Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to supporting food and drink producers from across Scotland, including those located across the islands and regions. The industry leadership body, Scotland Food and Drink, has recently facilitated an extensive engagement exercise with businesses across Scotland to help inform the development of a new national food and drink strategy - as part of that, ideas were sought on actions to further promote island and regional produce. The new strategy will be published soon and, when it is, we will set out our plans for further supporting the industry.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07232 on 15 March 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The SPA board considered an update on the current status of the implementation plan, which has been developed from the recommendation made within the Chair's Review of Governance report, at the public board meeting on 24 February 2017. The paper is available on the SPA's website at: http://www.spa.police.uk/assets/126884/386205/item_13.pdf

The £12 million Transition Training Fund, launched in 1 February 2016, offers support with training grants to help individuals retrain, upskill or get accreditation or certification that could help individuals get a new job in oil and gas, the wider energy sector, or engineering and manufacturing.

The latest figures shows that over 1600 individuals have had applications approved from the fund. Training programmes procured by the TTF will also create around 330 employment opportunities across Scotland, with the latest tranche supporting over 400 opportunities. There are also 12 individuals being supported into STEM teaching opportunities within the North East.

Skills Development Scotland have carried out an initial sample survey of participants who had undertaken training through the TTF. The findings were that 58% were in employment, of which 78% transitioned to work in new sectors. Of those in employment, 85% said that support accessed through the fund had helped them secure a job.

I refer the member to my answer to S5W-07384 on 22 February 2017, and to my letter of 10 March 2017 to the Finance and Constitution Committee, which is available in SPICe (BiB number 58578).

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

It already is a criminal offence to carry in public any blade or instrument with a sharp point. There is an exception relating to a folding pocketknife less than three inches in length. The criminal law therefore bans the carrying of so called zombie-knives in public. Scottish Government legislation to increase the penalties for this offence came into force in March 2016 with maximum penalties increasing from four years to five years.

The Scottish Government’s response to reports by the Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group and the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force, published on 8 March 2017, sets out that we will consult on a new, long term fuel poverty strategy, including proposals for a new overarching target, in Autumn 2017. This strategy will feed into the development of a new Warm Homes Bill, which we plan to introduce in 2018.

The latest Local Authority level statistics from the Scottish House Condition Survey, relating to 2013-2015 did not record an increase in fuel poverty in any Local Authority. All differences with the previous set of statistics, relating to the period 2012-2014, are within the margin of error.

Latest figures on the level of fuel poverty in Scotland as a whole indicated that between 2014 and 2015 fuel poverty fell from 35% to 31% of all households. To achieve sufficient sample size for Local Authority level estimates, three years’ worth of Scottish House Condition Survey data are merged and this is therefore less well suited to reflect the drop in the rate of fuel poverty which occurred between 2014 and 2015.

The Scottish Government remains committed to tackling fuel poverty and, despite the welcome drop in the number of households affected, we know there is much more to be done. We also recognise that there are specific challenges in rural areas. That is why we established the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force to examine the full range of issues around fuel poverty in rural areas. The Task Force reported on its findings in October 2016 and our response published on 8 March 2017 sets out the action we are taking to address the recommendations.

The Scottish Government has done everything it can to minimise redundancies in the oil and gas industry, but where this has not been possible, we have supported affected employees through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE), which has focused significant efforts to help individuals from the oil and gas sector realise their broad skill set by introducing them to employers from a variety of sectors - with four large recruitment events providing support for over 3,500 people affected by the current challenges in the industry and a further event planned for 29 March.

Furthermore, the Energy Jobs Taskforce has brought together key partners to maximise employment opportunities. Our enhanced 'Adopt an Apprentice' scheme provides a financial incentive of £5,000 to help a potential employer cover the wage and recruitment costs of taking on a Modern Apprentice who has been made redundant from the oil and gas industry, allowing the apprentice to continue their Modern Apprenticeship programme, and we have set up a £12m Transition Training Fund that has so far enabled more than 1600 former oil and gas workers to receive support for training with good access to a job outcome. Furthermore, training programmes procured by the Fund will create up to 755 employment opportunities, and the fund is also already supporting 12 individuals to retrain as teachers in STEM subjects.

Both the Minister for Employability and Training and myself have been made aware of reports of employers discriminating against applicants with offshore experience and these reports are deeply concerning. The oil and gas workforce are highly talented with skills that can be utilised in a wide range of different sectors, including renewables, construction, decommissioning and many others.

This issue was raised in the chamber by Gillian Martin MSP who has written to the UK Government who have responsibility in this area. No response from the UK Government has been received and I have therefore undertaken to take up the issue with my colleague the Minister for Employability and Training and to jointly seek action from UK ministers given reserved responsibilities.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to promoting fair work practices throughout Scotland and we will continue to lobby the UK Government for the full set of powers around employment law so that, regardless of party, the Scottish Parliament can adopt a more proactive role in addressing these kind of issues.