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: S5F-00358

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 24 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 October 2016

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet.

Question reference: S5W-03361

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, whether it expects the first loans benefiting from its guarantee scheme to be paid to companies before 6 September 2017.

Question reference: S5W-03366

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, which organisations it anticipates will come forward with proposals to pay loans instead of guarantees.

Question reference: S5W-03364

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, how its Scottish Growth Scheme will differ from the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme that is operated by the British Business Bank.

Question reference: S5W-03363

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, whether it expects the specialists that will examine the prospects and finances of each company that applies to be public sector employees.

Question reference: S5W-03365

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, what consideration it has given to the economic evaluation of the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme that was published in February 2013.

Question reference: S5W-03362

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, which other guarantee schemes it was referring to when it stated that “total losses paid by the guarantor to the financial intermediary are usually capped”.

Question reference: S5W-03360

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 30 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02378 by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016, when it expects the outcome of its work on the establishment of the Scottish Growth Scheme will allow for operational details to be considered.

Question reference: S5F-00346

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2016

To ask the First Minister what issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet.

Question reference: S5W-02378

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement of the Scottish Growth Scheme, when it expects to invite applications from companies.

The Scottish Government recognises that there is strong interest in the criteria, eligibility, and operational delivery of the Scottish Growth Scheme. As stated in the Programme for Government – A Plan for Scotland – we will work with business organisations, the UK Government and Scottish Parliament to establish the
£500 million Scottish Growth Scheme. We will also work with banks to develop the scheme and their role in it.

Understandably, we do not wish to make any pre-judgements or be prescriptive on operational detail until the outcome of this work is concluded.

The delivery approach is currently under development and it is important to note that appropriate due diligence work will be undertaken on each company to assess whether support is appropriate in each individual case. This will include all relevant aspects that are likely to impact on an individual company’s growth or exporting plans, whether exports are to the EU or non-EU countries. There are no pre-designated export markets, it will depend on the commercial prospects.

An investment guarantee is a legal agreement between a guarantor and a financial intermediary (usually a bank) whereby the guarantor covers a proportion of the losses incurred by the financial intermediary, for example, on loans. The purpose of a guarantee is to allow the release of more debt financing to individual companies by the sharing of risk with the financial intermediary. The guarantee is a percentage of individual company loan finance, and total losses paid by the guarantor to the financial intermediary are usually capped. Contingent liabilities are legally enforceable undertakings given in the form of a guarantee or indemnity which would bind the Scottish Government into providing the resources in the event of the guarantee or indemnity maturing.

The due diligence will be undertaken by specialists with the appropriate skills to provide a sufficiently robust examination of the prospects and finances of each company applying under the scheme.

It is anticipated that the support will mainly be in the form of guarantees but if appropriate, loans may be offered. This will be dependent on the proposals that come forward. It is therefore not possible, at this time, to set out what proportion would be loans and guarantees.

The types of applicant companies will vary, depending on the specific sector, and stage of development, the principal key criteria will be growth delivery and entering new markets. It is too early to provide figures on any anticipated level of default. Any cost associated with defaults will be partially offset by fees charged for providing guarantees and interest on any loan extended. Following the conclusions of discussions with lenders, we will consider whether it is appropriate for companies receiving support to provide some level of security to offset risk of default.

Before the scheme can invite applications, a change to parliamentary procedures associated with approving Scottish Government guarantees will be required. Importantly, co-operation is also required from the UK Government in agreeing the budgeting treatment of the guarantees. Both are progressing and the Scottish Parliament will be updated on developments.