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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-21979

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21642 by Shona Robison on 3 October 2023, whether it can provide the figures that are not "inclusive of payments made via the government electronic procurement card".

An expansion to S6W-21642 requesting % of payments made within 5 working days, which are not inclusive of electronic procurement card. As noted in the response to S6W-21642, top level figures on payments made within 5 days is only held from 2014 onwards.

Financial Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
% paid in 5 days (invoices only)	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	64.7	67.9	68.7	63.0	74.5	71.5	69.1	67.0	70.6
% paid in 10 days (invoices only)	96.1	96.2	97.5	97.7	97.5	97.9	96.7	98.3	97.8	96.6	96.0	96.0

Question reference: S6O-02650

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether Scotland’s infrastructure is equipped to deliver the current offshore wind pipeline of up to 42GW, including in relation to port infrastructure.

Question reference: S6W-22037

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21609 by Tom Arthur on 4 October 2023, whether it will provide details of any assessment that it carried out to determine the extent of any competitive disadvantage to Scottish ports as a result of freeports in the rest of the UK, and whether any equivalent assessment has been carried out to determine the extent of any competitive disadvantage between Scottish ports that are green freeports and those that are not.

The Scottish Government recognises that a diverse and successful ports and shipping sector contributes significantly to the national, regional and local economies in which they operate. Ports and harbours are crucial gateways to Scotland and Scottish Ministers continue to support a market-driven approach to ports policy, and recognise the contributions of port and shipping operators to the economy of Scotland.

The Green Freeports model in Scotland has been carefully designed by Scottish and UK Government Ministers to build on the existing strengths of local areas, minimise displacement of local economic activity, and create new opportunities for disadvantaged areas within Scotland.

To track the impact of the Scottish Green Freeports against these aims, we are developing a monitoring and evaluation framework in partnership with the UK Government and a consortium of external evaluation experts. This framework will also monitor and evaluate the impacts of the wider English and Welsh Freeports within the context of the UK. Once the framework has been established fully, Scottish Government and UK Government will publish findings from data collected.

In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with the Scottish ports sector and trade associations going forward, to understand any issues affecting the sector, including – where relevant – any concerns around the impact of Green Freeports or Freeports.

Question reference: S6W-21996

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many green jobs have been created by the £100 million Green Jobs Fund, as referenced in its Programme for Government 2020-21, as a result of funding allocated by (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) the Scottish Ministers.

Forecasts provided by the recipients of the Green Jobs Fund awards estimated projects will support up to 4,462 full time jobs over the life of the individual project.

Scottish Enterprise	1446
Scottish Ministers	3016

For the purpose of calculating these job numbers, green jobs have been defined as:

Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit or conserve natural resources.
Jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

Question reference: S6W-21995

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much of the £100 million Green Jobs Fund, as referenced in its Programme for Government 2020-21, has been allocated by (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) the Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S6W-21858

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project outlined in its Heat in Buildings Strategy.

In partnership with Scottish Renewables, we commissioned Climate Exchange to conduct a research project with the aim of assessing the ‘clean heat’ and energy efficiency workforce and the potential required workforce that would be needed to meet the targets set out within our Heat in Buildings Strategy. The report was published in July 2022 and can be found here - https://www.climatexchange.org.uk/research/projects/clean-heat-and-energy-efficiency-workforce-assessment/

The report was used to inform the development of our Heat in Buildings Supply Chains Delivery Plan which was published in November 2022.

Question reference: S6W-21973

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21634 by Gillian Martin on 29 September 2023, in which it stated that it has allocated over £22 million to date from its Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF), to which it committed £34 million in September 2020, whether it plans to open applications for any remaining funding available from the SIETF, and, if this is not the case, where the unspent £12 million from the Fund will be spent.

Question reference: S6W-21991

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 23 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Funding has been awarded to (a) micro, (b) small, (c) medium-sized and (d) large businesses to date.

Question reference: S6W-22036

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 19 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21604 by Neil Gray on 2 October 2023, whether it will provide updates on the three of the four key recommendations not referred to in its answer, and what funding has been allocated to implement the four key recommendations.

As the Pathways report acknowledges, delivery of its recommendation and closing the gender gap in entrepreneurial participation is a long-term undertaking. In addition to the activity outlines in the answer to S6W-21604 on 2 October 2023:

We are addressing the issue of data to improve our collection and reporting of data, developing a dashboard of measures that show how women are supported by our business support systems and how our actions are closing the gender gap and widening participation in entrepreneurship.

We are working with our enterprise agencies, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and private sector investors to make investment avenues more accessible for women-led businesses, and for other under-invested groups; and
We are working with partners to enhance entrepreneurial learning in schools

These initial actions form the foundation for a full implementation of the review’s recommendations.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Question reference: S6W-21990

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21633 by Neil Gray on 27 September 2023, what the reason is for the delay to the publication of the recommendations of the Investor Panel.

Scottish Enterprise	£13,796,559
Scottish Ministers	£6,366,129