Chamber and committees

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-17261

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 27 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what trips over summer recess 2018 (a) to the rest of the UK and (b) overseas are scheduled for (i) the First Minister and (ii) each cabinet secretary and minister.

Question reference: S5W-17212

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how the implementation of the Public Contracts (Scotland) 2015 regulations is being used to support the delivery of fair work, collective bargaining and effective voice across the engineering construction sector.

Legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, provides for Scottish Ministers to publish Statutory Guidance on Addressing Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage, in Procurement. This Guidance published in October 2015, after consultation with Trade Unions, advises public bodies how to address Fair Work practices within their procurement exercises. It states we expect contractors who deliver public contracts to adhere to relevant collective agreements, and that fair work practices include trade union recognition or alternative arrangements to give staff an effective voice. To support the practical application of the Statutory Guidance, we have worked with the Fair Work Convention and are developing best practice guidance which is due to be published in Summer 2018.

Question reference: S5W-17214

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) which companies that have been selected to provide public services (i) have and (ii) do not have collective bargaining arrangements.

Question reference: S5W-17216

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce transitional protections for procurement contracts that began before the full implementation of the Public Contracts (Scotland) 2015 regulations.

Question reference: S5W-17213

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements have been put in place throughout the lifetime of the procurement process to ensure that investment into public sector infrastructure delivers on the Public Contracts (Scotland) 2015 regulations in support of workplace matters, including the provision of relevant collective agreements.

The Scottish Government has put in place a number of arrangements to address Fair Work practices throughout the public procurement process.

Statutory Guidance published in October 2015 requires public bodies to consider, before they undertake a procurement process whether it is relevant and proportionate to include a question on Fair Work practices, which would be evaluated along with other relevant criteria.

The public procurement Regulations permit a public body to reject a contractor’s tender, which would have otherwise won the competition, where the body has established that the tender does not comply with applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour or collective agreements. Furthermore, the Scottish Government’s standard terms and conditions of contract contain a clause permitting the contract to be terminated if, in delivering the contractor, the contractor breaches environmental, social or employment laws. We have also published a Scottish Procurement Policy Note 9/2016 which contains model contract conditions.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies in Scotland with a significant procurement spend to report on their procurement activity, which must include a review of whether those procurements complied with their policy set out in their procurement strategy on how to promote the Living Wage and progress the Fair Work agenda. The first of these annual Reports are expected to be published over the coming months.

Question reference: S5O-02289

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve out-of-hours provision at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Question reference: S5W-17095

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many posts in its social security (a) directorate and (b) agency it has (i) advertised and (ii) re-advertised.

As of 8 June 2018 the number of posts advertised in its Social Security (a) directorate was 632 which includes (b) 241 posts in the Social Security Agency Implementation Division, this data is from July 2016 when the Social Security Directorate was established. The Social Security Agency will not go live until later this year.

Data on the number of posts re-advertised is not held within the Scottish Government recruitment system. The system does not have the functionality to report on re-advertised posts. Scottish Government resourcing colleagues are currently looking at new resourcing system and will be speaking to Social Security Directorate and Agency colleagues about the specification required.

Question reference: S5W-17092

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on Special Customer Records and whether this applies to all of its directorates and agencies and also (a) victims of domestic violence, (b) people who are transsexual or transgender and (c) other high-risk individuals.

Question reference: S5W-17091

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the DWP and HMRC regarding the transfer of Special Customer Records, including for (a) victims of domestic violence, (b) people who are transsexual or transgender and (c) other high-risk individuals, for the purposes of devolved taxes and social security, and how many of these records exist.

As part of the work to establish arrangements for wave 1 benefits, and specifically the delivery of Carers Allowance Supplement, officials from Social Security Directorate have engaged in discussion with DWP about their approach to handling Special Customer Records.

Data sharing for social security purposes is permitted by the Scotland Act 2016. DWP have advised that currently 0.04% of Scottish recipients of Carer’s Allowance have a Special Customer Records status.

Similar discussions will be necessary in relation to each of the devolved benefits.

Scottish Government has no right of access to any HMRC taxpayer records. We have had no discussions regarding the transfer of Special Customer Records in this regard, and have no current plans to do so.

Question reference: S5W-17093

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what Social Security Scotland’s policy is for handling the Special Customer Records of (a) victims of domestic violence, (b) people who are transsexual or transgender and (c) other high-risk individuals, and whether this differs from the DWP's policy.