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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: S6W-11226

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to date to support Arjowiggins and the reported 360 affected jobs in Aberdeen.

The Scottish Government is doing everything in our power to help those affected through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). A PACE Partner event took place on 29 th September 2022, which was attended by around 150 individuals, followed by a Jobs Fair on 10 th October which was attended by around 500 individuals. We are continuing to provide any further PACE support that may be required by the affected employees.

Scottish Enterprise has worked with Arjowiggins for many years, providing grant support as well as expert advice. In 2019, when Stoneywood Mill was a solvent part of the overall group that was in administration, a concerted effort by the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise was made to secure the company’s future and protect the jobs of its employees. Since then Scottish Enterprise has provided advice, further loan funding and assistance in leveraging private sector investment. Arjowiggins has received Scottish Enterprise loans totalling £12m, equity investment of £100,000 and grant funding totalling £141,000. Most recently, Scottish Enterprise assisted with detailed options analysis and the pursuit of a buyer for the business. Scottish Enterprise continues to work with the joint administrators to explore all possible options.

Question reference: S6W-11225

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when Scottish Enterprise was first made aware of problems at Arjowiggins.

Scottish Enterprise has worked closely with Arjowiggins and its partners since the successful management buyout in 2019. Scottish Enterprise were aware of the challenging trading conditions faced by the company since 2020, which included the negative impact of the pandemic and more recently the significant increases in energy costs and the price of raw materials.

Most recently, Scottish Enterprise helped with detailed options analysis and the pursuit of a buyer for the business, and an initial non-binding offer was received for Arjowiggins in 2022. Scottish Enterprise were advised on 20 th September 2022 that the preferred bidder had decided not to proceed with the acquisition citing the risks associated with the current economic environment, which resulted in the company entering into administration on 22 nd September 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11227

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 24 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what options ministers considered for supporting Arjowiggins and the reported 360 affected jobs in Aberdeen.

The Scottish Government, through Scottish Enterprise, had been working extensively with Arjowiggins and its partners to explore all possible options to support the business, including the pursuit of a buyer for the business. Scottish Enterprise continues to work with the administrators and partners to understand the potential options for the business going forward and explore all possibilities to rescue the jobs.

The Scottish Government will continue to help those affected through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE).

Question reference: S6F-01395

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022

To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Government will make available to the reported 372 members of staff affected by the Arjowigiins papermill at Stoneywood in Aberdeen entering administration.

Question reference: S6O-01382

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the impact will be on its Covid Recovery Strategy of the reduction to the Covid Recovery budget announced on 7 September as part of the emergency budget review.

Question reference: S6O-01328

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what further support it will provide to local authorities for the provision of accommodation for refugees in Scotland, in light of reports that suitable housing has been significantly reduced as a result of its Super Sponsor scheme.

Question reference: S6W-09843

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has estimated how many retail, hospitality and leisure premises are entitled to 50% relief on non-domestic rates for the first three months of 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-09847

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many premises in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire currently receive relief through the Small Business Bonus scheme and, of those, how many are receiving the 100% relief rate.

Question reference: S6W-09850

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding for non-domestic rates relief it has (a) budgeted and (b) allocated to date, in 2022/23.

Decisions on non-domestic rates reliefs are taken as part of the budget process, using Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts of the total revenues raised net of relief costs. At the 2022-23 Scottish Budget in December 2021, the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecast that the reliefs package would save businesses £802 million. A breakdown of this figure is available in Figure S4.10, at https://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2021/ .

It is for local authorities to administer non-domestic rates reliefs in accordance with the relevant legislation. Data on non-domestic rates income, including the values of reliefs, is released periodically at https://www.gov.scot/publications/non-domestic-rates-income-statistics/ .
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Question reference: S6W-09846

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much businesses in (a) Aberdeen City and (b) Aberdeenshire have saved on non-domestic rates as a result of transitional relief in each year since 2015.

The values of non-domestic rates reliefs, broken down by local authority and relief, are available in Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics, at https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/#scottishlocalgovernmentfinancialstatistics . The figures can be found in the respective annual publications, in Table 1.16a for 2017-18, and table 2.17a for 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21. Transitional relief was introduced in the Non-Domestic Rates (Transitional Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 and was therefore not available in 2015-16 and 2016-17.