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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: S5W-04095

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, how many members the new Scotland-wide statutory board that is expected to deliver international activities and support will have; when its chair will be appointed; whether the Parliament will be involved with this appointment, and what salary will be offered.

Question reference: S5W-04093

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, by what date the innovation and investment hub in Berlin will be established; how many staff will be based there, and at what cost.

Question reference: S5W-04091

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, how many additional trade envoys it plans to employ and at what cost, and how this compares to the number and cost of the envoys that it currently employs.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting Scottish companies to access global markets and to ensuring that Scotland is open for business with Europe and the rest of the world.

Plans to appoint a number of trade envoys to champion export market opportunities are currently being developed and details will be made available in due course. There are no envoys currently employed by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-04097

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government further to the comments in the publication, Enterprise and Skills Review: Report on Phase 1, what its position is on whether the alignment of functions of learning and skills agencies could result in the merger of Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.

Question reference: S5W-04224

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what projection it made in 2012-13 of the (a) mean, (b) median and (c) total student debt for each year from 2012-13 to 2017-18; how this compares with the actual figures for each year up to 2015-16, and what projection it has made for each of the next five years.

The Scottish Government does not make student debt projections.

However, the Student Loans Company publishes data on total student debt and average student debt:

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

Table 1: Total amount owed by borrowers who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK, or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland

Amount of Loan Balance in £ millions

As at end of tax year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
All ICR borrowers with a Loan Balance	2,314.6	2,519.5	2,809.7

Source: Student Loans Company

Table 2: Average Loan Balance for borrowers who received loans as Scottish domiciled students studying in the UK, or as EU domiciled students studying in Scotland

Average Loan Balance in £

As at end of tax year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
All ICR borrowers with a Loan Balance	7,230.0	7,460.0	7,870.0

Source: Student Loans Company

Question reference: S5W-03807

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) regarding the status of "appointees" to the SQA, and whether they are (a) paid at least the living wage and (b) considered to be employees of the SQA.

Scottish Government is in regular contact with SQA on a range of issues.

Payment of the Living Wage is a commitment the Scottish Government takes extremely seriously. The Scottish Government introduced the requirement to pay the Living Wage as an integral part of its public sector pay policy in 2011-12. We also expect all public bodies with Living Wage Accreditation to fully comply with the terms of that accreditation.

Ministers have sought assurances from SQA on these issues. The SQA has confirmed that it is a Living Wage Employer and that it applies the Living Wage to all appointees, including invigilators.

The status of appointees is an operational matter for SQA. I have asked the Chief Executive of SQA to write to you.

Question reference: S5W-03808

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what duties Scottish Qualifications Authority examination invigilators undertake, and how long those duties are expected to take beyond the duration of examination times.

Question reference: S5W-04228

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will begin providing the Best Start Grant.

Question reference: S5W-04089

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list each (a) consultation and (b) review that it has announced since May 2016; broken down by the (i) minister in charge and (ii) title, subject and date of each announcement, and whether it will publish details of (A) where any findings can or will be found online and (B) the date the results were or will be published.

The Scottish Government now runs all consultations online through its consultation hub (http://consult.scotland.gov.uk). Each consultation is listed with its title, start and end dates. Consultations can be filtered by subject (interest) and policy team (department), however there is no facility to filter or view consultations by Minister or Ministerial portfolio.

If known, a consultation will indicate the date when findings will be published. Consultation responses and findings, where published, are attached to each consultation.

Question reference: S5W-03864

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in its publication, Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education: A Delivery Plan for Scotland, what progress has been made in developing a range of national programmes and further extending the reach and impact of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

On 9 June 2016, the Deputy First Minister announced that the Scottish Attainment Challenge would be extended to secondary schools, both in the seven Challenge Authority areas and the majority of secondaries associated with the primary schools in the existing Schools Programme. The announcement also indicated that two more authorities would be added to the Challenge Authorities Programme. Additional funding of £13.4 million for the two new Challenge Authorities and the additional secondary schools was confirmed in October 2016.

From financial year 2017-18 the additional £100 million per annum that will be raised each year from our Council Tax reforms will be allocated directly to schools. It is likely that the vast majority of publicly funded schools will receive funding.

Work on developing a range of national programmes is ongoing including national approaches to enhancing learning and teaching and leadership.