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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-29468

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 18 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what access business improvement districts will have to funding to help support and implement safe shopping practices across high streets and other retail locations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

I recently announced a Towns and BIDs Resilience & Recovery Fund of up to £2 million from the Supporting Communities Fund. This will build on the £1 million BIDs Resilience Fund announced in March, but with a wider towns focus, extending support to towns which do not have constituted BIDs. BIDs and towns organisations will be able to access at least £1.7 million of this funding directly through applying to Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP), and BIDs can access the Fund from September when the BIDs Resilience Fund expires.

Through the BIDs Resilience Fund, BIDs are providing urgent support and advice to local businesses and communities affected by the COVID-19 emergency. They are working with their local councils, partners, businesses and communities on a wide range of initiatives to support the implementation of safe shopping practices as lockdown restrictions are relaxed. These measures include enhanced CCTV and security, promoting safe practice guides for businesses and local residents, physical distancing markers for businesses, hand sanitising equipment, Perspex shields and related PPE. BIDs will continue to cascade best practice to businesses and communities as advice emerges.

We continue to work with STP to consider the impact of COVID-19 on town centres and what will be required for the recovery, as well as taking account of ambitions for net-zero, inclusive growth and place.

Question reference: S5W-29467

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 16 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Barnett consequentials arising from the UK Government Re-opening High Streets Safely Fund in response to the COVID-19 outbreak will be ringfenced for measures to support high streets and town centres in introducing social distancing provisions.

We are continuing to seek clarification from the UK Government on this. We have received no indication from the HM Treasury that we will receive consequentials from the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund.

Despite this and before the UK Government announcement, I had already outlined support for our towns with a £1m a Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Resilience Fund. I have also recently announced a further £2 million of funding to support other towns and to further support BIDs in the recovery phase.

Moreover, the new £30 million Spaces for People capital fund being administered by Sustrans allows local authorities to put in place pop-up walking and cycling routes or temporary improvements to existing routes, providing businesses and communities with confidence regarding their safety. This covers much of the intention of the UK Reopening High Streets Safely Fund.

And we continue to work with Scotland’s Towns Partnership to consider the impact of COVID-19 on town centres and what will be required for the recovery, as well as taking account of ambitions for net-zero, inclusive growth and place.

Question reference: S5O-04424

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what priorities will guide its plans for a green economic recovery.

Question reference: S5W-29466

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish its plans to facilitate safe shopping across high streets, town centres and other retail locations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Scottish Government published retail sectoral guidance on 26 May, which can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-retail-sector-guidance/pages/overview/ .

We have worked with employers and trade unions to ensure that this guidance is evidence-based, fair and ethical, clear and realistic.

Our guidance has been designed to be applied to cover the spectrum of different retailers in Scotland. Each business will need to translate the guidance into the specific actions it needs to take depending on the nature of their business.

Question reference: S5W-29372

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many unique visitors have been recorded to the managingourwaste.scot/ website on each day since it launched.

Details for number of unique visitors to the website are in the following table for date range 27 April 2020 - 27 May 2020

Date	Number of unique visitors
27 April	7,529
28 April	10,855
29 April	7,003
30 April	5,347
1 May	4,704
2 May	4,396
3 May	4,756
4 May	4,415
5 May	6,513
6 May	5,283
7 May	4,490
8 May	3,791
9 May	3,792
10 May	4,409
11 May	3,907
12 May	3,895
13 May	3,367
14 May	3,878
15 May	3,207
16 May	3,122
17 May	3,557
18 May	3,185
19 May	2,968
20 May	3,298
21 May	3,256
22 May	2,923
23 May	2,906
24 May	2,913
25 May	2,866
26 May	2,769
27 May	2,798

Question reference: S5O-04382

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when a review will be carried out of the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak has had on it meeting its environmental targets.

Question reference: S5W-28966

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that COVID-19 support measures are made available to estate agents that are not solicitors and whose firms do not meet rateable value criteria.

The Scottish Government is determined to support businesses during this time, and we are delivering a package of support worth £2.3 billion for businesses who can now claim rates relief and apply for grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Estate agents will be able to benefit from the 1.6% universal rates relief in 2020-21, which will apply automatically to their non-domestic rates bills.

Estate agents may also be eligible for the Small Business Grant scheme for premises in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), or eligible for the SBBS but in receipt of a range of other reliefs.

In addition, the Business Support Grant scheme guidance provides an element of discretion which local authorities may use to ensure that the grant reaches those business ratepayers in need and directly affected by COVID-19. This includes the discretion to award a grant to a property if they are satisfied that it is engaged solely or mainly in the marketing of property and not the provision of financial and/or legal services, and provided other qualifying criteria are met for the grant. This is subject to the local authority being satisfied with the validity and eligibility of individual cases.

Question reference: S5W-28326

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 12 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many multi-site businesses there are in hospitality, leisure and retail sector with a rateable value between £18,000 and £51,000, and what the average number of premises per multi-site business is within this range.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the independent assessors, and local authorities are responsible for administering the system and the awarding of the grant schemes. Billing information is held by local authorities, and they provide this to the Scottish Government on a periodical basis for statistical purposes. This information, and property data extracted from the assessors portal, has been used to estimate the number of unique ratepayers. However, it is recognised that there are limitations in the analysis, and that individual property details may have changed since the data was provided or that different local authorities may have different contact details for the same multi-site businesses.

According to data from the valuation roll as at 1 January 2020, we estimate that there are up to 800 unique ratepayers eligible for more than one Retail, Hospitality Leisure Grant (RHL Grant). The average number of qualifying premises per multi-site business is estimated to be 3 with a maximum of 21. The grant scheme is subject to compliance with EU State Aid Rules .

Question reference: S5W-28327

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 12 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many enquiries it has received from businesses regarding the payment of support grants on a per-property basis during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Scottish Government has received a large volume of correspondence on a range of topics in relation to the package of support for business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The correspondence system does not categorise individual cases in a way which would allow us to distinguish those ‘regarding the payment of support grants on a per-property basis during the COVID-19 outbreak’. In addition, few correspondents write to the Scottish Government on a single issue and it would therefore not be possible to manually categorise them all.

The administration of the scheme, and the awarding of grants, is being managed by local authorities. Queries in relation to the eligibility of additional properties should be raised with them directly.

Question reference: S5W-28325

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 12 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much it would cost to support multi-site businesses in the hospitality, leisure and retail sector with a rateable value between £18,000 and £51,000 to provide them with a £25,000 grant on a per-property basis during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Businesses in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors, operating in a premises with a rateable value between £18,001 and £51,000, will be eligible for a £25,000 grant on their first eligible property.

Following my announcement of Phase 2 of the Business Grants Funding Scheme on 15 April, grants of £18,750 will be available on any additional qualifying properties that a ratepayer may have. The expanded scheme opened for applications on 5 May.

The estimated total cost of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant is £275 million - this includes an estimated £30 million to extend the support and provide grants of £18,750 to any additional qualifying Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties that a ratepayer may have.

According to data from the valuation roll as at 1 January 2020, we estimate that the cost of providing a £25,000 Retail, Hospitality Leisure Grant, per property, for multiple properties would be an additional £10 million.