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: S5O-03453

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how the finance secretary determined the budget allocation for its proposed publicly-owned energy company.

Question reference: S5W-23746

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500 million Scottish Growth Scheme has been allocated to Scottish companies, broken down by year.

Question reference: S5O-03420

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to NHS Forth Valley to reduce waiting times for chronic pain treatment.

Question reference: S5W-23323

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 6 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to jobseekers with sight loss.

The Scottish Government’s ambition is to reduce the disability employment gap by at least half, and we have set out our initial actions to achieve this through a ‘Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan’. This plan committed us to deliver a new specialist employability service that will be targeted at those who require more specialist support such as those with sensory impairments.

Support for those with sight loss who are seeking work is also available through our devolved employment service, Fair Start Scotland, which will see investment of up to £96 million to support unemployed people back into work.

Furthermore, last year, the Scottish Government’s Workplace Equality Fund has supported RNIB Scotland to work in collaboration with the Marriott Hotel Glasgow to reduce inequality where workers with visual impairment leave employment at the point of diagnosis or deterioration in their vision. The resource pack that has been published will allow employers to access the right information and are enabled to draw on the right support if one of their employees develops a sight impairment.

Question reference: S5W-23255

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to establish or support an agency to promote E-commerce.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to establish an Agency to promote Ecommerce.

However, we recognise that e-commerce is an area of opportunity for businesses across Scotland and officials are working closely with a number of organisations keen to set up an Institute of Ecommerce in Scotland.

We believe that the best way to support businesses to exploit the substantial opportunities of e-commerce is to continue working through our existing agencies and programmes, where a more holistic span of resource, expertise and support can be provided across all parts of Scotland.

An example is the Government funded DigitalBoost programme, delivered by Business Gateway in the local authorities across Scotland. The programme’s enhances the digital skills of SMEs that cannot afford to pay for the help they need. The programme scope includes e-commerce but also covers wider Digital Marketing and Cyber Resilience topics.

Elsewhere, the Scottish Enterprise Digital Transformation Team work with high growth businesses on key strategic areas of digital activity which help companies to implement international e-commerce strategies and has assisted over 600 companies this past year. Scottish Development International has also created a dedicated team focused on the international opportunities presented by e-commerce. They have developed a range of international e-commerce workshops on a range of subjects, to support businesses to start exporting.

Question reference: S5W-23061

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hectares of trees were planted in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018 in respect of its 2017 commitment to raise tree-planting rates over time from 10,000 to 15,000 hectares a year by 2025.

Question reference: S5W-23145

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what specific targets it has set regarding the updated National Performance Framework.

Question reference: S5W-23144

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many of (a) its and (b) its agencies' staff are working on the establishment of the Scottish National Investment Bank, also broken down by total staff cost.

Question reference: S5W-22970

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many contractors have been employed to implement social security benefits in each year, also broken down by department and how much this has cost.

The Social Security Directorate contracts temporary staff through the Scottish Government Interim Managers Framework as well as procuring contracts for the supply of technical posts. The Scottish Government is not the employer of these individuals, they are employed by their respective Agency. All of the costs highlighted are attributed to the Directorate, which is one department for Scottish Government financial reporting purposes.

	FTE	Total
17-18	27	£ 1,666,796
18-19	118	£ 14,593,386

Question reference: S5O-03272

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase access to funding for apprenticeships in the construction sector.

Year	Invested	No.of Companies
2017	£22.7 m	24
2018	£83.5 m	58
2019	£19.1 m	76
Total	£125.3 m	158