Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-38447

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many green jobs have been created in Scotland since 2021, broken down by (a) sector, (b) region and (c) whether the funding was from public or private sources.

It is not possible to assess how many new green jobs have been created by region and sector, however the PwC Green Jobs Barometer shows that 5.6% of all job adverts in Scotland in 2024 were for jobs that have a positive impact on the environment, up from 4.0% in 2023. This helped Scotland once again retain first place among 12 nations and regions of the UK in the overall Green Jobs Barometer, once again showing that Scotland is leading the way in delivering a green jobs revolution and unlocking the tremendous potential that our energy transition and wider net zero journey holds.

In 2022 Scotland’s net zero economy (defined narrowly around low carbon and renewable energy) generated an estimated £13bn turnover and supported an estimated 25,700 direct full-time equivalent jobs. This is the most recent ONS data. Sectoral break downs are available via the ONS. These data are based on a UK-wide survey, and so are subject to a 95% confidence interval of between 23,200 and 28,100 at Scotland level. They are not available by region. These figures will include existing jobs which have transitioned over from outside of low carbon and renewable sectors. Looking at the broader impact of the sector, it is estimated that the renewable energy industry supported over £6.6bn of GVA and over 47,000 FTE employment across the Scottish economy in 2022 (Fraser of Allander Institute, 2025).

Question reference: S6W-38185

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of working age adults with neurodevelopmental conditions are unemployed in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-38158

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many working-age people are currently economically inactive due to long-term sickness, broken down by local authority area, and what targeted measures it is taking to support their return to work to contribute to local economic growth.

Economic inactivity due to long-term sickness and disability is a problem across the UK and each nation has seen increases since the pandemic.

In January to December 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS), an estimated 269,000 people in Scotland aged 16-64 gave their reason for being inactive as long-term sick or disabled, 33.7% of Scotland’s economically inactive people aged 16-64.

ONS state that although the APS estimates are robust at headline regional level, there are concerns with the quality of the estimates for smaller groups of the population such as local authority level estimates.

Due to the increased volatility in the APS local authority estimates in recent years, National Records of Scotland Census 2022 results have been provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of 16-64 year olds who are economically inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled by Local Authority, Scotland, 2022

Council Area 2019	Economically inactive due to long-term sick or disabled (Number of individuals aged 16-64)
Aberdeen City	6,500
Aberdeenshire	5,900
Angus	3,700
Argyll and Bute	2,800
City of Edinburgh	14,000
Clackmannanshire	2,300
Dumfries and Galloway	5,700
Dundee City	6,400
East Ayrshire	5,700
East Dunbartonshire	2,500
East Lothian	3,200
East Renfrewshire	2,200
Falkirk	6,000
Fife	14,100
Glasgow City	35,200
Highland	7,600
Inverclyde	4,600
Midlothian	3,100
Moray	2,700
Na h-Eileanan Siar	800
North Ayrshire	6,700
North Lanarkshire	16,100
Orkney Islands	600
Perth and Kinross	4,100
Renfrewshire	7,400
Scottish Borders	3,600
Shetland Islands	600
South Ayrshire	4,400
South Lanarkshire	12,800
Stirling	2,800
West Dunbartonshire	4,600
West Lothian	7,100

Source: Scotland’s Census 2022, National Records of Scotland

Note: Figures rounded to the nearest hundred

Devolved employability services have a key role to play in supporting people, including those who are economically inactive, towards and into sustainable fair work. Our Programme for Government sets out our commitment to implement Specialist Employability Support for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions from Summer 2025. This will enhance the employability offer already in place through our No One Left Behind approach across all 32 local authority areas.

Economic inactivity is complex, and this government is taking a coordinated, system-wide and multi-sector approach. Informed by engagement across private, public and third sectors, the Programme for Government sets out further actions to address economic inactivity, including to:

evaluate the impact of improved health and work services;
increase numbers of school leavers going to positive destinations;
improve workplace inclusivity by piloting innovative approaches to flexible working and support for disabled employees;
work with agencies to enhance the “upskill” offer to people with manufacturing skills facing redundancy to maintain critical skills base and avoid inactivity; and
seek to bridge the gap between employment and those further from the labour market by recognising prior learning and use of micro credentials.

Work continues across government and with partners to identify further impactful actions that can be taken forward to tackle economic inactivity, recognising the different profiles and needs of all Scotland's regions.

Question reference: S6W-38588

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a breakdown of the number of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) by Scottish parliamentary constituency.

Data are available on the number of SMEs operating in Scotland, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE, broken down by Scottish parliamentary constituency. These estimates, sourced from the Businesses in Scotland 2024 publication, are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Number of registered SMEs operating in Scotland, by Scottish Parliamentary Constituency, 2024

Scottish Parliamentary Constituency (2021)	Number of SMEs
Aberdeen Central	4,170
Aberdeen Donside	1,995
Aberdeen South and North Kincardine	2,660
Aberdeenshire East	3,875
Aberdeenshire West	4,110
Airdrie and Shotts	1,725
Almond Valley	2,220
Angus North and Mearns	2,850
Angus South	2,225
Argyll and Bute	3,245
Ayr	2,190
Banffshire and Buchan Coast	3,290
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross	3,625
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley	2,320
Clackmannanshire and Dunblane	1,715
Clydebank and Milngavie	1,725
Clydesdale	2,615
Coatbridge and Chryston	1,595
Cowdenbeath	1,545
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	1,435
Cunninghame North	1,830
Cunninghame South	1,275
Dumbarton	1,615
Dumfriesshire	3,460
Dundee City East	1,570
Dundee City West	2,055
Dunfermline	1,895
East Kilbride	2,015
East Lothian	2,580
Eastwood	2,155
Edinburgh Central	7,580
Edinburgh Eastern	1,745
Edinburgh Northern and Leith	3,130
Edinburgh Pentlands	1,470
Edinburgh Southern	2,215
Edinburgh Western	2,370
Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire	3,205
Falkirk East	1,605
Falkirk West	2,065
Galloway and West Dumfries	2,955
Glasgow Anniesland	1,250
Glasgow Cathcart	1,505
Glasgow Kelvin	7,870
Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn	1,380
Glasgow Pollok	1,405
Glasgow Provan	1,105
Glasgow Shettleston	2,455
Glasgow Southside	3,225
Greenock and Inverclyde	1,270
Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse	1,945
Inverness and Nairn	3,290
Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley	2,240
Kirkcaldy	1,745
Linlithgow	2,605
Mid Fife and Glenrothes	1,620
Midlothian North and Musselburgh	2,385
Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale	2,770
Moray	2,660
Motherwell and Wishaw	1,775
Na h-Eileanan an Iar	1,225
North East Fife	2,395
Orkney Islands	1,490
Paisley	2,090
Perthshire North	3,285
Perthshire South and Kinross-shire	3,050
Renfrewshire North and West	1,960
Renfrewshire South	1,490
Rutherglen	1,900
Shetland Islands	1,595
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch	4,215
Stirling	3,280
Strathkelvin and Bearsden	1,985
Uddingston and Bellshill	2,125
Scotland Total	171,660

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2024 https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/

Notes:

1.Excludes central and local government.

2.Excludes unregistered businesses. Unregistered businesses are the smallest businesses that have a turnover below the VAT threshold (£85,000) and do not employ others, and so are registered neither for VAT nor for PAYE.

3.SMEs are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, that is businesses with fewer than 250 employees. Enterprise size is defined based on the number of employees that the business employs across the UK.

4.Business counts are rounded to the nearest five. Totals may not equal the sum of the constituent parts due to rounding.

5.Each business is counted once in each area it operates in. The sum of the area business counts does not equal the overall Scotland total because each business is only counted once in the Scotland total.

Question reference: S6W-38159

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any regional disparities in GP-to-patient ratios, and how this informs workforce planning.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board working alongside General Practices. The model for General Practice will depend on local population health needs as well as local service planning priorities.

NHS Boards are required to undertake workforce planning to ensure a full range of services are provided, including working with independent contractors in primary care. These plans should align with the National Workforce Strategy.

The Scottish Government is aware of an increasing gap between the GP Registered Population and Scotland’s population as estimated by the census. A working group has been established to look at the disparity between the two in more detail.

Question reference: S6W-37930

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government from which line of the Scottish Budget 2025-26, as passed by the Scottish Parliament, the funds will be sourced to meet the request from Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow, reportedly of £25 million, to complete the construction of the Glen Rosa vessel, in light of comments made by the Scottish Government's Director-General Economy to the Public Audit Committee on 21 May 2025 that "there is insufficient capital allocated to Ferguson Marine to accommodate that", and, if this is the case, from which other budget line or by which means the funds would be found.

Question reference: S6W-38160

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional support for learning (a) teachers and (b) pupil support assistants have been employed in each year since 2019, also broken down by local authority.

Statistics on additional support for learning teachers are published in the teacher census supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Statistics on pupil support assistants are published in the school support staff statistics, available on the Scottish Government website here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

Question reference: S6W-38184

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many retail units are vacant in high streets and town centres across the country.

Question reference: S6W-38183

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 13 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many P1 to P3 pupils were in class sizes of (a) zero to 18, (b) 19 to 25, (c) 26 to 30 and (d) 31 or more pupils, in each year since 2022.

Question reference: S6W-38190

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many journeys have been taken on ScotRail trains in each of the last 10 years.

Chamber and committees