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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: 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.

Question reference: S4O-03949

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many college students are achieving qualifications that are recognised and valued by employers.

Question reference: S4W-23519

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people covered by its pay policy will be affected by the increase in the living wage on 1 April 2015 and what their average pay increase will be.

Addressing low pay is an explicit objective of our public sector pay policy.

Almost 640 individuals covered by our public sector pay policy will directly benefit from the increase in living wage from £7.65 per hour to £7.85 per hour. The increase will normally be applied as part of each public body’s annual pay settlement which may be 1 April 2015 or later. Details of individual settlement dates are available in the submission timetable available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/public-sector-pay/staff-pay

The average annual pay increase will depend upon individual hours worked but for a full-time employee it will be in the region of £390.

Question reference: S4W-23520

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many children received free school meals in 2014 and how many will receive them in 2015 following the extension in January.

In 2014, 126,388 (18.8%) children and young people in Scottish schools were registered to receive a free school meal. This includes a very small number of children in primary 1-3, who might not meet the eligibility criteria prescribed in statute, but registered for free school meals as part of local initiatives designed to promote healthy eating in the early years. Take up of these is higher than any year since 2005 (85% of those registered and present).

From January 2015, all primary 1-3 pupils will become entitled to a free school meal. It is not possible to predict precisely what the impact will be on the uptake of free school meals for primary 1-3, however, free school meal pilots in 2007-08 resulted in an increase in uptake from 53% to 75% of primary 1-3 pupils. The evaluation of that pilot forms the starting point for our estimates. We have agreed to monitor the uptake of free school meals with COSLA but estimate that the measure is expected to benefit an additional 135,000 pupils across Scotland and will save families of every eligible child at least £330 a year.

Question reference: S4O-03829

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how the piloting of project bank accounts will impact on small businesses in the construction sector.

Question reference: S4O-03780

Asked by: Gordon MacDonald, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how the expansion of funded early learning and childcare will benefit the most disadvantaged people.

Question reference: S4O-03561

Current Status: Withdrawn