- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the operation of the short-term lets licensing legislation, in light of reports that, despite a growing black market in short-term lets, no breaches of the legislation have been recorded by the police.
Answer
The Scottish Government has worked closely with Police Scotland during legislation development and implementation. It is important to remember that we are still within the transitional period of implementation and licensing authorities are processing thousands of licensing applications. We are aware authorities are working in partnership with local Police Scotland teams to investigate complaints about unlicensed operators, adopting an educate and encourage approach, with enforcement as a last resort. This is a supportive approach to businesses in a new regulatory environment and an approach advocated for by trade bodies representing the sector.
Operating without a licence ultimately is a criminal offence, which may attract a maximum fine of £2,500, and which may also invalidate insurance and other policies if premises are used without a licence. We have already announced that we will legislate to increase the level of the maximum fine and this is still the intention once the scheme is embedded.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the current size of Scotland's civil service in terms of full-time equivalent staff count, and whether it expect this number to increase over the next two financial years.
Answer
At the end of December 2023, the Scottish Government directly employed 8,824 (full time equivalent) civil servants and engaged 1,436 contingent workers.
The latest available workforce statistics are at this link: Scottish Government workforce statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This will be updated with end March 2024 data on Tuesday 11 June 2024.
The Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to reduce in size to remain fiscally sustainable and has been on a reducing trajectory since March 2022. We continue to progress public sector reform, and workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure that we are delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with (a) Kidzcare, (b) the City of Edinburgh Council and (c) Education Scotland regarding the reported closure of Haystax Nursery in Niddrie, and what support it can offer to ensure that the nursery remains open for parents, families and staff.
Answer
All three and four year olds, as well as eligible two year olds, have a statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours per year of funded ELC. Local authorities have a duty to make this available to all eligible children within their area, which is delivered across over 2500 centres in Scotland (excluding childminders). Ministers and senior Scottish Government officials regularly engage with CoSLA around issues relating to the implementation of 1140 policy. I would encourage parents to raise any concerns they have about the closure of Haystax Nursery directly with the relevant local authority, in this case City of Edinburgh Council.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is still committed to its policy to promote the translocation of beavers outside of their current range, to reduce or avoid negative impacts and help reintroduce beavers to appropriate areas of the country.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the range of beavers in Scotland to maximise the environmental, social and economic benefits that they can bring in consultation with local communities and land managers.
We appreciate that beavers can have negative impacts on agricultural land in certain circumstances. NatureScot have a range of mitigation measures that can reduce impacts and licensed control or translocation remains an option where there are no other satisfactory alternatives.
NatureScot will continue to work through the licensing process to ensure that beavers are reintroduced into appropriate areas where they can help enhance biodiversity and wider environmental gains and avoid potential negative impacts.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to NatureScot's reported view that the community engagement process carried out by Trees for Life and Forestry Land Scotland regarding the Glen Affric beaver translocation proposal was above and beyond what is required.
Answer
The Scottish Government are aware there has been significant and extended community engagement regarding the Glen Affric beaver translocation proposal, but as NatureScot have not received an application, they have not yet been able to form an opinion of the community engagement in its entirety.
As with all beaver translocation applications, the Scottish Government and NatureScot would expect an application to address the issues highlighted by the community engagement and the work needed to manage or mitigate any legitimate concerns raised.
We understand Trees for Life and Forestry Land Scotland are still considering these aspects.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any impact of its Infrastructure Investment Plan on it meeting its climate ambitions.
Answer
On 17 January, the Scottish Government published a carbon assessment of the Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26, drawing on a range of evidence, including results from a taxonomy assessment. Through this assessment, there is clear and consistent evidence that supports the assessment that the Infrastructure Investment Plan contributes positively to the achievement of Scotland’s emissions reduction targets. This assessment can be found here: Infrastructure investment plan 2021-2022 to 2025-2026: carbon assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
The publication of the Infrastructure Investment Plan Annual Report and Pipeline Reset has had to be postponed due to the timing of the UK General Election. Scottish Ministers will now consider a revised publication date, and will inform Parliament in due course. The outcomes of the carbon assessment published in January 2024 will be reviewed in conjunction with these publications.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many nurseries have closed since 2016, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold specific data on the number of nursery closures by local authority area. However, the Care Inspectorate publishes data each year in the Early Learning and Childcare Statistics publication that sets out changes across different types of childcare settings at a national level. This shows an increase in the number of nurseries from 2,468 in 2016 to 2,538 in 2022 (a 3% increase). This figure will be affected by both closures and openings of new settings.
Source: Care Inspectorate, Early Learning and Childcare Statistics 2016.pdf (careinspectorate.com) and Early learning and childcare statistics 2022.pdf (careinspectorate.com) .
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what early warning systems are in place to identify any nurseries that are at risk of closure due to financial difficulties or staffing shortages.
Answer
Under Funding Follows the Child, all nurseries who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC) must, as part of the criteria in the National Standard for all ELC providers Section 2: The National Standard for all Early Learning and Childcare Providers - Funding Follows The Child and The National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: Operating Guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , be able to demonstrate that they are financially viable providers and that they have a sustainable staffing structure in place which meets the recommended adult: child ratios.
Local authorities are responsible for assessing and monitoring compliance with the National Standard in all funded providers, as part of their contract management arrangements and in their role as guarantors of quality. With regards to business sustainability, services delivering funded ELC must ensure that they are able to demonstrate – when required – that their business model continues to be financially viable through the provision of appropriate financial information, for example, accounts and business forecasts/projections. A Business Continuity Plan must also be in place.
If a service delivering funded ELC was at risk of closure due to financial difficulties or staffing shortages then it is expected that they would make their local authority aware of these challenges.
The Scottish Government monitors trends in sustainability and staffing across the overall childcare sector, including through the Financial Sustainability Health Checks. Analysis in the most recent Financial Sustainability Health Check: Financial Sustainability Health Check of the Childcare Sector in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) published on 31 July 2023, reported that annual cancellation rates for private and third sector services over the period March 2020 to March 2023 were at similar levels to previous years.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27515 by Ivan McKee on 23 May 2024, whether it will provide a breakdown of the work undertaken by the consultancies that were awarded funding in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answer
Following on from the answer to S6W-27515 where a list of 132 Scottish Government consultancy suppliers total annual spend was provided. Due to the high volume of transactional data that provides the breakdown of this spend (1,199 in total) and the work that would need to be carried out to provide the line level detail would be a substantial piece of work. To help to provide additional information to support the ask, a further breakdown on the top 10 suppliers has been provided which includes the number of annual transactions again for FY22-23. This captures approximately 83% of the total annual spend.
Supplier Name | Sum of Aggregate Spend | Transactions |
Deloitte LLP | £8,298,702.55 | 44 |
SAC Commercial Ltd | £4,571,346.65 | 79 |
Ernst & Young LLP | £3,917,671.36 | 68 |
Ricardo-AEA Limited | £1,585,598.88 | 62 |
Taleos Consulting Limited | £1,305,222.50 | 12 |
James Harvard Limited | £558,950.00 | 52 |
This is Milk Limited | £518,035.00 | 33 |
Palladium International Limited | £517,364.31 | 6 |
Sniffer | £341,667.00 | 15 |
Civil Service Learning (CSL) - KPMG LLP | £278,150.73 | 23 |
| £21,892,708.98 | |
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much support has been provided through the Energy Transition Fund in each of the years in which the fund has operated, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) fund recipients and (b) amounts awarded in each case.
Answer
The Energy Transition Fund was launched in 2020 and provides support for four major projects based in the Aberdeen City region. The following table sets out funding awarded to date, broken down by project and financial year.
| Funding awarded (£million) | |
Project Name | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Total to date | Allocated 2024-25 |
Energy Transition Zone | 0.05 | 2.38 | 9 | 5.541 | 16.971 | 2.505 |
Global Underwater Hub | 0 | 1.823 | 1.811 | 0.768 | 4.402 | 1.178 |
Net Zero Technology Transition Programme | 0 | 1.597 | 6.574 | 6.157 | 14.328 | 2.094 |
Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub | 4.5 | 0 | 1.35 | 4.37 | 10.22 | 3.8 |
Total per year | 4.55 | 5.8 | 18.735 | 16.836 | 45.921 | 9.577 |
The Scottish Government also provides planning for and support to the energy transition through a range of other vehicles. These include the Just Transition Fund, Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and the development of a Just Transition Plan for the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster which will be published shortly.