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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-34398

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many devices have been delivered by the Connecting Scotland programme since the progamme was launched in May 2020.

Question reference: S5W-34419

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 3 February 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27457 by Mairi Gougeon on 19 February 2020, whether it can confirm that it will publish its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog Training Aids, including an analysis of responses to its stakeholder survey.

In reply to question S5W-32433, on 26 October 2020 the Scottish Government stated it expected to publish its review of the effectiveness of the Guidance on Dog Training Aids, including an analysis of responses to its stakeholder survey, before the end of the year. Work on this review had to be paused due to the pressures of the Covid pandemic, EU exit and other animal welfare legislative commitments, so it is now expected to be published before the end of March.

The analysis and all the relevant information supplied by stakeholders will be passed to the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission to consider as part of their planned review of dog training later this year.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-34623

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on promoting the Scotland is Now campaign in (a) Scotland, (b) the rest of the UK and (c) overseas.

Question reference: S5W-34622

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many members of the GlobalScot network have shared content from the Scotland is Now campaign through social media.

Brand Scotland recently launched a digital marketing campaign, targeting audiences in Europe, to communicate Scotland's continued commitment to Europe and to encourage European partners to help keep Scotland at the front of people’s minds as a place to live, work, study, visit and do business following EU Exit.

The campaign film, Scotland is Here launched on Scotland is Now social channels on 1 January and ran until 14 January, primarily targeting France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Ireland and supporting content continues to be served over social channels.

As with all such campaigns, the core campaign was produced by Brand Scotland, and was followed up with complementary activity from Brand Scotland partner organisations who share content across wider networks and among stakeholders, with Scottish Enterprise inviting support from the GlobalScots network. The Scottish Government does not hold details of how many members of the network chose to share the content.

The campaign is yet to complete in full and an evaluation will be carried out however, by 20 January 2021 it had gained over 14.5 million views worldwide, reached over 52 million people in our target markets and increased our non UK social followership on Brand Scotland channels by 76%. One follower commented: ‘Thank you so much Scotland. You’ll always be in our hearts. We love your brave people and marvellous landscapes’. There were over 988 thousand engagements with many more comments of a similar sentiment.

Question reference: S5W-34634

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been able to access training each year as a result of support from the Digital Growth Fund.

The Digital Development Loan is demand led and allows individual businesses to determine where best to focus their investment. In the Phase 1 pilot, 21 businesses applied for a loan which resulted in digital skills training for 83 of their staff. In the current Phase 2 delivery the number of their employees who have improved their digital skills as a result of their employer’s decision will form part of the project’s appraisal.

The Digital Growth Fund is one of many policy initiatives aimed at supporting people and businesses to improve their digital capability. In addition to the free provision of further and higher education courses focussed on digital, we have also delivered programmes such as the Digital Start Fund, the National Training Transition Fund, DigitalBoost and the Youth Guarantee, all of which support the development of digital skills.

Question reference: S5W-34624

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on video production targeted at EU countries as part of the Scotland is Now campaign.

Question reference: S5W-34625

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government who approved the marketing guidance for the Scotland is Now campaign.

Question reference: S5W-34395

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32185 by John Swinney on 20 October 2020, whether it will provide an update on how many digital devices for school pupils funded by the £25 million announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 23 June 2020 have been (a) ordered, (b) received and (c) distributed to learners, broken down by local authority area.

Local authorities are responsible for securing and distributing devices. The following table details devices that have been ordered, received and distributed by end-December 2020, as reported by local authorities:

Local Authority	Devices ordered but not yet received	Devices received but not distributed	Devices distributed	Total
Aberdeen City	0	0	1777	1777
Aberdeenshire	632	0	4100	4732
Angus	0	0	1555	1555
Argyll and Bute	39	0	1317	1356
City of Edinburgh	0	0	2252	2252
Clackmannanshire	33	0	828	861
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	2371	2371
Dundee City	1300	0	750	2050
East Ayrshire	325	136	2002	2463
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	1015	1015
East Lothian	399	0	1407	1806
East Renfrewshire	33	0	590	623
Falkirk	340	0	1500	1840
Fife	826	550	4089	5465
Glasgow City	0	0	7240	7240
Highland	100	116	4407	4623
Inverclyde	0	344	856	1200
Midlothian	0	0	1235	1235
Moray	0	0	1315	1315
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	357	357
North Ayrshire	0	0	1734	1734
North Lanarkshire	0	2360	2427	4787
Orkney Islands	0	0	275	275
Perth and Kinross	700	388	769	1857
Renfrewshire	1800	0	1600	3400
Scottish Borders	0	66	250	316
Shetland Islands	5	0	475	480
South Ayrshire	0	334	1172	1506
South Lanarkshire	342	935	4242	5519
Stirling	266	340	1528	2134
West Dunbartonshire	1726	0	358	2084
West Lothian	0	0	2905	2905
Total	8866	5569	58698	73133

Question reference: S5W-34411

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprentices (a) were due to be recruited in 2020, (b) were actually recruited in 2020 and (c) it plans to recruit in 2021 as part of the Young Person's Guarantee.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has operational responsibility for our apprenticeships programmes and administers them on behalf of the Scottish Government. SDS provide regular statistical breakdowns which can be located on the SDS website here and the year-end figures for 2020/21 are due to be published in June 2021.

The total number of apprenticeship starts in 2019-20 was 29,035 against a target of 29,000. Pre Covid-19 and in keeping with the Scottish Government’s commitment to grow apprenticeship opportunities the target was increased to 30,000 for 2020-21. However as Covid-19 continues to present unprecedented challenges for business across Scotland it is clear we will now not meet our ambitious target of 30,000 apprenticeship starts this year.

Whilst disappointing, we have moved from a period which delivered historically low levels of unemployment and achieving our ambitious targets on youth unemployment, to a much more challenging labour market with young people already being more severely impacted by the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is working with SDS and other stakeholders to mitigate and address the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19. This includes measures to maximise apprenticeship uptake and to support existing apprentices to complete their apprenticeships such as, increased support for Adopt an Apprentice and an additional £15 million funding for the Apprenticeship Employer Grant, encouraging employers to recruit and retain apprentices supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and the economy.

Uncertainty in the labour market has led to many employers delaying and pausing recruitment decisions, which we expect will continue to have an impact on apprenticeship provision in 2021-22. We will continue to work closely with SDS and employers to maximise the number of apprenticeship opportunities we can create in these challenging circumstances.

Question reference: S5O-04957

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the distribution of COVID-19 business support funding.

Phase of Connecting Scotland Programme	No. of devices delivered to organisations
Pilot Schemes	426
Phase 1	8082
Phase 2 Round 1	10685
Winter Support Plan	883
Total	20,076