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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: S5W-25802

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government in what form of (a) investments and (b) other assets are the retained earnings reserve reported in the 2018-19 Scottish Water annual report held.

Question reference: S5W-25799

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the expenditure for capital projects reported in the Scottish Water annual report and accounts in each of the last three years that has been published in accordance with Section 45(2) of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 represents unplanned expenditure each year above that anticipated for each listed project.

Question reference: S5W-25812

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 25 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23670 by Paul Wheelhouse on 7 June 2019, by what date it will publish the revised intervention area list.

As I announced to Parliament during General Questions on Thursday 10 October, BT plc were the only bidder for both the Central and South lots of the R100 procurement and, subject to due diligence and governance, we intend to proceed to contract signature with BT as soon as possible.

More than one bid was received for the North lot of the procurement, and I will announce a preferred bidder in due course.

We are conscious of the very strong interest among communities and their elected representatives as to the specific implications for them and are keen to ensure that detailed information on the intervention area to be covered under the contract is provided at the earliest opportunity, alongside information on our aligned interventions to address those properties not covered under the main procurement itself. We remain on course to sign the R100 contracts before the end of 2019, and we will make delivery timescales publicly available as soon as possible, after contracts have been signed.

Question reference: S5W-25592

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 14 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the large business rates supplement has been in each of the last 15 years, broken down by how much tax revenue this generated.

The large business supplement to the non-domestic rate in each of the last 15 years is set out in the table below, along with the estimated associated revenue. The estimated net revenue up until 2011-12 is based on the Assessor's Valuation Roll. The Scottish Government holds property-level relief information from 2012-13 onwards, which has been used in addition to the Valuation Roll to improve the accuracy of the estimates in those years. While the two methodologies used to derive the figures are broadly similar, comparisons over the 15-year time period should be made with caution.

Year	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Large Business Supplement (pence)	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.9	1.1	1.3	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.6
Estimated net LBS income (£m) based on Assessors Valuation Roll	13	14	11	15	16	33	33
Estimated net LBS income (£m) based on Assessors Valuation Roll and Local Authority billing information								38	43	52	62	125	127	129	130

Source: Assessors' Valuation Roll, Local Authority Billing information.

Question reference: S5W-25577

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its paper, Government spend over £25,000: January 2019, for what purpose it spent £98,651.60 on Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, UK Branch.

In line with the Scottish Government Digital Strategy, the Social Security Directorate, Chief Digital Officer Division, has adopted a cloud first approach and are delivering the vast majority of Social Security Scotland technology from the cloud.

This figure is for delivering our technology from the cloud for the period 1 January – 31 January 2019.

Adopting a cloud first approach ensures we have resilience and are able to expand or contract our systems according to future demand whist maintaining a sharp focus on costs compared to the traditional or historical technology model of over provisioning.

Question reference: S5O-03620

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to protect families who have been affected by domestic abuse.

Question reference: S5W-25377

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much each local authority has been allocated from the Town Centre Fund, also broken by how this has been spent.

The £50 million Town Centre Fund was developed in partnership with COSLA and launched on 1 March. The fund has been distributed across all local authorities to enable them to stimulate and support a wide range of investments which encourage town centres and city neighbourhoods to diversify and flourish.

It is for local authorities to decide how to allocate funding in the context of the Town Centre First Principle and Town Centre Action Plan and, more recently, the Place Principle. These decisions should be based on an understanding of town centre performance and ownership, shared visions and plans; with the involvement of local communities, partners and stakeholders.

Town Centre Fund – Local Authority Allocation

Local Authority	Allocation
Aberdeen City	£1,351,000
Aberdeenshire	£3,286,000
Angus	£1,080,000
Argyll and Bute	£1,242,000
City of Edinburgh	£2,613,000
Clackmannanshire	£683,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£1,529,000
Dundee City	£735,000
East Ayrshire	£1,701,000
East Dunbartonshire	£944,000
East Lothian	£1,275,000
East Renfrewshire	£981,000
Falkirk	£1,976,000
Fife	£4,335,000
Glasgow City	£3,010,000
Highland	£2,965,000
Inverclyde	£660,000
Midlothian	£910,000
Moray	£1,233,000
Na h-Eileanan Siar	£223,000
North Ayrshire	£1,418,000
North Lanarkshire	£3,250,000
Orkney Islands	£200,000
Perth and Kinross	£1,983,000
Renfrewshire	£1,459,000
Scottish Borders	£1,421,000
Shetland Islands	£205,000
South Ayrshire	£1,064,000
South Lanarkshire	£2,506,000
Stirling	£1,077,000
West Dunbartonshire	£859,000
West Lothian	£1,826,000
Scotland	£50,000,000

Question reference: S5O-03525

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support Highlands and Islands businesses experiencing losses due to cuts in rural banking services.

Question reference: S5W-23993

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the results of the Good Food Nation consultation.

Question reference: S5W-23718

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS boards have published annual workforce data for (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.