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: S4W-28317

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to produce an e-commerce strategy.

Scotland’s Digital Future: A Strategy for Scotland sets out the ambition for Scotland to be at the forefront of the digital economy.

This strategy recommended that Scotland’s enterprise and skills agencies work collaboratively to enhance business support on digital issues through the Business Excellence Partnership (BEP), backed by an additional £13.6 million of Scottish Government funding. E-commerce is a recurring theme within the business support programme delivered for the BEP and led by Scottish Enterprise. This programme includes the digital voucher scheme supporting around 450 companies (with e-commerce as a key project focus); the Supplier Development Programme focused on stimulating public sector e-commerce via e-procurement; Digital Tourism Scotland featuring e-commerce as a theme, and the new National Digital Engagement Programme which will include e-commerce advice within a portfolio of digital support including workshops, one-to-one advice and digital health checks.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to produce a specific e-commerce strategy. However, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International are fully committed to ensuring that e-commerce is incorporated into their wider digital support across all sectors. Details of the support provided are set out in the answer to S4W-28313 on 16 November 2015. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4O-04808

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve outcomes for people who have survived an acquired brain injury in Lothian.

Question reference: S4O-04763

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a £13 million underspend by the Rural Affairs, Food and Environment portfolio in 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-27858

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4F-02982 by Nicola Sturgeon on 1 October 2015 (Official Report, c. 20), whether it will confirm how much of the (a) £31 million of European regional development funding and (b) £47 million of funding from Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council is (i) new and (ii) existing money.

Two weeks ago I announced £78 million to support business innovation in Scotland from now until December 2018. The £31 million from the European Regional Development Fund is a new allocation to Scotland – it did not feature in the Programme for Government and it has not previously been announced.

The remaining funding £47 million from Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council comes from existing budgets and reflects their plans in terms of boosting business innovation in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is now working with the agencies to develop more detailed funding plans to ensure these deliver clear and long-term benefits for Scotland’s economy and Scottish businesses.

Question reference: S4W-27842

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 26 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27660 by Annabelle Ewing on 1 October 2015, when the audit and compliance procedures will be completed and what action it will then take to make available the information that was requested.

Question reference: S4W-27843

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 26 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-27661 by Annabelle Ewing on 1 October 2015, when the audit and compliance procedures will be completed and what action it will then take to make available the information that was requested.

Question reference: S4O-04713

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government in which month the evaluation of the Youth Employment Scotland Fund will be completed and whether it will publish the full evaluation.

Question reference: S4W-27663

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out regarding what the potential financial impact could be on higher education institutions of an Office for National Statistics' reclassification of Scotland's universities, and whether it will publish this.

An analysis of the risk of such a re-classification, linked to implementation of the provisions in the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill, has been undertaken. This focused on examination of each provision against what the European System of Accounts guidance from 2010 sets out as indicators of government control. This guidance is referred to by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in making classification determinations. It is the view of the Scottish Government that the content of the Bill is compliant with the indicators of control.

Therefore, the Scottish Government has not conducted specific analysis of what the theoretical financial impact could be on Scottish higher education institutions of an ONS re-classification of our institutions as public bodies.

Question reference: S4W-27664

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out regarding how the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill could impact on the possibility of an Office for National Statistics' reclassification of Scotland's universities, and whether it will publish this.

Analysis of the risk of such a re-classification, linked to implementation of the provisions in the Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill, has been undertaken. This focused on examination of each provision against what the European System of Accounts guidance (2010) sets out as being ‘indicators of government control’. This guidance is referred to by the Office for National Statistics in making classification determinations. It is the view of the Scottish Government that the content of the Bill is compliant with the indicators of control.

I know that the Member made a request during the Finance Committee Session on 16 September 2015 about this Bill, asking to see some of the Scottish Government’s analysis. That request was noted at the time, and I subsequently wrote to the Convenor of the Finance Committee on the matter on 5 October 2015.

Question reference: S4W-27624

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 5 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of the UK's foreign direct investment jobs have been created in Scotland in each of the last 10 years.

The Ernst and Young UK attractiveness survey provides an estimate of the number of jobs created by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects. Estimates for Scotland for 2005 to 2014 are provided in the table below. The table shows that, in 2014, FDI created 3,532 jobs in Scotland or 11.3% of the UK’s FDI jobs; this share is higher than Scotland’s UK population share of 8.3% in 2014.

Numbers of jobs recorded from FDI, Scotland, 2005 to 2014

Year	Jobs recorded from FDI, Scotland	Scotland FDI jobs as a share of UK FDI jobs
2005	2,710	9.8%
2006	4,511	16.2%
2007	4,200	17.4%
2008	1,614	7.9%
2009	1,538	7.7%
2010	4,071	19.2%
2011	5,926	19.8%
2012	4,867	16.1%
2013	4,165	14.9%
2014	3,532	11.3%

Source: Ernst and Young’s attractiveness survey – Scotland 2015:

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/2015_Scotland_Attractiveness_Survey/$FILE/EY-2015-Scotland-Attractiveness-Survey.pdf

Note that the number of jobs created by specific FDI projects are not always announced, and – partly as a result – the figures on employment resulting from FDI projects can be volatile from year to year.