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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: S6W-03920

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, following the announcement of the £41 million of Barnett consequentials arising from the UK Government’s new household support fund, how it plans to distribute the funding, and when it will be made available to households in need.

The £41 million will be distributed as follows:

£10 million for a Fuel Insecurity Fund to provide direct support with fuel costs for low income households, delivered through a range of organisations including registered social landlords, Advice Direct Scotland, Energy Action Scotland and the Fuel Bank Foundation.
£25 million to Local Authorities to tackle financial insecurity and respond to emerging need. This will include providing help with food, fuel and other essentials with a strong steer in favour of a cash-first approach and proactive and preventative action for those who are known to be at risk.
£6 million for trusted third sector partners, allowing support to be provided by local charities and community groups to families in financial need all across Scotland.

We are currently in discussions with Local Authorities and partners and the funding will be made available as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Question reference: S6W-03508

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 October 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how much each business sector in Scotland contributes to the Apprenticeship Levy.

The Apprenticeship Levy is a tax on employers, introduced by the UK Government in 2017, and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) hold the data on what is raised through the Apprenticeship Levy.

The Scottish share of Apprenticeship Levy receipts received through the block grant continues to be invested in wider skills, training and employability to meet the needs of employers, the workforce and Scotland’s economy.

The Scottish Government receives some raw data from HMRC on what is raised through the Apprenticeship Levy and has carried out some analysis which suggests that in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, approximately 60 percent of the Apprenticeship Levy contribution in Scotland was from the private sector, 34 per cent from the public sector and 6 per cent from the non-profit making bodies and mutual associations. However, the data that we receive does not enable a full breakdown analysis of each sector.

More recent sector level analysis from 2019-20 is not yet available.

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-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-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-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-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-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.

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