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: S5W-21824

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5F-03084 by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 February 2019 (Official Report, c. 22), whether it will confirm what new business contracts and investment were agreed during the First Minister's visits.

North America is one of Scotland’s most important markets with 550 US-owned enterprises employing more than 106,000 people and 40 Canadian-owned firms employing nearly 4,000 people.

In the face of Brexit, with Scotland being taken out of the Single Market and Customs Union, it has never been more important to promote Scotland as an open and welcoming investment location, and to reassure those companies with existing interests in Scotland of our commitment to continuing those economic partnerships.

During the First Minister’s visit to North America in February 2019, she engaged with more than 50 senior representatives from companies and organisations in order to promote and encourage existing and future business links with Scotland. These included existing investors with employment in Scotland – Leidos (326 staff), Marriott International (1500) and Morgan Stanley (1550). The First Minister also met senior representatives from Standard Life Aberdeen, J P Morgan Chase, Baker Hughes and Rockstar Games at an investor lunch hosted by IBM. These meetings demonstrated a continued presence and support for Scotland during uncertain times and provided vitally important opportunities to work together on future partnerships. The First Minister also met Verdant Power, a wave and tidal power company with existing links to EMEC.

In New York, the First Minister announced Scotland’s successful bid to host the 2022 FDI World Forum which will attract 400-500 delegates to Scotland.

In Canada the First Minister met with the Toronto Regional Board of Trade, which represents 250,000 business professionals and influencers in the Toronto area. The First Minister also witnessed the signing of a 3-year Social Licence Agreement between Scotland’s Social Enterprise Academy and Canadian Community Economic Development Network.

£6.1 billion of Scottish goods and services exported to the North American market in 2017 and the US is Scotland's largest export destination country. The visit also provided the opportunity for the First Minister to further promote Scotch whisky, gin, seafood and dairy produce to this important market at a food & drink showcase event in Ottawa.

The First Minister's promotion of Scotland and influence on specific opportunities is crucial to furthering business links with North America in order to encourage new investment and export opportunities which are critical to economic growth.

Question reference: S5W-22125

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to encourage more business engagement in schools.

Through Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), Scotland’s youth employment strategy, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that meaningful and productive school-employer partnerships are operating in all secondary schools.

We have established 21 DYW regional employer groups across the country, whose focus is on building sustainable school industry partnerships to provide a high standard of work inspiration, work placements, recruitment, equalities and most importantly sustained engagement and input into the school curriculum. These groups provide leadership, a single point of contact and support to facilitate engagement between employers and education.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland have developed an education-employer partnership framework to support planning and measuring progress. There is also a range of guidance available including the Work Placement Standard and Career Education Standard ( https://education.gov.scot/what-we-do/Developing%20employability%20and%20skills ). We are continuing to work to highlight all available guidance and ensure resources are being fully utilised.

Question reference: S5W-22120

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a requirement for road users to stop and report a collision with a domestic cat.

Question reference: S5W-21893

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by origin of inward investment into Scotland, including from the rest of the UK, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5O-02979

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that there are no barriers to businesses accessing broadband.

Question reference: S5W-21749

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21724 by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2019, how many people will be employed at the Paris hub, and whether it is located in the British consulate building on rue d'Anjou.

Question reference: S5O-02965

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the feasibility study on junction improvements on the A84 near Blair Drummond Safari Park will be completed.

Question reference: S5W-21530

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 22 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many large housing development sites with outline planning permission there are in each local authority area, broken down by the number of houses.

Question reference: S5W-21531

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 22 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the build-out rate for large housing development sites in each local authority area.

Question reference: S5W-21176

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 6 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in research and development as a proportion of GDP in each of the last five years.

The following table shows Scottish Government net expenditure on research and development over the last five years for which data are available. Note that the following figures exclude Scottish Funding Council grants to universities for research and development, which are administered on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government net Expenditure on Research & Development, 2012 to 2016

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Expenditure (£ millions)	163	164	164	164	165
Expenditure (% of GDP)	0.12	0.12	0.11	0.11	0.11

Sources:

UK Government Expenditure on Science, Engineering and Technology, Office for National Statistics (for R&D expenditure)

GDP Quarterly National Accounts, Scotland 2018 Quarter 3 (for Scottish GDP)

Notes:

1. Expenditure figures are in current prices.