- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that existing arrangements provide sufficient access for small businesses to unsecured long term development finance and, if not, whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government to investigate the possibility of setting up a new business bank to provide small businesses with access to loans at rates significantly better than high street banks.
Answer
The public sector currently provides, or contributes to, a range of small business finance schemes in circumstances where a discernible market failure can be identified. Most recently we established the £12 million Business Growth Fund to provide loans to small businesses with potentially viable proposals but unable to access sufficient funds from established sources - for example because of a lack of sufficient security or a limited track record. Some £2 million in loans has already been offered under the scheme and we will be evaluating its success in meeting this perceived gap in the funding market.The need for additional funding measures to support small business is kept under constant review. I remain to be convinced however that a case has been made for wider loan funding at below market rates, which may simply serve to displace existing private sector funding with no overall economic benefit.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has taken and will take in order to achieve the target of creating 100,000 new businesses in Scotland by 2009.
Answer
Wider national economic performance is likely to be the main determinant of trends in small business creation and the prospects for the Scottish economy remain good. However we have also been working closely with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to improve the availability, consistency and quality of support for people wishing to start a business.
A number of positive measures are in hand: improvements to the Scottish Enterprise Network through the establishment, from April, of a single brand in the network and new programmes on start-up and small business support; work by Scottish Enterprise to review the Business Birth Rate Strategy to further encourage entrepreneurship and start-ups - including from non-traditional sources, like women and youth; and the continuation of local events under the Personal Enterprise Campaign. We have also set increased targets for number of start-ups assisted by the Enterprise Network, and are working to improve the availability of web site based business support. New start-ups with growth potential also have access to support from the £12 million Business Growth Fund and, from April, to our new national mentoring scheme - Business Mentoring Scotland.This represents a significant contribution by the Scottish Executive to improve Scotland's performance in business creation.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list, for the last period for which information is available, the record of each local authority in Scotland for payment of debt, showing the average number of days within which each local authority has paid its suppliers and other creditors; whether it considers that these records are satisfactory and, if not, whether it will take steps to ensure that those local authorities which are not settling debts timeously do so; and after what period of time it estimates that such steps would result in all local authorities settling their debts timeously.
Answer
Payment arrangements are a matter between local authorities and individual suppliers. The latest information on the percentage of invoices that authorities pay within 30 days is published by the Accounts Commission in their Annual Report Comparing the Performance of Scottish Councils 1997-98. As noted in my response to question S1O-332, I spoke to Councillor Norman Murray, president of CoSLA, asking him to draw to the attention of councils the requirements of the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998 and the importance of paying their bills on time. CoSLA wrote to all local authorities advising them of this on 1 October.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a similar body in Scotland to the American body "The Small Business Administrator".
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no plans to introduce in Scotland a body similar to the Small Business Administration in the United States of America. Public sector support for small businesses in Scotland is delivered primarily through Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and we are currently reviewing the existing Enterprise Network in Scotland. We will also give careful consideration to any recommendations which emanate from the inquiry into Scotland's local economic development services by the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee. The Executive is determined to ensure that public sector support for business in Scotland meets the needs of the twenty-first century.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider the introduction of the American policy of corporate venturing to promote growth of small businesses.
Answer
The Scottish Executive believes that corporate venturing can bring significant benefits to both small businesses and their larger corporate partners, and we want to encourage the establishment of more such relationships in Scotland. The Executive therefore fully supports the UK Government's commitment to introduce corporate venturing tax incentives in this year's Finance Bill and we have asked Scottish Enterprise to consider specific initiatives to help stimulate a culture of corporate venturing in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland); if so, what estimate that body has made as to the proportion of the population suffering from some degree of dyslexia, and what steps it will take in order to provide appropriate tuition at an early age to help children with dyslexia acquire basic skills in reading, writing and numeracy.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has received no representations from the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland).The Scottish Executive is providing over £5 million in 2000-01 to local authorities for in-service development and training of staff working with pupils with special educational needs, including dyslexia. £1 million of this funding is directed towards staff working with pupils in the early years of primary school.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 25 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what access it has to papers of the previous administration and whether that access differs from the practice followed when there is a change of administration of Her Majesty's Government.
Answer
When there is a change of Administration of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, there is a long established convention that a new Administration does not normally have access to papers of a previous Administration of a different political complexion. The convention covers, in particular, Ministers' own deliberations and the advice given to them by officials, other than written advice from the Law Officers and those papers which were published or put in the public domain by the predecessor Administration.In applying the convention to the devolved administration in Scotland any information contained in administrative and departmental records belonging to a Minister of the Crown or a UK Government Department is treated as if it were contained in papers of a previous Administration of a different political complexion. This convention, therefore, qualifies the right conferred upon the Scottish Ministers by Article 10(2)(b) of the Transfer of Property (Scottish Ministers) Order 1999 (SI 1999/1104) to have access to certain administrative and departmental records belonging to a Minister of the Crown or a UK Government Department. In practice this means, in particular, that Scottish Ministers do not normally have access to advice given to Scottish Office Ministers or to the deliberations of those Ministers in papers dated before 1 July 1999, unless they have been published. Written opinions of the UK Law Officers which date from before 1 July 1999 may be made available.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 24 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects approvals of applications for the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme to be re-started after its announcement of a delay in such approvals on 3 December 1999 and what action it is taking to ensure that the European Commission makes this delay as short as possible.
Answer
The Commission has up to six months to approve the Scottish Rural Development Plan submitted on 29 December 1999 which includes the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme. The Scottish Executive will play its full part in the negotiations during this period.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consult about amendment of the 100 metre rule as contained in section 17 of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure Bill in order to ensure that the feudal title conditions are not simply preserved in most parts of rural Scotland by notice procedure.
Answer
We do not intend to consult further on this matter, but we will listen to any arguments expressed during Stage 2 of the Bill's progress both about the 100 metre rule and about the proposed notices procedures introduced in sections 17 and 18 of the Bill.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 21 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland) has drawn its attention to a recent study showing that half of the prison population is dyslexic; if not, what information it has as to the approximate level of the prison population in Scotland which suffers from some degree of dyslexia, and what action it proposes to take to address this problem.
Answer
The Scottish Prison Service is not aware of the study. A significant proportion of prisoners have learning difficulties of various sorts and therefore, prisoner education gives priority to basic literacy and numeracy skills. SPS also works closely with the Scottish Dyslexia Association and where dyslexia is identified, opportunities to address this are offered.
