the last 10 years, expressed in real terms, and how this compares with the rest of the UK.

Question reference: S5W-08985

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the median gross weekly pay for full-time workers has been in each year since 1999, broken down by gender and expressed in real terms, and how this compares with the rest of the UK.

Earning data for Scotland is published by Office for National Statistics in Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2016 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2016provisionalresults

and can be accessed from nomis www.nomisweb.co.uk.

Table 1 shows the median gross weekly full-time pay by gender, adjusted for inflation (at 2016 prices), for 1999 to 2016 .

Table 1: Median full-time gross weekly pay (£) by gender, Scotland and the UK: 1999-2016 (Adjusted for inflation, 2016 prices)

Year	Male Scotland	Male UK	Female Scotland	Female UK
1999	513.5	532.8	381.1	400.4
2000	525.2	548.9	387.7	411.4
2001	543.6	567.5	405.0	429.1
2002	558.1	579.2	418.8	445.4
2003	556.3	590.1	432.7	455.2
2004	560.5	603.3	448.0	467.8
2005	572.6	606.6	463.7	478.3
2006	586.2	611.2	470.2	483.7
2007	591.3	611.9	468.5	484.8
2008	602.3	622.7	478.5	491.9
2009	594.1	618.7	489.7	496.1
2010	585.7	603.9	483.6	493.1
2011	556.4	578.6	468.1	473.0
2012	556.1	569.9	457.2	468.5
2013	556.1	567.0	462.3	467.8
2014	559.1	559.2	461.4	462.0
2015	564.2	568.9	476.2	472.6
2016	568.0	577.8	482.6	480.5

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, ONS.

Note: Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence

Pay includes overtime

Information contained in this PQ is median weekly earnings for full-time employees. This measure is the main focus of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2016 Bulletin published by ONS on 26 October 2016. Information is also publically available based on hourly and annual earnings, for part-time and all employees.

Earnings data have been adjusted for inflation to 2016 prices using Consumer Prices Index, CPI (all items): 1998-2016, ONS (Published 18 October 2016)

Question reference: S5W-08989

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many private sector companies have signed up as accredited living wage employers, and how many employees this covers.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

However, according to the Scottish Living Wage Accreditation Initiative, there are 469 Scotland headquartered accredited Living Wage employers in the Private Sector. They estimate that these organisations employ approximately 118,000 people and that, of these, at least 3000 employees have benefited from an uplift in their wages as a result of accreditation.

Question reference: S5W-08758

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has reportedly advised orthopaedic patients from the area that they no longer have access to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Question reference: S5W-08759

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde patients whose waiting times for orthopaedic treatment have not met the treatment time guarantee can access treatment at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.