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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: S6O-00305

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 October 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports of patients being given appointments for a COVID-19 booster vaccine within six months of their second dose of the vaccine and who were therefore unable to have the booster at the appointment.

Question reference: S6W-03507

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it received from the UK Government through the Apprenticeship Levy in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21, and how much it expects to receive in (i) 2021-22 and (ii) each of the next five years.

As announced by HM Treasury on 14 November 2016, the Scottish Government's population-based settlement from the UK Government's Apprenticeship Levy was £221 million in 2017-18, £230 million in 2018-19 and £239 million in 2019-20. This funding was allocated as part of the block grant.

From 2020-21 there has been no notional allocation of Apprenticeship Levy revenue included in the block grant and the normal operation of the Barnett Formula has provided a similar outcome. The UK Government collects the Levy and has details on who is liable to pay it and what revenue is accrued, with the Scottish Government not being responsible for this information.

Future allocations from the Apprenticeship Levy will be received as part of the block grant, and we have no advance notice of what this will be.

Question reference: S6W-03506

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to raise the cap on individual businesses accessing the Flexible Workforce Development Fund.

Question reference: S6W-03509

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund has been allocated in each year since 2017-18.

Question reference: S6W-03510

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund has been accessed by private sector organisations contributing to the Apprenticeship Levy in each year since 2017-18.

The reported amount of spend by Levy Paying private sector organisations accessing the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) since 2017, as provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) who administer the Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government, is:

	Total used by Private sector Levy Payers
2017-2018	£1.68 million
2018-2019	£6.97 million
2019-2020	£6.47 million
2020-2021	£7.04 million

Total	£22.16 million

In 2017-18 c £3.75 million was unattributed in terms of sector.

Information on the type of employers is provided by employers themselves to colleges and SDS during the application process. Delivery of the SDS FWDF funding stream only commenced in 2020-21, when the scheme expanded to include non-levy paying employers and non-college provision.

Due to the significant delivery challenges last year as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, it has been agreed with SFC and SDS to extend the delivery for academic year 2019-20 to the end of December 2021 and for academic year 2020-21 to the end of March 2022. Therefore, the sums relating to 2019-20 and 2020-21 are currently provisional.

Question reference: S6W-03511

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund was allocated to each sector in 2020-21.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) administer the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) on behalf of the Scottish Government. They do not allocate funds to different sectors, as the Fund works on a first come first served basis.

Recognising the significant delivery challenges in the last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, it has been agreed with SFC and SDS to extend academic year 2020-21 delivery to the end of March 2022. Information on employer sector is provided by employers themselves to colleges, the Open University in Scotland (OUiS) and SDS during the application process. To date, the estimated FWDF spend per sector in 2020-21, as reported by SFC and SDS, has been the following:

	Total FWDF used
Employer Sector
Aerospace, defence & marine	£193,360.00
Arts, entertainment and recreation	£25,940.34
Business services (including business process outsourcing)	£856,899.82
Care sector	£804,274.96
Chemical sciences	£98,651
Construction	£1,238,161.07
Creative industries (including digital)	£117,206.00
Education	£597,217.00
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply	£13,773.00
Energy (including renewables)	£265,915.95
Financial services	£100,100.00
Food & drink (including agriculture & fisheries)	£841,336.26
Healthcare	£314,704.84
Hospitality	£532,711.72
Housing	£165,096
Information and Communication	£15,000
Life sciences	£169,796.00
Manufacturing	£1,129,915.05
Non-profit making body	£4,151.00
Oil & gas	£706,782.25
Other service activities	£29,151.80
Professional, scientific and technical activities	£27,500.00
Public sector	£716,110.84
Retail	£294,630.75
Sport & leisure	£206,302.00
Sustainable tourism	£68,985.00
Technology & engineering	£708,253.50
Textiles	£17,442.00
Third sector	£419,914.80
Transport	£483,604.34
Data Not Available	£2,082,248.16
Grand Total	£13,245,135.48

The above figures are provisional. Final figures on spend per sector in 2020-21 can be provided once delivery is completed at the end of March 2022.

Question reference: S6W-03593

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been supported through the National Transition Training Fund since the fund was introduced.

We continue to await final confirmed data on college and university based projects, delivery of which continued until the end of the academic year and I hope to provide an update on final anticipated figures for Year One shortly. However, to date, based on available data and anticipated final college and university numbers, at least 7,500 i ndividuals have received training through the programme across a range of sectors including Tourism and Hospitality, Rural, Creative Industries, Aviation and Aerospace.

In Year Two we have broadened the scope of NTTF. While retaining the focus on recovery from the economic impact of Covid-19, we are also supporting sectors affected by Brexit as well as those sectors with significant skills transitions such as the transition to net zero. Year Two data is not yet available.

Question reference: S6W-03591

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the policies and funding streams that it considers to be targeted at the cost of living.

The Scottish Government publish annual estimates of spend targeted at supporting low income households, with almost £2.5 billion invested to support low income households in 2020-21, including nearly £1 billion specifically targeted to children.

Full detail of this calculation, including the policies and funding streams included, are set out within the Tackling Child Poverty: third year progress report. This can be accessed via the link below:

Tackling child poverty: third year progress report 2020-2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

In light of increasing pressure on household budgets, as a result of the rising cost of living and £20 cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits, the Scottish Government have committed a range of further action this year.

This includes investing around £65 million to support around 500,000 low income households through £130 Low Income Pandemic Payments, to be made by the end of October; putting £130 million in the pockets of families through the Scottish Child Payment and Bridging Payments and making additional investment of around £21 million to double the December 2021 Carer’s Allowance Supplement payment for more than 91,000 people.

We are continuing to explore what more we can do to provide the support people need this winter and will announce plans in due course.

Question reference: S6W-03494

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to raise public awareness of the new regulations on interlinked fire alarms, and how the new fire alarm requirements will be enforced from February 2022.

The Scottish Government has undertaken a comprehensive awareness raising campaign across a range of channels including TV, radio and digital to ensure people are aware of the new legislation and to encourage compliance. This includes material to support third sector stakeholders and leaflets in public libraries. The target audience is all adults in Scotland and the campaign was forecast to reach 95.2% of those.

Because this is a safety measure, we hope most people will see the benefits of it. Local authorities have broad statutory responsibility for tackling substandard housing in their area, and for major defects they can require home owners to carry out work, but any intervention must be proportionate and we do not expect them to go beyond advising home owners about fire alarms. Legislation allows people a reasonable time for bringing homes up to standard. No home owner will be penalised for non-compliance. We will however collect data on fire alarms in Scottish homes in future iterations of the Scottish House Condition Survey.

Question reference: S6W-03111

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of most COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, what its guidance is for employers regarding pregnant women past 28 weeks, and whether the guidance to allow them to work from home where possible, or be suspended on unpaid leave where it is not, remains in place.

The coronavirus guidance for pregnant employees and employers is published at www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-pregnant-employees , and applies in all four UK countries. The guidance supports discussions between employees, employers and occupational health teams on how best to ensure health and safety for pregnant women in the workplace at any gestation, and recommends a more precautionary approach for women who are 28 weeks pregnant and beyond. As with all coronavirus guidance, this is regularly updated in light of new information and evidence in relation to the virus.

Year	FWDF Allocation
2017-18 (Year 1)	£10m
2018-19 (Year 2)	£10m
2019-20 (Year 3)	£10m
2020-21 (Year 4)	£20m
2021-22 (Year 5)	£20m
Total	£70m