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-01817

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Scotland’s productivity has dropped to its lowest level in more than eight years.

Question reference: S5W-14432

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many official trips the First Minister made in each year to (a) the EU institutions, (b) EU member states and (c) other European countries between May 2011 and September 2014.

Question reference: S5W-14434

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many official trips the First Minister has made each year to (a) the EU institutions, (b) EU member states and (c) other European countries since September 2014.

The First Minister's official travel is routinely published on the Scottish Government website.

September 2014 - April 2016 can be found here: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20170401123948/http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/travel/visitsoverseas

May 2016 onwards can be found here: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/?term=Ministerial%20engagements&publicationTypes=transparency_data

Question reference: S5W-13998

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many secondary school teaching positions have been vacant for more than two months in each of the last three years.

Information on the number of teaching vacancies was collected in 2016 and 2017 as part of the teacher workforce planning process. The September 2016 collection showed that there were 75 secondary posts vacant for more than three months.

An improved survey methodology was used in 2017 which means that the figures for 2016 and 2017 cannot be directly compared. The new method found that 229 secondary posts were vacant for more than three months in September 2017

This information is published on the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Teaching/Staffing/TWPAG/KeyFactsandFigures

Question reference: S5W-14059

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress that is being made in appointing a new chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, and by what date the new chief executive will (a) be announced and (b) take up the role.

Question reference: S5O-01778

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-14029

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 31 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13738 by Derek Mackay on 18 January 2018, how much tax revenue will be generated by the large business rates supplement in 2018-19, broken down by business sector.

Non- domestic (business) rates data is not held by business sector. Data on estimated net liability by property type for 2018-19 is shown in the following table.

Large Business Supplement income estimates for 2018-19 by property type.

Property Type	Net LBS income £ million
Advertising	0.1
Care Facilities	0.3
Communications	0.6
Cultural	0.2
Education and Training	9.7
Garages and Petrol Stations	1.1
Health and Medical	4.2
Hotels	5.7
Industrial Subjects	21.6
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.	2.5
Offices	16.3
Other	2.2
Petrochemical	3.2
Public Houses	1.7
Public Service Subjects	6.1
Quarries, Mines, etc.	0.3
Religious	0.1
Shops	28.0
Sporting Subjects	0.3
Statutory Undertaking (utility)	23.7
ALL	127.8

Question reference: S5W-13997

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 30 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the impact of staff shortages on secondary school pupils' attainment.

We remain committed to maintaining teacher numbers nationally, and ensuring that we have the right number of teachers, with the right skills, in the right places, to educate our young people. The Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland published on 12 December 2017 shows that there are 543 more full-time equivalent teachers than last year, increasing from 50,970 in 2016 to 51,513 in 2017. This is the second year in a row that we have seen teacher numbers increase.

The latest exam results demonstrated real strength in our education system, with more than 150,000 Higher passes and nearly 60,000 skills-based awards and achievements. This shows Curriculum for Excellence is successfully meeting the needs of young people and giving them the best chance of success in further learning, life and work.

Question reference: S5W-13999

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many secondary school pupils in each local authority area have been taught in composite classes in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-13963

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 25 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances it would be no longer obliged to repay the full amount of financial transactions funding to the Treasury.

The Statement of Funding Policy sets out the arrangements between Devolved Administrations and HM Treasury for managing financial transactions capital. As part of compliance with this, the Scottish Government agrees an annual repayment profile with HM Treasury. Any arrangement to repay less than the full value of financial transactions requires agreement with HM Treasury to be obtained. Our current repayment profile incorporates the condition of 60% repayment by 2019-20 that was attached to the first tranche of financial transactions and from the financial year 2020-21 onwards we anticipate a repayment rate of 80% which reflects known and anticipated repayments. We have agreed with HM Treasury that repayments over 80% can be recycled to fund further FT projects.