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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: S5W-25166

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its consultation on the regulation of electricians that was announced in its Programme for Government.

Question reference: S5O-03494

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how Ministers ensure that they engage with the public in all parts of Scotland, including the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S5W-24511

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 26 August 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many official visits the First Minister has undertaken in Scotland since 16 May 2007, broken down by (a) year and (b) parliamentary constituency and region.

Details of official visits undertaken by the First Minister can be found at the following link https://www.gov.scot/publications/?term=ministerial%20engagements&page=1 .

A breakdown by parliamentary constituency and region is not available for all visits which have taken place between 2007 and 2019. The following table contains the information we hold for the majority of visits which have taken place between 2012 and 2019.

Table 1. Official Visits by Parliamentary Constituency

Parliamentary Constituency	Region	Number of Official Visits
Aberdeen Central	North East Scotland	20
Aberdeen Donside	North East Scotland	14
Aberdeen South and North Kincardine	North East Scotland	5
Aberdeenshire East	North East Scotland	9
Aberdeenshire West	North East Scotland	6
Airdrie and Shotts	Central	3
Almond Valley	Lothian	4
Angus North and Mearns	North East Scotland	2
Angus South	North East Scotland	3
Argyll and Bute	Highlands and Islands	10
Ayr	South Scotland	8
Banffshire and Buchan Coast	North East Scotland	8
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross	Highlands and Islands	5
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley	South Scotland	8
Clackmannanshire and Dunblane	Mid Scotland and Fife	8
Clydebank and Milngavie	West Scotland	6
Clydesdale	South Scotland	1
Coatbridge and Chryston	Central	2
Cowdenbeath	Mid Scotland and Fife	5
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	Central	1
Cunninghame North	West Scotland	5
Cunninghame South	West Scotland	10
Dumbarton	West Scotland	3
Dumfriesshire	South Scotland	7
Dundee City East	North East Scotland	2
Dundee City West	North East Scotland	14
Dunfermline	Mid Scotland and Fife	2
East Kilbride	Central	8
East Lothian	South Scotland	5
Eastwood	West Scotland	2
Edinburgh Central	Lothian	104
Edinburgh Eastern	Lothian	20
Edinburgh Northern and Leith	Lothian	14
Edinburgh Pentlands	Lothian	9
Edinburgh Southern	Lothian	14
Edinburgh Western	Lothian	10
Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire	South Scotland	11
Falkirk East	Central	3
Falkirk West	Central	7
Galloway and West Dumfries	South Scotland	3
Glasgow Anniesland	Glasgow	3
Glasgow Cathcart	Glasgow	9
Glasgow Kelvin	Glasgow	58
Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn	Glasgow	7
Glasgow Pollok	Glasgow	11
Glasgow Provan	Glasgow	2
Glasgow Shettleston	Glasgow	18
Glasgow Southside	Glasgow	27
Greenock and Inverclyde	West Scotland	10
Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse	Central	1
Inverness and Nairn	Highlands and Islands	13
Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley	South Scotland	6
Kirkcaldy	Mid Scotland and Fife	2
Linlithgow	Lothian	4
Mid Fife and Glenrothes	Mid Scotland and Fife	3
Midlothian North and Musselburgh	Lothian	11
Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale	South Scotland	9
Moray	Highlands and Islands	4
Motherwell and Wishaw	Central	3
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	Highlands and Islands	11
North East Fife	Mid Scotland and Fife	6
Orkney	Highlands and Islands	6
Paisley	West Scotland	3
Perthshire North	Mid Scotland and Fife	5
Perthshire South and Kinross-shire	Mid Scotland and Fife	8
Renfrewshire North and West	West Scotland	7
Rutherglen	Glasgow	10
Shetland Islands	Highlands and Islands	3
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch	Highlands and Islands	9
Stirling	Mid Scotland and Fife	14
Strathkelvin and Bearsden	West Scotland	1
Uddingston and Bellshill	Central	3
Total		668

Question reference: S5W-23675

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the financial penalty for Fair Start providers that fail to deliver individual placement and support has been removed from the Fair Start Scotland Quality and Compliance Decision Making Log and, if so, for what reason.

Question reference: S5W-23603

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment in its Economic Action Plan 2018-20 to publish its Future Skills Action Plan "in early 2019", by what date this will be published.

We continue to work with stakeholders, including the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board and the agencies, to develop the Future Skills Action Plan.

It is crucial that the plan is fully aligned with the delivery of the Strategic Board’s Strategic Plan, and work the Board and its agencies are developing to drive forward our shared ambitions for skills provision to better support inclusive and sustainable economic growth. This work must also take cognisance of the economic and labour market conditions into which the Future Skills Action Plan will be delivered, with the significant negative impacts of Brexit across Scotland’s economy and labour market, a primary and obvious concern.

I look forward to updating Parliament on our plans to publish the Future Skills Action Plan in the very near future.

Question reference: S5W-23676

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether individual placement and support provision under schedule 1 of the Fair Start Scotland Specification and Service Levels is measured monthly via a random sample of service providers caseload management records and, if so, what the findings of this reporting has been, including (a) how many are people are accessing it and (b) what the geographic availability is.

We regularly monitor providers on their performance as part of our quality assurance process to ensure that key performance indicators (KPIs) and key delivery indicators (KDIs) are met. IPS provision is measured via a random sample of Service Providers’ caseload management records.

The Scottish Government will publish information on Fair Start Scotland’s Individual Placement and Support provision, uptake and delivery when it reports to Parliament later this year.

Question reference: S5W-23561

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 11 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many referrals were recorded in each contract area by Fair Start Scotland in the last year; how many starts there were, and how many participants (a) started a job after joining, (b) were in employment for at least (i) 13 and (ii) 26 weeks, (c) left the service early and (d) enrolled in the Health and Work Support pilot.

Data for Fair Start Scotland (FSS) referrals and starts is already published at Local Authority (LA) area level. A table is provided in the Background Information section of the devolved employment services statistical publication that allows LA data to be matched with Contract Package Area. This publication can be found on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-devolved-employment-services-statistical-summary-2/

The number of early leavers, job starts and 13 and 26 week job outcomes at LA area level will be published in Scottish Government’s next quarterly release, which means Contract Package Area data will be available at the end of August.

For ease of reference, the published LA referral and start data mapped to Contract Package Areas for the first year of FSS is as follows:

Fair Start Scotland referrals and starts by Contract Package Area (CPA), up to 29 March 2019

CPA	Referrals	Starts
East	3,172	1,729
Forth Valley	1,148	683
Glasgow	3,495	1,900
Highlands & Islands	664	417
Lanarkshire	3,256	1,837
North East	993	595
South West	1,829	1,059
Tayside	1,524	1,060
West	1,394	706
Unknown*	141	77
SCOTLAND	17,616	10,063

*Unknowns are due to the live nature of the data collection system. These records will be updated with a location in due course.

The numbers enrolling into the Health & Work Support Pilot is 598 in Dundee City and 332 in Fife (between June 26 2018 and March 31 2019). Service Delivery areas are different in the Pilot and FSS.

Question reference: S5O-03345

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with farmers regarding the impact of the Orkney Native Wildlife Project on the agricultural sector.

Question reference: S5W-22983

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning applications for new build residential properties have been refused by a planning authority but successfully appealed to the Scottish Ministers since 2007, broken down by (a) planning authority, (b) year, (c) applicant and (d) size of proposed development.

The information requested is given in the tables entitled “Planning appeals allowed, broken down by planning authority and by year" and "Planning appeals allowed, broken down by appellant and size of development", a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (Bib number 60674).

Case files held by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) are generally retained for 10 years from the date of the decision prior to being destroyed. Therefore some of the information sought (from 2007 until April 2009) is not held. The information within the tables provided relates to decisions issued by DPEA from the period 07-05-2009 to 06-05-2019 (inclusive).

DPEA has been recording appeals for developments of '10 or more houses' since 1 January 2015. This category was added to the existing descriptive categories of 'single dwelling' and 'more than one house'. Therefore appeals received prior to that date, which may fit into the category of 'more than 10 houses' are recorded in the relevant table(s) but may be included in the data within the category of 'more than one house'.

Question reference: S5O-03214

Current Status: Withdrawn