- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much support it has provided in (a) grant funding and (b) loan guarantees to Scotland-based manufacturers for the purposes of manufacturing hydrogen buses in Scotland.
Answer
Through Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government provides a range of different types of support to Alexander Dennis Ltd, including for the development of zero emission buses.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 12 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27513 by Neil Gray on 28 May 2024, whether it can provide a breakdown of the spend incurred by NHS bodies on PR and consultancy bills over the last five financial years, broken down by (a) NHS board, (b) spend category, (c) the company or organisation that received funding and (d) the purpose of any such funding.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) NHS Lothian, (b) the City of Edinburgh Council and (c) other relevant authorities regarding the reports of non-surgical Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedures taking place in the city, which led to the local authority issuing a public warning on 25 April 2024.
Answer
The Scottish Government was approached by NHS Lothian, the City of Edinburgh Council and Public Health Scotland to make it aware of issues regarding Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedures taking place in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Government invited an environmental health officer from the City of Edinburgh Council to the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group meeting on 25 March 2024 to provide the group with further details.
The decision to issue a public warning regarding these procedures rested with, and was made by, the City of Edinburgh Council.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with (a) Kidzcare, (b) the City of Edinburgh Council and (c) Education Scotland regarding the reported closure of Haystax Nursery in Niddrie, and what support it can offer to ensure that the nursery remains open for parents, families and staff.
Answer
All three and four year olds, as well as eligible two year olds, have a statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours per year of funded ELC. Local authorities have a duty to make this available to all eligible children within their area, which is delivered across over 2500 centres in Scotland (excluding childminders). Ministers and senior Scottish Government officials regularly engage with CoSLA around issues relating to the implementation of 1140 policy. I would encourage parents to raise any concerns they have about the closure of Haystax Nursery directly with the relevant local authority, in this case City of Edinburgh Council.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that the public has confidence in organisations that receive public funding, by ensuring that its funding processes operate at the highest level of governance accountability and transparency.
Answer
There is a robust framework for the stewardship of public funds by the Scottish Government, its public bodies and recipients of public sector grants. The Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) sets out statutory, parliamentary, and administrative requirements in relation to managing public resources, emphasising the need for economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, and promoting good practice.
There are ‘framework documents’ between the SG and public bodies covering accountability arrangements, financial controls and processes, and associated annual assurance processes. Accountable Officers are personally answerable for the regularity and propriety of the finances under their stewardship and report in annual accounts which are scrutinised by Audit Scotland and potentially by the Public Audit Committee. SG Sponsor teams work with public bodies, ensuring appropriate framework documents and governance arrangements are in place and action is taken on any audit recommendations.
The SPFM sets out the expectations of grant funding and the financial control framework required if public bodies disperse grants. Bodies in receipt of public funds are subject to binding agreements that are monitored as part of established grant management processes.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Siobhian Brown on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much the Edinburgh Eastern constituency has received from the CashBack for Communities fund since it was established, and what projects this funding has supported.
Answer
Edinburgh Eastern has received £1,903,792 from the Cashback for Communities fund since 2008.
Eight CashBack Partners have delivered projects within Edinburgh Eastern Constituency from 2008 to 2024. They are: Boxing Scotland; Edinburgh Young Carers; Scottish Football Association; Scottish Rugby; SportScotland (Facilities Fund); Street Soccer Scotland; Youth Scotland and YouthLink Scotland.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how much support has been provided through the Energy Transition Fund in each of the years in which the fund has operated, and whether it will provide a breakdown of the (a) fund recipients and (b) amounts awarded in each case.
Answer
The Energy Transition Fund was launched in 2020 and provides support for four major projects based in the Aberdeen City region. The following table sets out funding awarded to date, broken down by project and financial year.
| | Funding awarded (£million) | |
Project Name | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Total to date | Allocated 2024-25 |
Energy Transition Zone | 0.05 | 2.38 | 9 | 5.541 | 16.971 | 2.505 |
Global Underwater Hub | 0 | 1.823 | 1.811 | 0.768 | 4.402 | 1.178 |
Net Zero Technology Transition Programme | 0 | 1.597 | 6.574 | 6.157 | 14.328 | 2.094 |
Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub | 4.5 | 0 | 1.35 | 4.37 | 10.22 | 3.8 |
Total per year | 4.55 | 5.8 | 18.735 | 16.836 | 45.921 | 9.577 |
The Scottish Government also provides planning for and support to the energy transition through a range of other vehicles. These include the Just Transition Fund, Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and the development of a Just Transition Plan for the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster which will be published shortly.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27466 by Natalie Don on 21 May 2024, whether it will provide further information on the discussion that the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise had at the recent meeting concerning volunteer retention; whether the concerns of the group, Children's Hearings Scotland Scandal, were discussed, and what steps are being taken to retain volunteers in light of the group's concerns.
Answer
As reflected in the answer to S6W-27466, a range of matters related to volunteer retention were discussed. Those included the development of the Tribunal Support Model (TSM) within Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), introduced to better support volunteers in local areas across Scotland. The National Convener also discussed the future additional demand for children’s panel members associated with the commencement of the Care and Justice (Scotland) Bill.
The National Convener had identified a general downward trend in broader volunteering and retention since the covid pandemic, and outlined his plans for future panel recruitment campaigns and retention efforts.
There is a long unbroken record dating back 6 decades of sufficient local volunteers coming forward to serve on the children’s panel, and the Scottish Government , through officials and portfolio Ministers, are in regular dialogue with CHS about recruitment and retention.
The issue of recruitment and retention of volunteers are independent statutory functions for the National Convener. His independence in discharging those functions is enshrined in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. The member may wish to write to the National Convener for further information about the recruitment and retention of volunteers.
The group Children’s Hearings Scotland Scandal were not discussed in the meeting. The Scottish Government is not aware of any concerns from that group which have not already been addressed, or that would have any material bearing on volunteer retention issues at the national level.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the current size of Scotland's civil service in terms of full-time equivalent staff count, and whether it expect this number to increase over the next two financial years.
Answer
At the end of December 2023, the Scottish Government directly employed 8,824 (full time equivalent) civil servants and engaged 1,436 contingent workers.
The latest available workforce statistics are at this link: Scottish Government workforce statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This will be updated with end March 2024 data on Tuesday 11 June 2024.
The Scottish Government is proactively addressing the need to reduce in size to remain fiscally sustainable and has been on a reducing trajectory since March 2022. We continue to progress public sector reform, and workforce numbers are regularly and carefully reviewed to ensure that we are delivering for the people of Scotland as efficiently and effectively as possible.
- Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 11 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27515 by Ivan McKee on 23 May 2024, whether it will provide a breakdown of the work undertaken by the consultancies that were awarded funding in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answer
Following on from the answer to S6W-27515 where a list of 132 Scottish Government consultancy suppliers total annual spend was provided. Due to the high volume of transactional data that provides the breakdown of this spend (1,199 in total) and the work that would need to be carried out to provide the line level detail would be a substantial piece of work. To help to provide additional information to support the ask, a further breakdown on the top 10 suppliers has been provided which includes the number of annual transactions again for FY22-23. This captures approximately 83% of the total annual spend.
Supplier Name | Sum of Aggregate Spend | Transactions |
Deloitte LLP | £8,298,702.55 | 44 |
SAC Commercial Ltd | £4,571,346.65 | 79 |
Ernst & Young LLP | £3,917,671.36 | 68 |
Ricardo-AEA Limited | £1,585,598.88 | 62 |
Taleos Consulting Limited | £1,305,222.50 | 12 |
James Harvard Limited | £558,950.00 | 52 |
This is Milk Limited | £518,035.00 | 33 |
Palladium International Limited | £517,364.31 | 6 |
Sniffer | £341,667.00 | 15 |
Civil Service Learning (CSL) - KPMG LLP | £278,150.73 | 23 |
| | £21,892,708.98 | |
