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-10265

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether its plans for a black start of electricity provision can restore 90% of supply within 24 hours.

Question reference: S5W-10267

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when ministers last met the National Grid to discuss a black start.

I met with Phil Sheppard of National Grid on 21 December 2016, in my capacity as Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, to discuss winter security of supply, including black start. This was followed by an extraordinary meeting of the Scottish Energy Advisory Board on 16 February to discuss Scottish security of supply and system resilience. This was attended by the First Minister, myself, relevant Scottish Government officials, representatives of the energy sector in Scotland and representatives from National Grid.

Question reference: S5W-10264

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what resilience testing there has been of Peterhead; how quickly it can power a black start, and what capacity it can deliver.

Question reference: S5W-10356

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how the spending on each fuel poverty programme compared with the budget allocated 2016-17, and how any underspend has been re-allocated.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Constitution announced the 2016-17 provisional outturn figures on 22 June. These are currently subject to the final audit process.

The final 2016-17 Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency budget was £119m. An increase of £16m on the draft budget. This reflects additional funding allocated in year to support delivery of our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme and to assist social landlords in meeting the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing.

The provisional budget outturn for 2016-17 notes a variance of £3m in the outturn in the Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency Budget. This occurs in our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS): Area Based Schemes, covering standard ABS projects and phase 1 of the Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme (SEEP) Pilots. The nature of these schemes involves technically difficult measures being installed on properties which can lead to delays in completion and invoicing. Officials are in regular contact with local authority counterparts seeking updates and reassurance on forecast spend. Despite repeated reassurances during the year, some councils declared an underspend very late in the financial year, by which time it was too late to use the allocated budget for this purpose. As is normal practice, this budget underspend was used to help offset additional spend elsewhere in the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S5W-10259

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what provisions are in place for a black start restoration of electricity supply.

Security of supply and the restoration of electricity supplied in the event of a black start is a reserved matter and one in which the Scottish Government has no formal functions. The responsibility for restoring electricity supplies in the event of a black start lies with National Grid under its Transmission License.

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s network operators – to ensure that the black start strategy remains resilient and effective, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.

The Scottish Government supports the need for a diverse supply of electricity located across the network to aid black start restoration processes. On 21 September 2016, I wrote to Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, highlighting the value of black start-capable pumped storage hydro (PSH) to the energy system, and calling upon the UK Government to consider how a 'route to market', which provides investors with confidence in the necessary revenue streams, could bring forward infrastructure investment in grid scale storage, including consented PSH projects in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-10263

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers is an acceptable timescale for the full restoration of power in the event of a black start.

Question reference: S5W-10397

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08107 by Keith Brown on 28 March 2017, whether it will request that the Office for National Statistics produces pay gap data on personal characteristics such as ethnicity and nationality.

A request has been sent to ONS on the 28^th of July requesting Labour Force Survey (LFS) earnings and pay gap tables. We have requested:

1. Information on the ethnicity (white/Non-white) pay gap and the nationality (UK national/Non-UK national) pay gap for Scotland.

2. Pay estimates for white/non-white by gender and UK national/non-UK national by gender, so that the gender pay gap can also be calculated for these 2 groups.

Once the analysis has been performed, it will be made available on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings

Question reference: S5W-10398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08107 by Keith Brown on 28 March 2017, whether there is sufficient data (a) collected and (b) available on the ethnicity pay gap.

The official source of information on the ethnicity pay gap is the Labour Force Survey, collected and published by the Office for National Statistics. ONS have previously published information on the ethnicity pay gap for the UK at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/adhocs/006860lfsearningsandpaygaptableswithnotes

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the relevance of Labour Market Statistical outputs against customer needs through various mechanisms including engagement with external stakeholders through SCOTSTAT http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat and we will produce and develop new statistical outputs where possible in response to customer need.

We are aware that witnesses, at the recent Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee, on the Gender Pay Gap, raised questions of intersectionality of data and the need to consider issues like age, race and disability in conjunction with existing pay gap data and we will look to develop dissemination of Official sources, where possible in this area.

Question reference: S5W-10646

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-10354

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many housing completions there have been by (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations and (c) the private sector in each year since 2007-08.

The following table shows the number of new build housing completions by (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations and (c) the private sector in each year since 2007-08:

Financial Year	Local Authority new build	Housing Association new build	Private sector new build
2007-08	28	4,097	21,663
2008-09	336	4,577	16,109
2009-10	413	5,576	11,133
2010-11	614	5,111	10,703
2011-12	1,114	4,776	10,109
2012-13	963	3,244	9,862
2013-14	1,140	2,911	10,833
2014-15	1,157	3,064	12,018
2015-16	1,138	2,320	12,782
2016-17	1,085	2,748	Not yet available*

* Figures on private led completions for 2016-17 are not yet available as figures for January - March 2017 have not been published. These are scheduled for publication in September.

The above figures form part of the Official Statistics and can be found at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild