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: 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-03739

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 whether it considers the £1.9 million awarded in the last four years through the Framework for Supported Factories and Businesses to have been sufficient, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

The Framework Agreement for Supported Factories and Businesses was put in place by the Scottish Government in 2012 as a means of helping public sector buyers quickly access a range of good and services from those supported businesses on the framework. However, public bodies operate independently from Scottish Ministers for their procurement activities and are free to run their own procurement exercises outside of the Framework.

Since the establishment of that Framework, and in recognition of the importance that Scottish Ministers place on supported businesses, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced by the Scottish Government contains a number of provisions relating to supported businesses. 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.

The answer to question S5W-02408 on 20 September 2016 provides further details of relevant provisions contained within the Act. 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

Question reference: S5W-03741

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 plans it has to review the Framework for Supported Factories and Businesses and whether a new framework will be launched after the expiry of the current agreement in September 2017.

Work is currently on going to determine the appropriate course of action on the expiration of the framework agreement. The Scottish Government is in discussions with stakeholders on how we best facilitate market access for supported businesses in line with the changed definition under the European procurement legislation and taking account of the legislative requirements within the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 which have come into force this year.

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.

Question reference: S5W-03738

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 ensures that public bodies have at least one contract with supported factories and businesses; whether it is aware of any that do not and, if so, which; for what reason and what action it is taking.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of all contracts awarded by all public bodies in Scotland. However, since 18 April this year, all public bodies are required to publish a contracts register detailing regulated contract awards. For those bodies that have an annual procurement spend of £5 million or more, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 will require them to publish an annual procurement report, which should contain a summary of any steps taken to facilitate the involvement of supported businesses.

Question reference: S5W-03743

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 26 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which body would be held liable for any damage to health from air pollution from a project that a local planning committee refused planning permission for but that went ahead following an appeal by the Scottish Ministers’ reporter.

The Glasgow and Clyde Valley Strategic Development Plan identifies that aggregates minerals are a significant natural resource and are essential to sustainable economic growth and development of the city region. However the Scottish Government recognises that the operation of quarries can give rise to land use and environmental issues which require to be mitigated and controlled through the planning system.

Operators of sites such as these need to demonstrate that both dust and particle emissions from the site are adequately controlled and are within acceptable limits. In this instance, the DPEA reporter's decision was issued subject to 43 planning conditions. Those planning conditions include the necessary implementation of mitigation measures to prevent dust creation at source, control times of operations, control noise, blasting and restoration of the site and mitigate potential impacts in respect of dust, odour and noise. Those conditions also make it clear to the operator what is expected of them while allowing the outcomes to be monitored by the relevant planning authority. Other sources of dust (and odour) such as rock crushing and the asphalt plant would be regulated by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), who did not object to the proposed development, under separate legislation and monitored by SEPA to meet EU standards of operation whilst setting out conditions the operators must meet.

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