Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-14944

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people work in the gig economy.

There are no official estimates for the number of people working in the gig economy in Scotland. However, on 7 February 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published a research paper on the characteristics of those in the gig economy. This research includes estimates for the share of those involved in the GB gig economy by country/region. The research paper can be found on-line at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679436/The_characteristics_of_those_in_the_gig_economy.pdf

Question reference: S5W-14940

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses are co-operatives, broken down by year since 2011.

The main source for official statistics on the number of businesses in Scotland is the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR, maintained by the Office for National Statistics, is a database of all businesses registered for Value-Added-Tax (VAT) and/or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE). Co-operatives cannot be specifically identified on the IDBR. However, Co-operatives UK monitor the number of co-operatives across the UK - their co-operative economy report for 2017, which states that there are 560 co-operatives in Scotland, is available on-line at: http://reports.uk.coop/economy2017/#3-across-the-country .

Question reference: S5W-14941

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people registered as self-employed in each year since 2011.

Table 1 shows the level of self-employment in Scotland in each year from October 2010–September 2011 to October 2016-September 2017 from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The October 2016-September 2017 is the most recent data available from the APS.

Table 1: Level of self-employment, Scotland, 2011-2016

Year	Self-employment (level)
Oct 2010-Sep 2011	284,200
Oct 2011-Sep 2012	299,300
Oct 2012-Sep 2013	289,400
Oct 2013-Sep 2014	301,700
Oct 2014-Sep 2015	303,700
Oct 2015-Sep 2016	311,000
Oct 2016-Sep 2017	326,200

Source: Annual Population Survey, Office for National Statistics

Question reference: S5W-14943

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people who register as self-employed do not start their own business.

The Businesses in Scotland 2017 publication provides a breakdown of enterprises into those that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, and those that are not (so called unregistered enterprises). Unregistered enterprises are the smallest businesses that are not large enough to be VAT registered (have an annual turnover below the VAT threshold - £83,000 as at March 2017) and are not PAYE registered (i.e. do not employ others). The Businesses in Scotland 2017 publication is available on-line at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Corporate

Question reference: S5W-14942

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many new businesses started up in each year from 2011.

Business births are measured using new business VAT/PAYE registrations, sourced from the Office for National Statistics Business Demography publications. Table 1 shows business births in each year from 2011 to 2016.

Table 1: Business Births (VAT/PAYE registrations), Scotland, 2011-2016

Year	Business Births
2011	16,940
2012	17,385
2013	21,540
2014	21,235
2015	21,725
2016	22,270

Source: Business Demography 2016, Office for National Statistics

Note that VAT/PAYE registrations do not represent a complete picture of start-up activity as only businesses with an annual turnover above the VAT threshold or who have employees on a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) scheme are required to register.

Question reference: S5O-01894

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.

Question reference: S5W-14815

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time taken is by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to deal with complaints.

The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is a Non-Ministerial Department and part of the Scottish Administration. OSCR is an independent regulator and does not form part of the Scottish Government.

In line with the framework agreement between the Scottish Government and OSCR, given that this question asks about matters that are the responsibility of OSCR and that Scottish Ministers are not accountable for OSCR’s operations,the Member is invited to refer the question to OSCR.

Question reference: S5W-14888

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many school leavers with learning disabilities have gone on to (a) work, (b) further education, (c) higher education, (d) unemployment and (e) another destination in each of the last five years.

The initial destinations of school leavers with a recorded ‘Learning Disability’ Additional Support Need, for the last five leaver cohorts for which data are available, are detailed in the following table:

Percentage of secondary and special school leavers from publicly funded schools with a recorded 'Learning Disability' Additional Support Need by initial destination category, 2011-12 – 2015-16

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Number of Leavers	940	1150	994	1,116	1,266
Higher Education	2.6	3.1	3.6	3	4.4
Further Education	54.7	52.1	52.4	53.8	52.4
Training	6.5	9.2	8.8	9.6	5.9
Employment	9.5	11	10.6	11.6	11.6
Voluntary Work	*	1.1	1	0.8	*
Activity Agreement	3.2	5.1	3.9	3	*
Unemployed Seeking	12.4	8.5	11.1	6.7	7
Unemployed Not Seeking	10	9.3	7.9	10.5	*
Unknown	*	0.5	0.7	1.1	*

Question reference: S5W-14817

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is a reported backlog of complaints relating to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, and what action it is taking to resolve this.

The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is a Non-Ministerial Department and part of the Scottish Administration. OSCR is an independent regulator and does not form part of the Scottish Government.

In line with the framework agreement between the Scottish Government and OSCR, given that this question asks about matters that are the responsibility of OSCR and that Scottish Ministers are not accountable for OSCR’s operations,the Member is invited to refer the question to OSCR.

Question reference: S5W-14987

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government which businesses have received funding from the Scottish Growth Scheme in each month since its establishment, broken down by amount.

Details on number of businesses and level of investment by each month is as follows:

Month	Total number of businesses	Total level of investment
October 2017	8	£ 7, 392,069
November 2017	4	£ 5, 571,471
December 2017	13	£ 10, 200,309
January 2018	2	£ 774,760
February 2018	3	£ 4, 198,970
March (up to 6 ^th)	1	£ 2, 034,278
Total	31	£ 30, 171,857

Information on investments in individual companies is not available due to commercial confidential agreements with investors, but these companies are in a variety of sectors such as software development, textiles, energy, multimedia, fintech and healthcare.

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