Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-03205

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position on the work of Society Zero, which is a Glasgow-based social enterprise that provides zero waste and plastic-free food, produce and products, and how it supports the establishment of such start-ups.

Question reference: S5W-22322

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent figures for the average Band D Council Tax bill in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.

The most recent information that the Scottish Government has on the average Band D Council Tax bill in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales is as follows:

(a) The Scottish average Band D council tax for 2019-20 is £1,251.

The latest information for the 2019-20 Scottish average Band D council tax is available at the link below:

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Datasets
CouncilTax/BandDCouncilTax1920

(b) The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England in 2019-20 will be £1,750.

The latest available information for the 2019-20 English average Band D council tax bill is available at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data
/file/789613/Council_tax_levels_set_by_local_authorities_in_England_2019-20.pdf

(c) The average Band D council tax for Wales for 2019-20 is £1,591.

The latest available information for the 2019-20 Welsh average Band D council tax bill is available at the link below:

https://gov.wales/council-tax-levels-april-2019-march-2020 .

Question reference: S5W-22324

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent figures for the number of (a) police officers and (b) prison service staff per 100,000 people in (i) Scotland and (ii) England and Wales.

The most recent comparable figures on the number of (a) police officers and (b) prison service staff per 100,000 population for (i) Scotland and (ii) England and Wales are reported as at the 30 September 2018 in the following tables.

Table (a): Number of full time equivalent police officers per 100,000 population, 30 September 2018

Police Force	Total Number of Police Officers	Number of Police Officers per 100,000 population
Scotland 1	17,147	316
England & Wales 1	122,787	209
Source: Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics Scotland, Police workforce England and Wales statistics and Population estimates for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2017.
1. To ensure comparability the figures exclude officers working for the British Transport Police.

Table (b): Number of full time equivalent prison staff per 100,000 population, 30 September 2018

Prison Service	Total Number of Prison Staff	Number of Prison Staff per 100,000 population
Scotland 1	4,261	79
England & Wales 1,2	39,266	67
Source: Scottish Prison Service Quarterly Submission, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics and Population estimates for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2017.
1. Includes staff in both operational and non-operational roles.
2. To ensure comparability with Scotland the figures for England and Wales do not include Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service staff working in Probation related functions.

Question reference: S5W-22325

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent figures for the number of (a) court staff and (b) prosecutors per 100,000 people in (i) Scotland and (ii) England and Wales.

The information requested is available online in the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) report. CEPEJ evaluates every two years the functioning of the judicial systems in 47 Council of Europe's Member States. The latest available information, which is for 2016, can be found on the interactive overview page by selecting 'UK - Scotland' and 'UK - England & Wales'. The relevant questions providing this information are Q52 and Q55.

The overview page can be accessed via this link: https://public.tableau.com/profile/cepej#!/vizhome/CEPEJ-Overviewv3_0/Overview

The full report can be accessed via this link: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cepej/dynamic-database-of-european-judicial-systems

CEPEJ will be collecting 2018 data throughout this year for publication in 2020.

Question reference: S5F-03253

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 April 2019

To ask the First Minister how the new domestic abuse act will help reduce violence against women.

Question reference: S5W-22323

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent figures for spending per person on enterprise and economic development in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.

According to the following table from HM Treasury’s ‘Country and Regional Analysis: 2018’ identifiable public expenditure per person in 2017-18 on enterprise and economic development in Scotland, England and Wales, was as follows.

Spend per person on enterprise and economic development (£ per person, 2017-18)

	Scotland	England	Wales
Enterprise and economic development	£231	£122	£162

Source: HM Treasury, Country and Regional Analyses (CRA), 2017-18

Question reference: S5W-22161

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) current and (b) planned allocations are to support the expansion of funded childcare, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) (A) revenue and (B) capital funding.

Question reference: S5W-22160

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) primary and (b) secondary schools are receiving support through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, broken down by the amount awarded.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge commits £750 million over the course of this parliament to close the poverty related attainment gap. This includes support for the nine Challenge Authorities and a separate Schools Programme which supports 74 schools outside the Challenge Authorities. In addition, in 2019-20, 96% of schools will receive £120 million of Pupil Equity Funding.

A table setting out the primary and secondary schools that are receiving support through the Scottish Attainment Challenge in 2018-19 is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre - BIB reference number 59793. This was previously provided to SPICE in response to question S5W-16907 on 6 June 2018.

The 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 school level allocations of Pupil Equity Funding are now available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/policies/schools/pupil-attainment/ .

Question reference: S5W-22158

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have been (a) built and (b) refurbished in each local authority area in each year since 2007.

Prior to 2009-10 local authorities were not asked to specify whether a school was built
or refurbished and information for 2007-08 and 2008-09 is outlined in table 1. In 2009-10
this information was collected for the first time, however, not all schools were categorised
as being built or refurbished and information for 2009-10 is therefore presented in a
separate table, table 2. Tables 3 and 4 outline the number of schools that were built and
substantially refurbished in each local authority between 2010-11 and 2017-18 respectively.

Table 1: Number of schools which have been built or substantially refurbished 1 in the financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 by local authority
	Built or substantially refurbished 2
	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen City	0	1
Aberdeenshire	4	1
Angus	7	4
Argyll & Bute	9	1
Clackmannanshire	1	2
Dumfries & Galloway	0	4
Dundee City	0	6
East Ayrshire	3	6
East Dunbartonshire	0	1
East Lothian	0	5
East Renfrewshire	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	4	6
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0
Falkirk	0	5
Fife	6	0
Glasgow City	2	9
Highland	4	6
Inverclyde	1	3
Midlothian	8	0
Moray	0	0
North Ayrshire	7	1
North Lanarkshire	9	5
Orkney Islands	0	1
Perth & Kinross	0	2
Renfrewshire	5	5
Scottish Borders	2	3
Shetland Islands	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	8
South Lanarkshire	14	12
Stirling	6	7
West Dunbartonshire	0	0
West Lothian	0	2
Total	93	106
1. Only builds or refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included.
2. Information specifying whether a school was built or refurbished is not available until 2009-10.

Table 2: Number of schools which have been built or substantially refurbished 1 in the financial year 2009-10 by local authority
	Built	Substantially refurbished	Not specified 2
Aberdeen City	6	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0
Angus	2	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	1	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	10	1	0
Dundee City	2	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	6	1	0
East Lothian	0	1	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0
Edinburgh, City of	6	0	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	0
Falkirk	2	2	0
Fife	0	2	0
Glasgow City	4	2	1
Highland	1	6	1
Inverclyde	2	0	0
Midlothian	3	0	0
Moray	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	1	0
Perth & Kinross	6	2	1
Renfrewshire	0	3	0
Scottish Borders	2	1	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	9	4	0
Stirling	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	1	0	2
West Lothian	2	3	1
Total	65	31	7
1. Only builds or refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included.
2. The data collected did not distinguish whether it was a new build or a refurbishment.

Table 3: Number of schools which have been built 1 in the financial years 2010-11 to 2017-18 by local authority
	Built
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Aberdeen City	2	1	0	0	0	1	2	1
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	2
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	1	3	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	3	0	1	1	1	0	0	3
Dundee City	1	1	1	2	0	0	2	2
East Ayrshire	0	0	5	1	0	0	0	3
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	1
East Lothian	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	3	4	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Fife	0	1	1	1	1	0	3	1
Glasgow City	2	2	2	0	1	0	3	5
Highland	0	0	3	0	0	5	2	3
Inverclyde	0	2	0	3	0	0	1	0
Midlothian	0	0	1	1	0	0	2	2
Moray	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1
North Ayrshire	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	3
North Lanarkshire	0	5	4	0	0	1	1	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0
Perth & Kinross	2	1	0	0	1	2	1	3
Renfrewshire	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2
Scottish Borders	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	3
Shetland Islands	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
South Ayrshire	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	1
South Lanarkshire	14	11	11	16	14	4	5	1
Stirling	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0
West Dunbartonshire	3	2	0	1	0	0	3	3
West Lothian	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Total	31	33	39	31	22	19	39	47
1. Only builds with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included.

Table 4: Number of schools which have been substantially refurbished 1 in the financial years 2010-11 to 2017-18 by local authority
	Substantially refurbished
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Aberdeen City	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Aberdeenshire	1	0	0	0	4	3	2	4
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	2	0	3	5	1	2	1	3
Dundee City	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	1
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	2	0	0	2	0	1	2	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	6	4	8	6	2
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	1
Fife	5	1	2	1	0	1	4	2
Glasgow City	1	1	0	2	43	0	27	25
Highland	0	0	1	2	2	0	3	1
Inverclyde	0	1	3	2	0	2	1	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	2
North Ayrshire	3	2	0	2	0	1	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	4	0	0	1	1	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Perth & Kinross	0	0	1	3	1	0	1	0
Renfrewshire	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	2
Scottish Borders	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0
South Ayrshire	1	1	0	3	2	0	0	4
South Lanarkshire	1	0	1	0	0	1	2	0
Stirling	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
West Lothian	3	3	0	0	0	0	2	0
Total	24	13	21	32	59	25	61	49
1. Only refurbishments with a cost of £500,000 or more for primary and £1 million or more for secondary and special schools are included.

Question reference: S5W-22162

Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce the factors that impact on child poverty.

The Scottish Government has committed a range of concrete and ambitious actions through ' Every Child, Every Chance ', the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan due under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act, to tackle and reduce levels of child poverty in Scotland.

Backed by a multimillion pound package of investment, including a £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund, the Plan commits to key actions including: investing £12 million in intensive employment support for parents, helping them to work and earn more; establishing a £7.5 million Innovation Fund in partnership with the Hunter Foundation to support innovative solutions to tackle poverty; a new increased minimum School Clothing Grant entitlement of £100, benefiting up to 120,000 children each year; and £3.3 million investment in the new Financial Health Check service, supporting an estimated 15,000 families each year to maximise their incomes and get the best deals for essential goods and services.

A full update on delivery of all the actions committed will be outlined within the first progress report which will be published by the end of June 2019.

Chamber and committees