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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 768 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-04516

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 22 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other support (i) it, (ii) Scottish Enterprise, (iii) Highland and Islands Enterprise and (iv) the other public bodies that it has responsibility for has provided to Diageo plc in each of the last five years, and for what purposes.

The Scottish Government continually engages with Diageo as an important Scottish employer. We have provided the following support to Diageo Scotland Plc over the past five years, through our enterprise and skills bodies.

Over the past five years, Scottish Enterprise (SE) has provided £157,318 in financial support to Diageo Scotland Plc. Of this funding, £47,952 supported Manufacturing Excellence projects across Diageo’s Scottish operations. £6,900 of the funding provided support towards an HR development project. The remaining £102,466 of the funding was provided towards 13 Graduate projects across Edinburgh Park, Menstrie and Shieldhall. SE’s Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service has also undertaken eight process reviews and delivered eight project days at the company’s sites in Shieldhall, Renfrew and Leven to deliver efficiency savings on site. Diageo has paid the full rate for the SMAS services provided.

Over the past five years, Highlands and Islands Enterprise have not provided any financial support to Diageo Scotland Plc. However, Highlands and Islands Enterprise are actively engaged with the company on improving broadband connectivity in remote areas, and rural where Diageo’s distilleries are based, as part of its broader support for investment in digital connectivity in those areas.

Skills Development Scotland have not provided any financial support to Diageo in the last five years. They have however worked closely with the Diageo team in driving forward their Youth Strategy through improving their ability to recruit more Modern Apprentices, streamlining their training provider relationships; advising them on how to get maximum value out of their provider contracts and supporting them in potentially becoming a provider themselves.

Question reference: S5O-00386

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its review of the Police Scotland estate, what impact the potential closure of stations will have on public confidence in the police.

Question reference: S5W-03166

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish data measuring the performance of maternity and neo-natal care against the standards and recommendations on staffing and staff training set out in Neonatal Care in Scotland: A Quality Framework.

ISD Scotland publish nursing and midwifery staff in post and nursing and midwifery student intakes figures, as well as nursing and midwifery progression rates. The links below provide the latest data as at 30 June 2016:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-09-06/Nursing_and_Midwifery_SIP_J2016.xls

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2015-12-01/Student_intakes_and_students_in_training_S2015.xls

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2015-12-01/Nursing_and_Midwifery_progression_of_students_S2015.xls

To support implementation of the Framework, the Scottish Government has provided funding almost £2M over the past 5 years to establish three regional neonatal Managed Clinical Networks (MCN’s). Each of the three MCN’s provides an annual report to the Scottish Government, which is followed by a meeting to discuss progress with implementation of the Framework requirements.

Question reference: S5W-03933

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 10 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the vacancies that have been filled each year through Community Jobs Scotland have attracted additional funding because they paid at least the living wage.

Question reference: S5W-03931

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the vacancies that have been filled each year through Community Jobs Scotland have paid at least the living wage.

Question reference: S5W-03932

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) full-time and (b) full-time equivalent vacancies have been filled each year through Community Jobs Scotland.

Since 2011 Community Jobs Scotland has created more than 7,000 full time and part time job training opportunities with third sector employers across Scotland. The number of full time opportunities created in each year of the programme is as follows:

FULL TIME POSITION BY PHASE

Phase 1 (2011-12)	1861
Phase 2 (2012-13)	1270
Phase 3 (2013-14)	1156
Phase 4 (2014-15)	1285
Phase 5 (2015-16)	1045

Question reference: S5W-03929

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 7 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it expects employers that use Community Jobs Scotland services to (a) have recognition agreements with the relevant trades unions and (b) pay at least the living wage.

We are committed to the Fair Work Framework which demonstrates its support of Trade Unions by saying that they are the primary channel of collective worker voice in Scotland and the UK. We encourage businesses to use this Framework to guide their activities in supporting the delivery of fair work in Scotland and promote positive relationships with Trade Unions as they provide a voice and a source of empowerment for employees.

Since 2011 we have provided funding to support the Community Jobs Scotland programme to create paid job training opportunities for young people within the third sector. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisation, who manage the programme on behalf of the Scottish Government, ensure that CJS employees have the same terms and conditions as existing employees.

Since 2015-16 we have funded Community Jobs Scotland to pay young people the living wage where the third sector employers paid this rate to existing employees or where they wanted to implement it for young people on CJS.

Question reference: S5O-00302

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the rail unions.

Question reference: S5W-03740

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes the Framework for Supported Factories and Businesses.

The Scottish Government sees its responsibility as promoting contracting with all supported businesses and not just those on the Framework. The Scottish Government has raised awareness across the buying community and will continue to do so. Details of the Framework are publicised on the Scottish Government website. In addition, Public Contracts Scotland has a facility within the portal that automatically alerts buyers when a supported business can fulfil the requirements of their planned contract and has helped buyers identify suitable third sector/supported business organisations.

Question reference: S5W-03737

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that public bodies make the maximum possible use of reserved contracts for supported factories and businesses under the Scottish Sustainable Action Plan.

The Sustainable Procurement Action Plan called on organisations to produce their own, individual, Delivery Plans setting out how, and by when, improvements in sustainable procurement will be made. Since the publication of that Action Plan in 2009, the Scottish Government has introduced the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The Act places a statutory obligation on contracting authorities to consider, before starting a procurement competition, how, by the way in which it conducts the procurement process, it might facilitate the involvement of supported businesses, and then to act in a way to best bring that about. To support the implementation of the Act, we issued Statutory Guidance, and delivered training that addressed this requirement.

Phase	Numbers paid at Living Wage
Phase 5 (2015-16)	327