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: S4W-29666

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when workers in the oil and gas industry who have lost their jobs will be able to apply for support from the transition training fund announced by the First Minister, and when the first payments will be made.

Question reference: S4W-29670

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which organisation will manage the transition training fund for workers made redundant from the oil and gas industry announced by the First Minister.

Question reference: S4W-29668

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether people working in the oil and gas sector who (a) live in Scotland but work elsewhere and (b) work in Scotland but live elsewhere will be eligible to apply for support from the transition training fund for workers made redundant from the oil and gas industry announced by the First Minister.

Question reference: S4W-29665

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether the £12.5 million Scottish Enterprise funding to support research and development in the north east announced by the First Minister will be taken from existing budget allocations, and how much will be allocated to this fund in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) subsequent years.

The £12.5 million funding, provided by Scottish Enterprise, for oil and gas innovation and further business support has been allocated to two specific funding streams.

Funding of £10 million is available over a three year period, to aid firms in reducing the risks associated with carrying out research and development, and to provide access to innovation specialists. This funding has been allocated from a central budget and re-prioritised to reflect our commitment to support the industry at this challenging time.

Funding of £2.5 million has been made available from existing budgets to support business resilience reviews within companies.

Funding for both of these is from the existing Scottish Enterprise budget allocations.

Question reference: S4O-05595

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in filling consultant vacancies at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S4W-29907

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the value is of the projects in the Aberdeen City region deal that are in reserved areas of responsibility.

Question reference: S4W-29906

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the value is of the projects in the Aberdeen City region deal that are in devolved areas of responsibility.

The Aberdeen City region proposals bring together a £250 million package of measures that are not divided along devolved and reserved boundaries. Both governments have worked together to agree a deal that responds to the particular opportunities identified by the regional partners and that aims to secure the future of the economy of the North East. The deal is being supported by both governments on a 50:50 basis.

Question reference: S4W-29851

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29257 by John Swinney on 15 January 2016, what percentage of the unadjusted average revenue funding per capita Aberdeen City Council will receive in 2016-17.

Question reference: S4W-29850

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29256 by John Swinney on 15 January 2016, what percentage of the unadjusted average revenue funding per capita Aberdeen City Council has received in each year since 2011-12.

In 2011-12 before the introduction of 85% funding floor Aberdeen City Council received 84.0% of the Scottish average revenue funding per head. Following the introduction of the new floor Aberdeen would have received 83.5%/84.1%/84.6% over the three year settlement 2012-15. As a result of the new floor Aberdeen City Council received over 85% of the Scottish average.

These figures were calculated before the transfer of responsibility for police and fire from local to central government on 1 April 2013 and as is standard practice the local government finance settlements were not reopened.

In 2015-16 as a result of the transfer of police and fire Aberdeen City Council's revenue funding per head would have been 79.2% but following the adjustment for police and fire the council once again received 85% of the adjusted Scottish average.

Question reference: S4W-29849

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29258 by John Swinney on 15 January 2016, whether it plans to make adjustments in determining the average local authority revenue support per capita and, if so, (a) what these are and (b) what the reason is for doing so.