- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will produce an analysis of goods and services purchased by Scottish Enterprise in respect of (a) printing, (b) construction, including PFI/PPP projects, (c) ICT, (d) public relations, (e) advertising, (f) recruitment, (g) consultancy and (h) audit and accountancy in each year from 1999 to 2003, broken down into how much was paid to (i) companies headquartered in the United Kingdom with no Scottish branch, (ii) companies headquartered in the United Kingdom with a Scottish branch and (iii) autonomous Scottish businesses.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will produce an analysis of goods and services purchased by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in respect of (a) printing, (b) construction, including PFI/PPP projects, (c) ICT, (d) public relations, (e) advertising, (f) recruitment, (g) consultancy and (h) audit and accountancy in each year from 1999 to 2003, broken down into how much was paid to (i) companies headquartered in the United Kingdom with no Scottish branch, (ii) companies headquartered in the United Kingdom with a Scottish branch and (iii) autonomous Scottish businesses.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any publicly funded entities and/or jobs are included under private sector activity in its Corporate Sector Tables.
Answer
The Scottish Corporate Sector Statistics are based on extracts of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) provided to us by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The database holds information on legal status (including whether an entity is part of central or local government). It does not hold information on sources of funding so it is not possible to say how many of the entities and/or jobs included under private sector activity in the Scottish Corporate Sector tables receive public funding.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of recent adjustments to its Corporate Sector Tables, it will restate the data from earlier years to allow comparison with more recent data which no longer include NHS primary and acute care as private sector activity.
Answer
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced on 2 July 2003 its decision to classify NHS trusts as central government, in order to make the coding consistent with international conventions.
The Scottish Executive has taken the decision not to re-calculate previously published Corporate Sector data. The reasons for this are:
1. A table is already provided that shows statistics for the whole economy, Table A at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ETLLD/EI/00018389/page1123668026.aspx.2. Re-calculating the figures would make them inconsistent with ONS figures for Scotland for the same period
3. Corporate Sector Statistics for registered enterprises directly reflect the content of the Interdepartmental Business Register; there is no estimation involved. Re-analysing previous data according to current coding conventions would in some cases compromise confidentiality constraints.
The table below shows the number of enterprises and associated employment, affected by the classification decision, by legal status.
| Year | Public Corporation | Central Government |
| Enterprises* | Employment | Enterprises* | Employment |
| 1998 | 45 | 121,270 | 10 | * |
| 1999 | 30 | 126,720 | 10 | * |
| 2000 | 30 | 136,570 | 5 | * |
| 2001 | 15 | * | 20 | * |
| 2002 | 20 | * | 20 | * |
| 2003 | 0 | * | 35 | 155,910 |
Note:*Counts have been rounded to the nearest five.
The Scottish Executive is bound by ONS rules not to publish data where there are less than 20 associated enterprises.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for Scotland's economic growth being lower than the rest of the United Kingdom and what new steps it will take to remedy the situation.
Answer
From 1998 to 2000 there was a significant gap of growth rates between the UK and Scotland. This gap narrowed from 2001, and in 2002 Scotland actually recorded a higher growth rate than the UK. In 2003, the rate of expansion in Scotland lagged that of the UK by 0.1 percentage points. From 2000 Q3 to 2003 Q3 Electrical and Instrument Engineering declined by 39 per cent, which, despite the strong performance of the service sector, had a measurable impact on growth.
The recently published Framework for Economic Development in Scotland (FEDS) points out that an increase in our economic growth rate will be secured through sustained increases in our competitiveness in international and domestic markets. This competitive edge will itself fundamentally depend on raising the underlying productivity of both our enterprises and of our public sector. As outlined in FEDS, the Executive’s efforts to raise productivity centre on education and raising skills in the workforce, improving public infrastructure,fostering entrepreneurial dynamism, supporting innovation and investment in research and development, and increasing the effectiveness in the management of public sector resources.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, what new steps it will take to help Scotland close the competitiveness gap on the rest of the United Kingdom and Estonia in light of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook and the Robert Huggins Associates report, The European Competitiveness Index.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-9885 on 7 September 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to improve Scotland's ranking of 38th out of 60 national and regional economies in the recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook for conditions in our macro-economic domestic economy.
Answer
Improvements in Scotland’s competitiveness fundamentally depend on raising productivity in the private and public sectors.
As outlined in the recently published Framework for Economic Development in Scotland, the Executive’s efforts to raise productivity centre on education and raising skills in the workforce, improving public infrastructure, fostering entrepreneurial dynamism, supporting innovation and investment in research and development, and increasing the effectiveness in the management of public sector resources.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what new steps it will take to increase Scotland's “freedom to compete”, in light of the Fraser Institute of Canada's report, Economic Freedom of the World - 2004 Annual Report.
Answer
The report only provides an assessment of the UK position, which is ranked third, together with New Zealand, Switzerland and the US, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. This high ranking is encouraging, and represents a considerableimprovement since 1980, when the UK was ranked 21st.
The report suggests that the UK could do better by removing obstacles for new business. The Executive works to ensure that all regulations are fit for purpose. In particular, for regulations which impact on business, charities or the voluntary sector, the use of the regulatory impact assessments is designed to guarantee that regulations are proportionate, necessary and fit for purpose when they are introduced and that they remain so over time. The Executive’s improving regulation unit works closely with businesses and their representative organisations ensuring that their needs, particularly small firms, are kept to the forefront of policy making throughout the Executive.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to improve Scotland's ranking of 39th out of 60 national and regional economies in the recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook for the extent to which government policies were conducive to the competitiveness of the economy.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-9885 on 7 September 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Jim Mather, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 September 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook which stated that the United Kingdom was 16.05% more competitive than Scotland, what new steps it will take to quantify the gap in competitiveness between Scotland and London and the south east of England and to use such data to influence Her Majesty's Government's policy in respect of levelling the UK economic “playing field.”
Answer
The measure of competitiveness in the
IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook is a weighted index of several indicators. From this only a ranking of countries and regions can be inferred. It does not measure the absolute size of a competitiveness gap.
The Executive interprets productivity (in terms of output per hour worked) as the primary indicator of Scotland’s competitiveness. As outlined in the recently published Framework for Economic Development in Scotland, the Executive’s efforts to raise productivity centre on education and raising skills in the workforce, improving public infrastructure, fostering entrepreneurial dynamism,supporting innovation and investment in research and development, and increasingthe effectiveness in the management of public sector resources.
