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-15327

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 29 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Scottish National Investment Bank Implementation Plan, whether the Scottish Growth Scheme will continue to be operated by Scottish Enterprise, or whether it will be operated by the Scottish National Investment Bank.

The Scottish Growth Scheme is currently delivered by Scottish Government although some elements can be led by Scottish Enterprise e.g. equity investment.

The Scottish National Investment Bank Implementation Plan recommends that to build on the success and skills within current operations the financing activities carried out by the Scottish Government and its agencies come under the Bank’s remit. Ministers will give consideration to the Implementation Plan recommendations over the coming weeks.

Question reference: S5W-15336

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 29 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the (a) Building Scotland Fund and (b) Scottish National Investment Bank will be funded each year via financial transactions.

The Scottish Government is making use of available Financial Transactions for the initial capitalisation of the Bank and for the Building Scotland Fund. As set out in the Draft Budget 2018-19 financial transactions will be used to support the Building Scotland Fund over the period 2018-19 to 2020-21, with £70m allocated in 2018-19. A further £340m will be made available to capitalise the Bank over the period 2019-2021. Ministers will give further consideration to the Implementation Plan recommendations for capitalisation of the bank in the next stage of planning.

Question reference: S5W-15325

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much assistance has been provided each year by the Scottish Growth Scheme, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S5W-15284

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 28 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to grassroots-level basketball.

The Scottish Government supports grassroots basketball through the national agency for sport, Sport Scotland.

Sport Scotland investment in Basketball Scotland (the Scottish Governing Body for basketball) for 2017-18 is £707,900, with up to £448,900 of this supporting grassroots basketball.

Sport Scotland provide a range of additional support to grassroots basketball beyond the investment in Basketball Scotland. This includes but is not limited to:

Direct Club Investment: Since the introduction of this funding stream in 2013-14, 11 basketball clubs have benefitted from direct multi-year awards (2-4 years) with a total value of up to £377,895 giving the clubs time to embed significant developmental change, including growing participation and membership
UKCC:sport scotland supports basketball coaches and volunteers to become qualified by subsidising their UKCC coaching qualifications. In the current financial year, sport scotland has provided over £10,000 of individual subsidies for basketball coaching qualifications.
Active Schools: There were over 450,000 visits (462,585 participant sessions) to Active Schools basketball sessions in the last academic year, an increase of 3.9% on the previous year and over 15% since 2013/14, making basketball one of the most popular sports in the programme.
Facilities: Grassroots basketball benefits from investment into new and improved sports halls through the sport scotland Sports Facilities Fund, including both community facilities and regional sports centres. [NB: Due to the multi-use nature of indoor sports halls it is not possible to provide a figure for investment in basketball facilities.]

Question reference: S5W-14844

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been employed by Scottish Development International in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5O-01940

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an updated estimate of how much it will cost to implement and administer the new tax bands introduced in its Budget.

Question reference: S5W-15252

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the change in its Budget linking annual increases in poundage to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI) is permanent or applies to 2018-19 only.

Question reference: S5W-14841

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the value of exports to (a) India, (b) Japan and (c) the United States has been in each year since 2013.

The Scottish Government produces a National Statistics publication, Export Statistics Scotland, which estimates the nominal value of Scottish exports (excluding oil and gas).

The value of exports for the requested countries are shown in the following table:

Table: Total International Exports, 2013-2016, (£ million)

	2013	2014	2015	2016
India	185	215	215	235
Japan	365	405	415	460
USA	4,505	4,500	4,460	4,775

Figures rounded to the nearest 5.

Statistics on the value of international exports by destination country are published in Table 10 of Export Statistics Scotland tables on the Scottish Government website here:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/Exports/ESSPublication/ESSExcel

Question reference: S5W-14837

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been part of the Global Scots Network in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-14836

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the purpose was of the £15 million loan that it recently provided to Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab), and how much of it will be paid back.