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-07228

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02382 by Keith Brown on 21 September 2016, whether it will provide an update on how much of the funding will be in the form of (a) loans and (b) guarantees, and by what date the funds will be available.

As previously advised, support under the Scottish Growth Scheme is expected to be largely in the form of guarantees to new and early-stage high growth potential companies, but if appropriate, loans may be offered; the use of loans will be dependent on the nature of the proposals that come forward, recognising that the scheme will be demand-led, and that appropriate due diligence will be applied to applications for support that come forward. It would be inappropriate to speculate on this aspect until the operational delivery is finalised. Work is progressing for the introduction of the Scottish Growth Scheme over the coming months.

Question reference: S5W-07790

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the annual default rate is of businesses receiving a loan or guarantee under the Scottish Growth Scheme, and how much it expects it will pay out each year because of defaults.

Question reference: S5W-07820

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many accidental house fires there have been in each of the last five years in the Mid Scotland and Fife region; how many were caused by electricity, and what steps it is taking to reduce the number of such fires.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) publishes statistics on accidental dwelling fires, broken down by local authority, however this data is not broken down into specific causes.

These statistics are available on SFRS’s website, and can be found at this link http://www.firescotland.gov.uk/about-us/fire-and-rescue-statistics.aspx

The SFRS has a statutory duty to promote fire safety across Scotland. In the Fire and Rescue Framework for Scotland 2016, Scottish Ministers require SFRS to contribute fully to improving the safety and well-being of Scotland’s communities and to ensure that there is a clear process for working with partners to identify the risks faced by communities and individuals so that activity can be targeted using a risk-based approach.

The SFRS considers how best to reduce dwelling fires, including those caused by electricity, what the focus of its preventative action will be, and with which partner organisations it will work to achieve this.

In addition to a programme of fire safety awareness campaigns and community safety engagement events, the SFRS carried out 71,743 Home Fire Safety Visits in 2015-16. The SFRS website also carries safety information for householders on a range of issues, including home appliances and electrical safety.

Question reference: S5W-07555

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it will finance the (a) loans, (b) guarantees, (c) disbursements and (d) other forms of investment arising from the Scottish Growth Scheme; what provisions it has made in the 2017-18 budget to pay for this; how much will be drawn from the enterprise budget towards it, and which of its agencies will oversee the management of the payments.

Question reference: S5W-07562

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it received the draft commercial property values from the assessors.

Question reference: S5W-07561

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been generated from business rates in each of the last 10 years.

The following table sets out the non-domestic rates income collected by local authorities in each of the last 10 years.

(£ million)

2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
£1,933m	£1,928m	£1,924m	£2,010m	£2,138m	£2,251m	£2,347m	£2,367m	£2,511m	£2,579m

More details can be found at - http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/02/1688

Question reference: S5W-06895

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the reasons that it revised its financial projections for 2017-18 from those set out in the Draft Budget, and on what date the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Constitution was advised of the revision.

At Stage 2 of the Budget Bill, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution provided a provisional breakdown of the changes to the fiscal position between the Draft Budget and the Budget Bill. While the precise mix of funding will continue to evolve as the end of the financial year approaches, at Stage 2 of the Budget Bill , The Cabinet Secretary indicated that the breakdown was estimated to be £29 million from the decision to freeze the higher-rate threshold of income tax in cash terms, £6 million from updated forecasts of the anticipated cost of borrowing repayments, £60 million from updated projections of the required Scottish Government contribution to bring the non-domestic rate pool into balance and £125 million through the use of the budget exchange mechanism. Further information has subsequently been provided to the Finance Committee.

The Scottish Government will provide final details to Parliament on the precise balance of funding in the June provisional outturn statement in the normal way. The financial position of the Scottish Government is constantly monitored and changes on a day to day basis. The commitments made at Stage 1 Budget Bill reflected the financial projections available at the time.

Question reference: S5W-06898

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06256 by Derek Mackay on 31 January 2017, how much tax revenue it expects will be generated from whisky distilleries by the large business supplement in 2017-18.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05856 on 12 January 2017, which includes a breakdown by property classification (shops, hotels etc). The associated data provided by local authorities and Assessors to the Scottish Government is not broken down by “business sector”. 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-07229

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government from which part of its budget will funding for the Scottish Growth Scheme be allocated.

When an individual guarantee is put in place there is no immediate cash impact on budgets. This would only arise in the event of a default and any such costs would be met from the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work capital budget or the Scottish Reserve. It is intended that any loans that flow through the Scheme will be funded from the portfolio Financial Transactions budget. The Scheme’s administration costs will be met by programme funding but in doing so there is an expectation that this will be largely offset by arrangement fees. The final funding position will be set out in the conclusion of the work on the delivery of the scheme.

Question reference: S5O-00692

Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with the Scottish Growth Scheme.