- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish for each of the past five years (a) the total number of evictions raised by local authorities and (b) the number of tenants in such actions who purchased their home from the local authority under the Right to Buy scheme and thus avoided eviction.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has implemented since 1 July 1999 in relation to helping small businesses.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to improving public sector support to small businesses. Through the Executive, and related agencies, we have introduced a number of measures that will have a positive impact on the small business community. New initiatives implemented since 1 1999 July include: the Innovators Counselling and Advisory Service for Scotland which provides a specialist counselling service for Scotland's inventors and small innovative firms; introduction of an e-commerce suppliers directory and SMART guides for users by Scottish Enterprise; the launch of Loan Action Scotland, an energy saving initiative which will allow small companies to adopt energy efficiency measures in the workplace; the Scottish Learning Network which will establish 500 "learning points" within small businesses; establishment of The Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit (IRIS) to assist with regulatory issues; and announcement of the formation of a Small Business Forum. To ensure direct and continuing dialogue between the Scottish Executive and the small business community as a whole, a range of other developments are also ongoing or in the pipeline including: a consultation on Scottish Tourism; the formation of a Scottish Manufacturing Strategy; Knowledge Economy consultation seminars; and the launch of a consultation document to help develop a framework for economic development in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take any steps to reduce regulation of small businesses and, if so, what steps it will take.
Answer
The Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit will pursue business concerns about the burden of regulation and will work closely with small business representative groups to ensure that the particular needs of small businesses are kept to the forefront of policy making throughout the Executive. My officials in the IRIS Unit will soon be arranging the first of a series of meetings I plan to have with business across the country to hear at first hand about the regulatory problems they are encountering.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total value is of financial assistance that has been provided in Scotland for each of the past five years to the pig industry.
Answer
The CAP pigs regime does not provide direct support to pig farmers. This sector does benefit indirectly through EU funded private storage aids and export refunds, although the benefit to the Scottish industry cannot be accurately quantified.The following table lists offers of known financial support which have been made to this sector over the past five years.Offers of financial assistance made to the pig industry 1995-1999 (£'000s)
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
547 | 578 | 100 | 319 | 3,100 |
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be provided by the Business Growth Fund over each of the next 10 years and from what budget source; who will be responsible for administering this fund; what is the estimated costs for each of the next 10 years, and what gap the fund is designed to fill.
Answer
Funding of £12 million is being provided under the Business Growth Fund over three years (£3 million in 1999-2000; £4 million in 2000-01; £5 million in 2001-02), for loans between £20,000 and £100,000. These funds have been allocated to both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise who are responsible for the administration of the scheme. £2 million has already been committed under the Fund. A decision on whether to extend the funding beyond the initial three years will be made towards the end of that period following a review of the impact of the scheme.Small companies can face difficulties in raising sufficient funding due to their size and risk profile. The Business Growth Fund seeks to address this by providing assistance to businesses which are commercially viable and have growth potential, but which are unable to access sufficient funding from established sources.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will develop a strategy to provide greater emphasis on indigenous business rather than on inward investment, and if so, what will be its components and whether it will consult on the strategy.
Answer
I have recently asked officials to devise a Framework for Economic Development in Scotland. It will address a range of questions relating to Scotland's economic development and should provide an integrated and coherent framework within which to consider a range of economic policy questions such as the roles of inward investment and indigenous business. An extensive consultation exercise is currently underway. This involves face-to-face meetings between officials and a wide range of interested parties across Scotland and an open invitation to any other individuals or organisations, through a press release and consultation paper on the Scottish Executive web site, to submit their views.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses there were in Scotland at the time of publication of Making it Work Together, and of them, how many were (a) small, and (b) large and what its estimate is of these figures for each of the next ten years.
Answer
The latest estimates available for the number and size of businesses in Scotland are for November 1998. At that time there were an estimated 299,110 enterprises operating in Scotland. Of these, 293,705 were small enterprises (0-49 employees), 3,275 were medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) and 2,130 were large enterprises (250+ employees).Further details are available in a Government Statistical Service News Release which was published on Wednesday 26 January 2000. A copy is available in SPICe.The Scottish Executive does not make statistical projections for the number of businesses operating in Scotland in future years.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that existing arrangements provide sufficient access for small businesses to unsecured long term development finance and, if not, whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government to investigate the possibility of setting up a new business bank to provide small businesses with access to loans at rates significantly better than high street banks.
Answer
The public sector currently provides, or contributes to, a range of small business finance schemes in circumstances where a discernible market failure can be identified. Most recently we established the £12 million Business Growth Fund to provide loans to small businesses with potentially viable proposals but unable to access sufficient funds from established sources - for example because of a lack of sufficient security or a limited track record. Some £2 million in loans has already been offered under the scheme and we will be evaluating its success in meeting this perceived gap in the funding market.The need for additional funding measures to support small business is kept under constant review. I remain to be convinced however that a case has been made for wider loan funding at below market rates, which may simply serve to displace existing private sector funding with no overall economic benefit.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has taken and will take in order to achieve the target of creating 100,000 new businesses in Scotland by 2009.
Answer
Wider national economic performance is likely to be the main determinant of trends in small business creation and the prospects for the Scottish economy remain good. However we have also been working closely with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to improve the availability, consistency and quality of support for people wishing to start a business.
A number of positive measures are in hand: improvements to the Scottish Enterprise Network through the establishment, from April, of a single brand in the network and new programmes on start-up and small business support; work by Scottish Enterprise to review the Business Birth Rate Strategy to further encourage entrepreneurship and start-ups - including from non-traditional sources, like women and youth; and the continuation of local events under the Personal Enterprise Campaign. We have also set increased targets for number of start-ups assisted by the Enterprise Network, and are working to improve the availability of web site based business support. New start-ups with growth potential also have access to support from the £12 million Business Growth Fund and, from April, to our new national mentoring scheme - Business Mentoring Scotland.This represents a significant contribution by the Scottish Executive to improve Scotland's performance in business creation.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list, for the last period for which information is available, the record of each local authority in Scotland for payment of debt, showing the average number of days within which each local authority has paid its suppliers and other creditors; whether it considers that these records are satisfactory and, if not, whether it will take steps to ensure that those local authorities which are not settling debts timeously do so; and after what period of time it estimates that such steps would result in all local authorities settling their debts timeously.
Answer
Payment arrangements are a matter between local authorities and individual suppliers. The latest information on the percentage of invoices that authorities pay within 30 days is published by the Accounts Commission in their Annual Report Comparing the Performance of Scottish Councils 1997-98. As noted in my response to question S1O-332, I spoke to Councillor Norman Murray, president of CoSLA, asking him to draw to the attention of councils the requirements of the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998 and the importance of paying their bills on time. CoSLA wrote to all local authorities advising them of this on 1 October.
