Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-28124

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of the events over the last four years for which the PACE team has been deployed.

Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) is the Scottish Government’s strategic framework initiative for responding to redundancy situations. PACE offers free and impartial advice and is available to all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business or how many employees are involved.

Skills Development Scotland delivers PACE on behalf of the Scottish Government in conjunction with other key partners including the Department for Work and Pensions. In addition to the National PACE Team, there are 18 local PACE teams across Scotland to ensure speedy and effective responses to redundancy situations.

Information on PACE interventions during the last four years is contained in the following table.

Year	Unique Employers Supported	Number of Employers' Branches
2011-12	365	600
2012-13	297	523
2013-14	298	445
2014-15	252	392

Question reference: S4W-28125

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it uses to decide (a) when and (b) how to deploy the PACE team.

Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) is the Scottish Government's initiative dedicated to helping individuals and employers with the advice and support they need when faced with redundancy.

PACE support is available for all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business nor how many employees are involved. PACE also works with insolvency practitioners to provide support where a business has gone into administration or liquidation.

Skills Development Scotland delivers PACE on behalf of the Scottish Government in conjunction with other key partners including the Department for Work and Pensions. In addition to the National PACE Team, there are 18 local PACE teams across Scotland to ensure speedy and effective responses to redundancy situations.

Whenever we become aware of individuals facing redundancy, PACE support is offered. Each PACE intervention is tailored to meet the needs of the employer and employees and may include on site delivery by PACE Partners.

Question reference: S4W-28128

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of the occasions on which the PACE team has been deployed to assist public sector workers.

PACE support is available for all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business nor how many employees are involved. Whenever we become aware of individuals facing redundancy, PACE support is offered.

With regard to PACE support for public sector workers, many reductions in the public sector have been achieved on a voluntary basis.

During this financial year, PACE support has been provided for employees from the following public sector agencies: Highland Council, Fife Council and HM Revenue and Customs.

PACE support has also been offered to Angus Council and West Lothian Council but both authorities have advised that support was not required.

When PACE support was offered to Falkirk Council and Edinburgh City Council, as consultations are continuing with employees, both authorities advised that support was not required at present.

PACE chairs have made contact and offered PACE support and the response has been:

Not required - Angus and West Lothian

Not required at present - Discussion consultations ongoing with employees - Edinburgh and Falkirk

Colleges:

No PACE support has been provided to colleges during this financial year. No HR1s for colleges have been received by PACE this financial year.

Question reference: S4W-28127

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it uses to determine the success of the PACE team.

Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) is the Scottish Government’s initiative for responding to redundancy situations. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

The operation of PACE is overseen by the Ministerial PACE Partnership which is chaired by the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism, Fergus Ewing MSP and comprises the Scottish Government together with 21 organisations to oversee a continuous improvement programme to enhance the operation of PACE.

As part of that continuous improvement programme, in order to gauge the influence of PACE and to consider the quality of provision of PACE support, we undertook a PACE Client Experience Survey in 2010, 2012 and most recently 2014. The 2014 survey found that PACE is perceived as having a positive influence on people’s ability to find work and that 72% of those surveyed who had received PACE support had gone into employment. T link to the research is below.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0046/00460000.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-28129

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 9 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what actions the PACE team has taken to support (a) Police Scotland, (b) college and local authority staff.

PACE support is available for all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business nor how many employees are involved. Whenever we become aware of individuals facing redundancy, PACE support is offered.

PACE support was provided for Police Scotland employees in Dumfries, Stirling and Glenrothes in January and February 2015 in relation to the relocation of Police Scotland control rooms.

No PACE support has been required by colleges during this or during the last financial year.

PACE support has been provided to Highland Council and to Fife Council during this financial year and to Fife Council and to East Ayrshire Council during the last financial year.

Question reference: S4W-28222

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service pays in recruitment and retention allowances or similar market-based pay supplements.

Question reference: S4W-28213

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many posts in the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service attract a recruitment and retention allowance or other market-based pay supplement and whether it will provide a breakdown of staff in these posts by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) geographical area.

Question reference: S4O-04762

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact on the environment of fracking.

Question reference: S4O-04714

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities regarding the impact of public sector procurement on employment policy.

Question reference: S4W-27656

Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many people were employed each year through its Youth Employment Scotland Fund, and what information it has regarding how many were paid at a rate lower than that year’s (a) national minimum and (b) living wage.

The Scottish Government has allocated the 10,000 employer recruitment placements to local authorities. The final figure for delivered places in each year will not be known until audit and compliance procedures have been completed.

The programme was set up to support employers at the national minimum wage, through agreement with Scottish Local Authority Economic Development and COLSA. Local authorities and employers could, however, optionally supplement this, including paying the living wage.

Chamber and committees