- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that the provision of electricity to public bodies comes from energy companies that generate their electricity from 100% renewable energy, and what its reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
All major electricity suppliers can access renewable power at scale, either directly via their own generation or via third parties. The new national electricity contract contains provision for the supply of electricity from 100% renewable sources. As there are additional costs involved compared to baseline contract costs, public bodies can choose whether they wish to avail themselves of this option.
The new national electricity contract makes provision to support public bodies generating their own power including exporting any excess to the National Grid, as well as supporting them to buy directly from renewable sources through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 December 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether the new publicly-owned Scottish energy company will source its electricity from 100% renewable sources.
Answer
The outline business case for the public energy company is currently being developed. This will determine the future arrangements that would support the delivery of the Scottish Government’s ambition to work in partnership with local authorities to deliver a public energy company through a white label contract approach. Whilst we are not yet able to specify the precise terms of any white label energy supply contract, given the Scottish Government's strong commitment of renewable energy, as set out in Scotland's Energy Strategy, it is expected that the use of renewable sources will be a key component of any contract specification.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19766 by Jamie Hepburn on 15 November 2018, whether it considers laser guidance components to be integral and essential components of munitions.
Answer
Laser guidance components have a broad range of uses which may include munitions.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 28 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many companies are account managed by Scottish Enterprise, and whether it will provide a list such companies, broken down by how long they have been account managed for.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.
I have passed your query on to Steve Dunlop, the Chief Executive, and asked him to respond to you directly.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19678 by Ivan McKee on 14 November 2018, whether the new human rights guidance is only relevant to companies headquartered outside of Scotland, and to what extent the new guidance will be applied to Scottish-based companies.
Answer
The guidance states that due diligence should be carried out on any activity which could lead to an investment relationship or agreement with a third party. This includes activity that happens in Scotland, regardless of where a company's headquarters is located.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of levels of bullying and harassment of staff employed by SSP Group in food outlets at mainline railway stations in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not made a recent assessment concerning staff employed by SSP Group as we have no direct involvement in employer/employee relations of rail companies or their contractors.
The Scottish Government however has a Fair Work agenda and expects any company operating in Scotland to adopt fair and ethical business practices. We strongly oppose the use of exploitative practices and the unfair treatment of workers. Any form of bullying and harassment in the workplace is wholly unacceptable and we would expect employers to tackle any such instances professionally and timeously.
Our own franchise agreement with ScotRail recognises the value and importance of employees and has a number of obligations for the benefit of staff. These include trade union representation on ScotRail's board, Investors in People, that at least £1m should be spent each year on training and development and that all ScotRail employees and contractors are paid at least the living wage.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with employers in the rail catering industry regarding the (a) respect at work and (b) bullying and harassment sections of the Fair Work Framework.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not had discussions specifically with employers in the rail catering industry regarding respect at work and bullying and harassment and is not directly involved in employer/employee relations of rail companies or their contractors.
The Scottish Government however has a Fair Work agenda and expects any company operating in Scotland to adopt fair and ethical business practices. We strongly oppose the use of exploitative practices and the unfair treatment of workers. Any form of bullying and harassment in the workplace is wholly unacceptable and we would expect employers to tackle any such instances professionally and timeously.
Our own franchise agreement with ScotRail recognises the value and importance of employees and has a number of obligations for the benefit of staff. These include trade union representation on ScotRail's board, Investors in People, that at least £1m should be spent each year on training and development and that all ScotRail employees and contractors are paid at least the living wage.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding improving protections from bullying and harassment for rail catering staff working (a) on trains and (b) in stations in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not had specific discussions with the UK Government regarding improving protections from bullying and harassment for rail catering staff.
The Scottish Government however has a Fair Work agenda and expects any company operating in Scotland to adopt fair and ethical business practices. We strongly oppose the use of exploitative practices and the unfair treatment of workers. Any form of bullying and harassment in the workplace is wholly unacceptable and we would expect employers to tackle any such instances professionally and timeously.
Our own franchise agreement with ScotRail recognises the value and importance of employees and has a number of obligations for the benefit of staff. These include trade union representation on ScotRail's board, Investors in People, that at least £1m should be spent each year on training and development and that all ScotRail employees and contractors are paid at least the living wage.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will conduct an assessment, in line with the Fair Work Framework, of levels of bullying and harassment of staff employed by Rail Gourmet to service contracts with companies operating trains from Edinburgh Waverley.
Answer
The Scottish Government is not actively seeking to conduct an assessment concerning staff employed by Rail Gourmet.
The Scottish Government however has a Fair Work agenda and expects any company operating in Scotland to adopt fair and ethical business practices. We strongly oppose the use of exploitative practices and the unfair treatment of workers. Any form of bullying and harassment in the workplace is wholly unacceptable and we would expect employers to tackle any such instances professionally and timeously.
Our own franchise agreement with ScotRail recognises the value and importance of employees and has a number of obligations for the benefit of staff. These include trade union representation on ScotRail's board, Investors in People, that at least £1m should be spent each year on training and development and that all ScotRail employees and contractors are paid at least the living wage.
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the use of bogus self-employment to avoid employment protections.
Answer
We strongly oppose the use of exploitative business practices. While employment law is reserved to the UK Government, we are using all powers at our disposal to promote fair work.
On 9th October the First Minister announced our Fair Work First approach, harnessing the financial power of the Scottish Government. This will extend fair work criteria to as many funding streams, business support grants and public contracts as we can by the end of this parliament.
This builds on our Programme for Government commitment to introduce fair work criteria to Scottish Enterprise job-related grants in 2019-20 and our existing procurement guidance.