Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-14334

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of figures in its publication, Exports Statistics Scotland 2016, whether it will provide an estimated breakdown of the £745 million fall in professional, scientific and technical activities exports to the rest of the UK.

The latest figures show exports of professional, scientific and technical activities to the rest of the UK were down £745 million in 2016 which was a 16 per cent decrease.

Within this sector, the largest decrease was in architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis, down £640 million. Much of this sector are involved in providing support services to the oil and gas industry and this decrease is likely to be related to the downturn in the oil and gas sector.

Question reference: S5W-16787

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made with the feasibility study on introducing a junction improvement on the A84 near Blair Drummond Safari Park.

Transport Scotland has commissioned its operating company BEAR Scotland to undertake a feasibility study and outline design, including indicative costs, for potential improvements to the existing junction between the A84 and A873 junction. The study will examine options for amending the junction, taking into consideration engineering and topographical constraints and traffic counts have already been carried out to inform this work. This data is currently being collated and analysed to allow design solutions to be developed. Subject to the outcome of this initial phase, the report aims to report by the end of Summer 2018.

Question reference: S5W-16722

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when its revised China Engagement Strategy will be published.

Question reference: S5W-16549

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the Scottish GDP per capita has been in each of the last 12 years.

Question reference: S5W-16504

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 22 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many looked-after children in the Mid-Scotland and Fife region have progressed to S (a) 5 and (b) 6 in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many received Education Maintenance Allowance.

We don't hold the requested information on Education Maintenance Allowance. We also do not have figures for looked after children progressing to S5 or S6, but we do have information available for looked after children leaving school.

Table 1 shows the stage of school leavers who were looked after for at least part of the year in Mid-Scotland and Fife region. These figures include children who were looked after for part of the year and for the full year.

Table 2 shows the same figures for Scotland for comparison.

Table 1: Stage of school leavers who were looked after for at least part of the year, Mid-Scotland and Fife region
	Percentage					Number
Student Stage	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
S4 and earlier	47	52	40	49	41	58	51	37	68	57
S5	42	42	41	33	40	52	41	38	46	56
S6	11	6	18	18	19	14	6	17	25	26

Table 2: Stage of school leavers who were looked after for at least part of the year, Scotland
	Percentage					Number
Student Stage	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
S4 and earlier	48	50	49	47	47	416	478	411	397
S5	41	41	37	38	37	355	387	311	317
S6	10	9	15	15	16	88	90	123	125

Further comparison with all children leaving school is available in Table 1 in the Summary Statistics for Attainment, Leaver Destinations and Healthy Living publication, http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/9699/downloads

For Education Maintenance Allowance, we don’t hold the information on which school year the child is in, or if they are looked after.

The data that we hold on Education Maintenance Allowance is published by Local Authority on our website, split by age. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/05/4521

Question reference: S5W-16235

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average annual wage increase and (b) total annual remuneration increase has been for Scottish Enterprise (i) employees and (ii) senior management in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S5W-16345

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures changes to inclusive growth over any given time period.

I direct you to the National Performance Framework (NPF) which can be accessed at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms

The NPF underpins delivery of the Scottish Government’s priorities and monitors the delivery of the Scottish Government’s purpose. It contains several indicators that are important for monitoring progress toward inclusive growth including; reducing the pay gap, reducing the proportion of employees earning less than the Living Wage and reducing the proportion of individuals living in poverty. The NPF is currently under review and once this process is complete a dedicated inclusive growth monitoring framework / indicator dashboard will be developed and aligned to it. This material will be published as part of the Centre for Regional Inclusive Growth.

Question reference: S5W-16348

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines "inclusive growth" for the purposes of its economic strategy.

Question reference: S5W-16347

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) quarterly and (b) annual changes there have been to inclusive growth since this was included as part of its economic strategy.

Similar to question S5W-16345 answered on 21 May 2018, I direct you to the National Performance Framework (NPF) which can be accessed at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms

The NPF underpins delivery of the Scottish Government’s priorities and monitors the delivery of the Scottish Government’s purpose. It contains several indicators that are important for monitoring progress toward inclusive growth including; reducing the pay gap, reducing the proportion of employees earning less than the Living Wage and reducing the proportion of individuals living in poverty. The NPF is currently under review and once this process is complete a dedicated inclusive growth monitoring framework / indicator dashboard will be developed and aligned to it. This material will be published as part of the Centre for Regional Inclusive Growth.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-16236

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 21 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the gender pay gap for Scottish Enterprise (a) employees and (b) senior management has been in each of the last two years.

Chamber and committees