Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-03752 on 10 November 2016. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The 2017-18 pay policy allows for the following increases in pay:

• an overall 1 per cent cap on the cost of the increase in the baseline paybill for those earning more than the low pay threshold of £22,000

• an increase of £400 for all staff with a full-time equivalent salary of less than the low pay threshold

• a commitment to paying at least the Scottish Living Wage

• allow individual employers to reach their own decisions about pay progression where staff are eligible to move towards the maximum rate for the job

Full details of the 2017-18 pay policy are available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/public-sector-pay

This link also contains a list of the public bodies that are directly covered by the Scottish Government’s pay policy.

The answer to this question varies depending on the grade of staff. For Scottish Government staff in lower paid grades, there have been real term increases in average salary between 2011 and 2016. This reflects specific measures put in place by Scottish Ministers in their Public Sector Pay Policy to support lower paid staff at a time of continued real term reductions in public sector budgets for Scotland flowing from the UK Spending Round. For staff in higher paid grades, there have in some cases been real term decreases in average salaries between 2011 and 2016. The position for the majority of Scottish Government staff is that there has been a real term increase in average median salary between 2011 and 2016 ranging between 2.7% and 3.9% depending on grade.

£283 million was set against the Scottish Government’s borrowing cap in 2015-16. We would expect to take decisions about borrowing in 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively late in each financial year, on the basis that it is prudent to only draw down borrowing late in any financial year, based on an up to date assessment of programme requirements. As noted in the Draft Budget 2016-17 and Draft Budget 2017-18, the Government has indicated that it will borrow up to the full amounts available in order to support the overall capital programme.

The Strategic Forum discussed a range of strategic economic issues and encouraged and promoted collaborative actions by our agencies. Scotland's Economic Strategy sets out the overall economic aims of the Scottish Government. Individual agency activities align with those priorities. The National Performance Framework

(http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms)

measures progress and the individual agencies have their own monitoring systems that are scrutinised by Parliament.

£283 million was set against the Scottish Government’s borrowing cap in 2015-16. This meant that the budget cover available from the borrowing facility was utilised to cover non-cash costs without having to draw down funds and incur the interest costs normally associated with borrowing.

There is no guarantee required for NPD projects. The provision set out in the
2016-17 Draft Budget published last December to reflect the budgeting treatment of the capital costs of NPD projects is £398 million. No decision has been taken yet on borrowing requirements in 2016-17.

Historic Environment Scotland are responsible for operations at Dumbarton Castle and at Scotland's other historic properties in care. I understand that Historic Environment Scotland wrote to the member on 22nd December detailing their forward plans for Dumbarton Castle, including the removal of scaffolding from the Governor’s House.

Between January 2016 and November 2016 a total of 10,313 tonnes of freight was transported through Glasgow Prestwick Airport. These are the latest figures available at this time.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport operates on a wholly commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government. The airport offers aviation services to a wide variety of customers through its in-house Fixed Base Operation (FBO), including military customers. As with any commercial FBO, contracts and agreements between Glasgow Prestwick Airport FBO and the customers who use this service are commercially sensitive.

The inward investment data collated by Scottish Development International relates to the number of jobs and projects. This information has been provided in the response to S5W-05179.