Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government can confirm that the following discussions took place:

The former First Minister in May 2008;

Scottish Development International officials in September 2011 and May 2012;

The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities and Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism met them in London in October 2014.

To inform investigations into whether the issue identified with the MAQA software at the end of November 2015 had occurred previously, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre has been commissioned to audit historical results of the draw for General and Portfolio Questions.

This statistical audit, which is being independently peer reviewed by the University of Edinburgh, covers the period from when MAQA was introduced at the start of the session until March 2015. Investigations are on-going and will be completed as soon as possible. 

We will respond to the member in more detail at that point and the results will be made available to all members.

Supplementary answer by John Pentland (03/02/2016):

The recent issue with the software used to select Members for General and Portfolio Questions was identified as resulting from changes made to the software as part of a scheduled software update made in March 2015. The issue did not exist prior to this point. 

 To provide additional assurance that the draw had previously been carried out correctly, SPICe has investigated the probability of Members’ names being drawn for General and Portfolio Questions, from the period when MAQA was introduced at the start of the session until the software update in March 2015. In doing so, account was taken of the number of weeks in which Members put their names forward for draws and the number of draws to which they asked to be entered in each of those weeks.  The University of Edinburgh reviewed the work carried out by SPICe and a copy of the report has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 57665).  

 Statistical analysis of the type undertaken indicates what the likelihood is of something occurring. It does not, of course, of itself prove or disprove whether something happened by chance or randomly.

 Overall, the analysis suggests a relatively even incidence of selection across the surnames of Members.  The selection rates were found to be largely ‘normally distributed’ and, for the vast majority of Members, were close to the average (within two standard deviations). The report concluded that it is likely that Members’ names were selected randomly during the period in question.

 The statistical tests revealed a very small number of outliers who were outwith the boundaries of normal distribution. However, only one case was considered to be a notable outlier. IT staff have investigated the system in light of this information, and no additional software issues have been identified. The Member identified as a notable outlier has been made aware.

 As indicated in the answer to question S4W-28997, Chamber Desk staff will continue to monitor results of future draws using the new audit functionality which was introduced when the software issue was addressed in December 2015. Chamber Desk staff will be able to provide members with information relating to their own draw histories on request.

The Scottish Government is represented on the Sciencewise Steering Group by an official from the Higher Education and Science Division. Meetings with Sciencewise in 2015 have taken several forms:

A Scottish Government official attended two out of three formal meetings of the Sciencewise Steering Group.

A Scottish Government official attended a Civil Service Live event in Edinburgh with a member of the Sciencewise team to inform attendees about the services that Sciencewise offers.

Scottish Government officials also attended project management meetings and dialogue events organised by Sciencewise and in connection with a Marine Scotland dialogue project, which is being supported by Sciencewise.

Information on the membership of the GlobalScot network is held and maintained by Scottish Enterprise. I have therefore passed your query to Scottish Enterprise, who will contact you directly with details of the membership of the GlobalScot network.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is in regular contact with other regulators across the UK and Europe to share best practice and learn from experience elsewhere. This helps them to ensure that their regulatory position is informed by best available information and lessons learnt by others.

Since 2011, Scottish Development International (SDI) has been engaged with a number of organisations in Qatar to promote investment opportunities in the Scottish renewable energy and low carbon technologies sector. The former First Minister visited Qatar in 2011, to help strengthen Scotland's economic and renewable energy links with Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Prior to this visit, SDI consulted with companies in the Scottish renewables sector to help identify potential projects for Qatar based investors.

Between 2012 and 2015, SDI organised a Scottish Pavilion at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, providing the opportunity for Scottish renewables companies to exhibit their latest developments and help attract investment from across the Middle East.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Authorisations made under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) for covert human intelligence sources (including undercover officers) do not need to be approved by senior officers in another police force. Paragraph 3.18 of the RIPA Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Code of Practice explains that if an authorising officer considers that conflicts might arise they should, where possible, consult a senior officer within the police force area in which the CHIS is deployed.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.