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-09719

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Deposit Return Scheme, whether it has made an assessment of what effect Circularity Scotland’s reported decision to charge a higher producer fee to producers that do not adopt its new labelling requirements will have on food and drink businesses that operate in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-09716

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 29 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it consulted business representatives regarding the effect of the Deposit Return Scheme on any labelling requirements for businesses, and any associated costs to businesses of complying with new labelling standards.

The Regulations underpinning Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) do not mandate specific labelling requirements, but rather give producers and the scheme administrator the flexibility to decide on their preferred approach. We decided to take this approach following consultation with businesses during the development of the Regulations. You can read a summary of the consultation responses in paragraphs 160 – 162 of the Final Business and Regulator Impact Assessment (BRIA), published on 22 December 2021.

As independent Scheme Administrator established by businesses, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) has developed its own labelling requirements for those businesses who wish to have CSL administer their obligations relating to DRS.

Question reference: S6W-09566

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to a civil service headcount reduction.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its workforce numbers to ensure affordability, and that the organisation is delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible. This ongoing monitoring of our workforce makes sure that as much money as possible is directed onto the delivery of the policy priorities of the Government and improving the lives of the people of Scotland.

We are committed to contributing to achieving the broad aim set out in the Resource Spending Review, to return the total size of the devolved public sector workforce to around pre-COVID-19 levels by 2026-27.

Our absolute priority is achieving this through effective vacancy and recruitment management, working in partnership with the Council of Scottish Government Unions.

Whilst we consider the longer term workforce requirements, and the impact of the Resource Spending Review on our workforce size and cost for the future, we have enhanced recruitment controls in place which focus any recruitment on the most critical delivery priorities, building capability and making the organisation more diverse.

Question reference: S6W-09565

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has requested that work be undertaken to research an 8,000 headcount reduction in the Scottish civil service.

The Scottish Government has not been requested to research an 8,000 headcount reduction in the Scottish civil service.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its workforce numbers to ensure affordability, and that the organisation is delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The UK Government has not provided details on how their plans to reduce the number of civil servants by 91,000 will affect their staff working in Scotland. There are around 24,800 [1] Civil Servants who are part of the reserved Public Sector in Scotland.

The UK Government plans do not have a direct impact on civil servants who serve the Scottish Government, as the responsibility lies with Scottish Ministers and the Permanent Secretary when it comes to determining our workforce size.

[1] Source: Public Sector Employment In Scotland Statistics For 1st Quarter 2022 .

Question reference: S6W-09564

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has done on whether the Scotland Reserve's £700 million cap will be breached in the next five years.

The Scotland Reserve provides the Scottish Government with a limited facility to manage the smoothing of all types of spending, assist the management of tax volatility and manage the timing of expenditure between financial years. As the cap is not index linked it has remained at £700m since it was implemented in 2017. In real terms it becomes proportionately smaller each year.

Under the terms of the Fiscal Framework the Scottish Government is unable to overspend its budget in a financial year. It must therefore achieve a net underspend each year and these amounts are carried forward within the Scotland Reserve to be utilised in future years.

The balance within the Scotland Reserve following the 2021-22 Provisional Outturn exercise was £650 million . This amount, subject to any adjustments as part of the Final Outturn process, will be drawn down in full to support 2022-23 spending plans as outlined in the Budget. This means the Scotland Reserve balance will be reduced to nil, allowing for an underspend of up to £700m in 2022-23 to be recorded without breaching the Reserve.

Later in the financial year 2022-23 there will be greater certainty around the funding position and spending levels. Financial management will focus on ensuring the Scottish Government achieves a balanced budget without breaching the Scotland Reserve cap. This will take the following into account:

Ensuring sufficient headroom is included in the Scotland Reserve for a net underspend still to be achieved following post year-end accounting and audit adjustments
‎
Including any targeted carry forward balances to support future financial years. In the recently published Medium Term Financial Strategy there is an assumption of £279 million of funding from the Scotland Reserve being used to support 2023-24 which would be factored into the Scotland Reserve workings. This figure is subject to change as part of the 2023-24 budget as well as any in-year revisions as circumstances change.

This process will then be replicated in financial year 2023-24 with a full draw down of any carry forward amounts in the Scotland Reserve.

Question reference: S6O-01254

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the review by the Police Service of Northern Ireland into findings by a tribunal of a "sexist culture" in Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-08765

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 10 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether ATMs at retailers’ premises will be exempted from non-domestic rates; how many ATMs will be affected by their removal from the valuation roll, and whether it will consider backdating refunds, in a similar way to that in Wales and England when ATMs were removed from the valuation roll.

The valuation of all non-domestic property, including sites of ATMs, is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.

We are aware that Assessors have been considering the valuation of ATM sites and recently concluded that in most retail premises it is likely that such sites will be deleted from the Valuation Roll. Assessors are now commencing the process of identifying the ATM sites this will apply to.

Where a property is removed from the Valuation Roll, the ratepayer will be entitled to a refund of any overpaid rates back to the effective date of deletion.

Question reference: S6W-08698

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to evaluate rates and thresholds within the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S6O-01179

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6T-00722

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its reaction is to the reported awarding of almost £1 million compensation from Police Scotland to an ex-officer following an employment tribunal ruling of victimisation.