Chamber and committees

Under the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract, performance deductions can be applied by in certain circumstances.

The level of performance deductions by Contract Year incurred by CalMac Ferries Ltd is detailed below:

The Scottish Government does not collect data in relation to the turnaround of unsuccessful applications. The following table shows the average processing time in months for successful applications during each of the last six years.

Pay and performance is a matter for CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL). Scottish Ministers have no role to play in any pay negotiations. The information on performance payments to senior staff is reported and available in the David MacBrayne Limited accounts.

Years where performance deductions have been made to the CHFS Contract were set out in my answer to question S6W-10178 on 7 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government encourages our public collections to consider the method of acquisition of all objects in their care, the vast majority of which were obtained ethically and legally.

Any consideration of returning cultural artefacts would initially be a decision for the relevant Board of Trustees. However Scottish Government officials engage in ongoing discussions with the museums sector, and will continue to encourage open and inclusive discussion on this topic.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken specific planning or research regarding a reduction in the devolved civil service headcount in Scotland.

The Scottish Government regularly reviews its workforce numbers to ensure affordability, and that the organisation is delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible. The organisation's focus is on aligning its workforce plans with the outcome of the Resource Spending Review, and contributing to achieving the broad aim set out within the Resource Spending Review, to return the total size of the devolved public sector workforce to around pre-COVID-19 levels by 2026-27. This will be achieved through effective vacancy and recruitment management, working in partnership with the Council of Scottish Government Unions.

The RSR sets out how the wider decrease in the public sector workforce will not be achieved via a uniform approach due to varying trends in demand for different services and the recovery of services from COVID-19.

The area of land in community ownership was estimated to be 191,261 hectares as of 31 December 2020. This figure has been taken from the Official Statistics publication Community Ownership in Scotland 2020 which is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/community-ownership-scotland-2020/ . The next update to this publication will be published 27 September 2022 and will include information on any further assets brought into community ownership up to
‎ 31 December 2021.

The welfare of all displaced Ukrainians staying across the country remains the Scottish Government’s priority.

The Scottish Government has not sought assistance from the British Army in order to assist Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Scotland.

Table 1 – deaths from alcohol liver disease (ICD-10 K70) in Inverclyde and North Ayrshire, 2016 to 2021

We are aware there may be constraints in the market place and we are working closely with a number of Scottish firms and with industry bodies and forums to monitor market availability, therefore we are able to prioritise Single Building Assessments.

All the 15 buildings using the grant based approach have been issued grant letters and had initial payments to allow contracts to be placed. All have fire engineers and surveyors working on assessments.