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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: S4W-27226

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how the risk in Scotland of being paid below the living wage compares with the rest of the UK.

More people in Scotland are paid the Living Wage than in any country in the UK. Background statistics in the following table: Proportion Earning less than the living wage, 2014

	Earning less than the Living Wage
Scotland	18.4%
Wales	23.9%
Northern Ireland	27.6%
England	21.7%
- South East	17.8%
- London*	18.3%
- East	22.3%
- South West	22.6%
- North East	23.4%
- North West	23.6%
- West Midlands	24.1%
- Yorkshire and The Humber	24.3%
- East Midlands	24.7%
United Kingdom	21.7%

Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Living Wage rate of £8.80 for employees in London, £7.65 for employees who did not work in London in April 2014

Question reference: S4W-27173

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 August 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 24 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the expansion of the education maintenance allowance will be introduced.

The Scottish Government is committed to the education maintenance allowance (EMA) programme and values its contribution in helping young people overcome financial barriers to access learning. To help even more young people the current EMA thresholds will increase to £24,421 for a family with one dependent child and £26,884 for a family with more than one dependent child. Also for the first time part time college students will be able to apply for an EMA. We estimate these changes will support an additional 22,000 young people and will come into effect from 1 January 2016.

Question reference: S4W-26266

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing the revised approach to recruitment incentives as set out in Developing the Young Workforce – Scotland’s Youth Employment Strategy.

Recent monthly labour market stats show a sustained improvement in the number young people in Scotland in employment, but this government remains focused on our ambitions to reduce youth unemployment by 40% by 2021.

Scotland’s Employer Recruitment Incentive, which will open to applications from 1 July 2015, will offer employers around £4,000 over the course of the first 12 months of employment to offset the additional costs of recruiting and employing a young person. In addition employers will be encouraged to pay the living wage and will receive an additional £500 payment if they agree to do so. The new programme, which will support around 2,200 young people into work, replaces the Youth Employment Scotland Fund which, since it was launched in June 2013, created up to 10,000 job opportunities across 32 local authorities.

The programme will deliver our commitment to key Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce recommendations by simplifying the recruitment incentive offer, focussing on those young people who face barriers to employment and also on supporting small employers to recruit to the successful Modern Apprenticeship programme.

Question reference: S4O-04308

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent refurbishing schools in Edinburgh in 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-25301

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 17 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made with the Fair Work Convention.

The convention will meet for the first time on 30 April 2015 when it will consider priorities for its future work to develop, promote and sustain a fair employment and workplace framework for Scotland. It will be co-chaired by Anne Douglas, former National Secretary of Prospect, and Linda Urquhart, Chairman of Morton Fraser.

Following this meeting and after the UK General Election, we will publish the Scottish Government’s full response to the recommendations of the Working Together Review alongside the agreed remit of the convention.

The full membership of the convention is as follows:

Co-Chairs:

Anne Douglas, former President, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC)

Linda Urquhart, Chairman, Morton Fraser

Members:

Mary Alexander, Deputy Regional Secretary – Scotland, Unite

Lilian Macer, Scottish Convenor, Unison

Bernadette Malone, Chief Executive, Perth and Kinross Council

John Reid, General Manager, Michelin

Henry Simmons, Chief Executive, Alzheimer Scotland

Grahame Smith, General Secretary, STUC

Academic Support:

Provided by Patricia Findlay, Director of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research at the University of Strathclyde.

Question reference: S4O-04234

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what relationship it has with UK Visas and Immigration.

Question reference: S4O-04182

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is giving to help reshape how energy is delivered and used in communities throughout the country.

Question reference: S4W-24778

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 18 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of the (a) 5,500 young people who have received support from the Community Jobs Scotland programme and (b) 1,000 job opportunities for young people as part of the next phase of the programme as announced by the First Minister on 25 February 2015 and (c) 65,000 young people who have been supported by the Prince’s Trust in the last 10 years as announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training on 25 February 2015.

Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) opportunities are allocated by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations based on Office for National Statistics data on youth unemployment in the local authority area.

(a) The CJS programme has allocated a total of 5,842 opportunities up to March 2015. The breakdown of allocations by local authority is as follows:

Aberdeen City	116
Aberdeenshire	96
Angus	106
Argyll and Bute	91
Clackmannanshire	105
Dumfries and Galloway	165
Dundee City	232
East Ayrshire	198
East Dunbartonshire	92
East Lothian	83
East Renfrewshire	60
Edinburgh City	413
Eilean Siar	55
Falkirk	146
Fife	424
Glasgow City	917
Highland	186
Inverclyde	127
Midlothian	110
Moray	69
North Ayrshire	243
North Lanarkshire	492
Orkney Islands	37
Perth and Kinross	117
Renfrewshire	210
Scottish Borders	100
Shetland	35
South Ayrshire	132
South Lanarkshire	314
Stirling	99
West Dunbartonshire	136
West Lothian	140
Totals	5,842

(b) In Phase 5 of the CJS programme (over financial year
2015-16) a further 1,000 supported training opportunities for young people will be funded. Of those 1,000 opportunities, 700 will be allocated across the 32 local authority areas in the normal manner. The remaining 300 opportunities will provide an extended level of support to vulnerable groups, such as care leavers, and will be allocated nationally on a demand led basis. The breakdown of the 700 opportunities is as follows:

Aberdeen City	11
Aberdeenshire	10
Angus	14
Argyll and Bute	10
Clackmannanshire	11
Dumfries and Galloway	17
Dundee City	29
East Ayrshire	27
East Dunbartonshire	10
East Lothian	12
East Renfrewshire	8
Edinburgh City	43
Eilean Siar	5
Falkirk	22
Fife	53
Glasgow City	108
Highland	14
Inverclyde	18
Midlothian	10
Moray	10
North Ayrshire	30
North Lanarkshire	57
Orkney Islands	4
Perth and Kinross	13
Renfrewshire	23
Scottish Borders	13
Shetland Islands	4
South Ayrshire	19
South Lanarkshire	44
Stirling	11
West Dunbartonshire	20
West Lothian	20
Totals	700

(c) The breakdown by local authority of the 65,000 young people supported by the Trust is not information which the Scottish Government holds centrally and cannot be provided.

In 2014-15, the Princes Trust expects to support 8,800 young people. The trust anticipates the percentage of young people supported per local authority to be as follows:

Aberdeen City Council	1.73%
Aberdeenshire Council	3.67%
Angus Council	0.69%
Argyll and Bute Council	1.56%
Clackmannanshire Council	0.13%
Dumfries and Galloway Council	2.60%
Dundee City Council	6.19%
East Ayrshire Council	4.71%
East Dunbartonshire Council	2.37%
East Lothian Council	0.52%
East Renfrewshire Council	0.24%
Edinburgh City Council	15.80%
Eilean Siar Council	0.65%
Falkirk Council	0.09%
Fife Council	4.52%
Glasgow City Council	22.90%
Highland Council	1.36%
Inverclyde Council	1.52%
Midlothian Council	1.81%
Moray Council	0.32%
North Ayrshire Council	1%
North Lanarkshire Council	10%
Orkney Islands Council	0.17%
Perth and Kinross Council	0.88%
Renfrewshire Council	2.62%
Scottish Borders Council	1.35%
Shetland Islands Council	0.18%
South Ayrshire Council	1.22%
South Lanarkshire Council	2.87%
Stirling Council	1.38%
West Dunbartonshire Council	2.75%
West Lothian Council	2.77%

Question reference: S4O-04039

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-03939

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 22 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address barriers to employment faced by black and ethnic minority women.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular barriers to employment often faced by black and ethnic minority women. For new Scots, this often includes language difficulties and a lack of understanding of the skills required for particular jobs.

That is why last week I announced that the Scottish Government is funding the Women Into Sustainable Employment programme, a joint delivery and knowledge exchange venture between Bridges Programmes, Glasgow City College and the Dundee International Women’s Centre.

Over a year, the programme will provide vocational English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) training to 105 women in total – 75 in Glasgow and 30 in Dundee in growth sectors including early years education; bio-science; hospitality/tourism; finance; and customer service. We are hopeful that if successful, the learning from this sector specific approach can become a feature of future ESOL delivery in Scotland.