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: S6W-17217

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work on skills alignment, including (a) its strategic intent for skills alignment, (b) the outcomes that it aims to achieve and (c) how it will measure progress.

The Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) published the Shared Outcomes Framework (SOF) in March 2022, which set out our intent to develop a skilled workforce for Scotland. It includes a series of projects, including on apprenticeships and wider skills planning to help meet that intent.

The Shared Outcomes Assurance Group meets eight weekly during the Parliamentary year to review progress. Minutes of these meetings can be viewed at this weblink .

My predecessor in role, Mr Hepburn, wrote to the Public Audit Committee on 1 February 2023 to provide a progress update . Since that time, project implementation has continued and projects remain on track as set out in the published SOAG minutes.

In March 2022, the Scottish Government also published our National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET ). The work on the SOF aligns with the Skilled Workforce programme in the NSET.

Question reference: S6W-17223

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to the reported decline in the (a) total number of registered businesses and (b) number of growth sector registered businesses in Scotland.

The latest statistics show that despite the challenging economic conditions, the total number of businesses in Scotland rose to 360,910 in 2022, a 5.2 per cent increase on the previous year.

However we know businesses in Scotland are struggling because of Brexit and the UK government’s mismanagement of the economy. That is why the Scottish Government is doing all it can, through our limited levers, to provide immediate support to businesses including the lowest Non-Domestic Rates poundage in the UK.

At the same time, we are delivering our National Strategy for Economic Transformation to achieve our long-term ambitions for a stronger, fairer, and greener economy. The activities we are delivering are supporting businesses, encouraging and cultivating new businesses, and attracting more businesses to Scotland.

We are working closely with delivery partners, businesses, the third sector and trade unions to successfully implement the strategy and transform our economy.

Question reference: S6W-17421

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in developing interventions to address economic inactivity, and what metrics will be used to measure success.

Officials have been working across government portfolios to understand, in detail, the causes and drivers of economic inactivity in Scotland. Addressing the challenges around inactivity are complex and although there have been improvements in the rate in recent months we are focussed on rising to those challenges.

Work is ongoing to embed labour market participation as a key objective within existing policies across health, economy and education. For example we are looking at how our health system and employability services can better support people to stay healthy in work, and move in to good work from inactivity.

The Inactivity rate is measured through National Statistics sources including the Labour Force Survey, published monthly and the more robust Annual Population Survey, published quarterly is one metric which will be used to measure success.

Question reference: S6O-02182

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the development of sustainable aviation fuel in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-16900

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 26 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time employees there are in each (a) cabinet secretary's and (b) minister's private office, broken down by pay scale.

The number of full-time employees and their pay scale for each Cabinet Secretary's office and Minister's private office are as follows.

Minister	C1	B3	B2	B1	A4
Deputy First Minister & Cabinet Secretary for Finance	1	1	1		1
Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care	1	1	2		3
Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills	1		1		1
Cabinet Secretary for Justice & Home Affairs	1		1	1	2
Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work & Energy	1	1		1	2
Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero & Just Transition	1	1	1		2
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice	1		1		2
Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs & Culture	1	1		1	1
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform & Islands	1		1		2
Minister for Drugs & Alcohol Policy			1		1
Minister for Parliamentary Business		1	1	1	1
Minister for Independence			1
Minister for Community Wealth & Public Finance			1		1
Minister for Local Government Empowerment & Planning			1		1
Minister for Culture, Europe & International Development			1		1
Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing & Sport			1		1
Minister for Public Health & Women's Health			1		1
Minister for Equalities, Migration & Refugees			1		1
Minister for Housing			1		1
Minister for Transport			1		2
Minister for Small Business, Innovation & Trade			1		1
Minister for Energy			1		1
Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel & Tenants' Rights		1		1	1
Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy & Biodiversity		1		1	1
Minister for Children, Young People & Keeping the Promise			1		1
Minister for Higher Education & Further Education & Minister for Veterans			1		1
Minister for Victims & Community Safety			1		1

Question reference: S6O-02130

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to increase the rate of business start-ups in Scotland.

Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out how we will establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation, recognised as one of the best countries to start and grow a business.

Since the Strategy’s publication we have announced the appointment of Mark Logan as Chief Entrepreneur, launched our Techscaler network to support the creation of more tech start-ups and published the Pathways Report: A New Approach for Woman in Entrepreneurship to address the barriers woman face in entrepreneurship and business start-up.

Question reference: S6W-16024

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it plans to publish the findings of its consultation on the draft of the new physical intervention in schools guidance.

The Scottish Government held a public consultation on the draft of the new physical intervention in schools guidance in 2022 Physical intervention in schools: draft guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The consultation closed at the end of October. We are carefully considering all responses received and recognise that there are calls for further legislation in this area. A consultation analysis report is currently being prepared for my consideration by education officials.

Alongside the publication of the guidance, and in line with our original commitments, we are exploring options to strengthen the legal framework in this area during the course of this parliamentary term. This includes the option of placing the guidance on a statutory basis.

Question reference: S6W-15932

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Biffa’s contract as the logistics service provider for the Deposit Return Scheme, what (a) type and (b) number of lorries have been negotiated for the scheme’s launch on 16 August 2023, and what its response is to reports that Biffa is (i) buying and (ii) manufacturing new lorries for the implementation of the scheme.

Circularity Scotland, the scheme administrator is a private non-profit company and is responsible for operating the scheme, including its logistics. Questions regarding the detail of their contracts should be directed to them.

The Scottish Government can however confirm that an extensive tender process for a logistics service provider was carried out by Circularity Scotland over a period of around 12 months and was open to businesses of all sizes. The process involved extensive due diligence by Circularity Scotland. BIFFA was awarded that contract in July 2022.

Question reference: S6W-15931

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the potential carbon footprint of the vehicles that will be used in the Deposit Return Scheme, and what it is doing to limit any carbon emissions.

The potential carbon footprint of the vehicles used in Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme was factored into the modelling work carried out during the scheme’s development and the work concluded that scheme will reduce CO2 emissions by 4 million tonnes over 25 years – the equivalent to taking 83,000 cars off the road.

More information is contained in the Strategic Environmental Assessment Addendum published on 22 December 2021, which you can read here .

Question reference: S6O-02078

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the reported second year of consecutive contraction in the number of businesses that are based in Scotland.