Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-03839

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle fly-tipping.

Question reference: S5W-26263

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 20 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to protect firefighters from attack.

Our firefighters do a remarkable job in very challenging circumstances, often putting themselves in danger to protect the public and we will therefore not tolerate attacks against them or any other public sector workers.

Scotland's justice system provides for protection for all workers under our common laws of assault, threatening and abusive behaviour and breach of the peace.

The Emergency Workers Act 2005 includes a penalty of up to 12 months imprisonment, a £10,000 fine, or both and we have extended the act to include GPs and doctors, nurses and midwives working in the community.

For more serious attacks other offences can be used with maximum penalties all the way up to life imprisonment.

We fully support the activity of the SFRS and others to educate and promote positive behaviour towards all our emergency workers.

Question reference: S5W-26111

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 11 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5O-03677 by Aileen Campbell on 30 October 2019 (Official Report, c. 28), whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding what role it expects procurement plans to have in helping councils that are struggling to balance budgets.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies and, like other public bodies, are largely responsible for their own procurement processes and decisions.

Under our national public procurement legislation, they need to prepare and publish a procurement strategy, setting out how they intend to carry out their significant procurements and publish an annual report against that strategy.

These documents help drive local transparency by showing how public bodies ensure that their procurements are delivering value for money and contributing to their broader aims and objectives.

Question reference: S5T-01858

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what urgent action it plans in response to recent reports of a rise in stress-related sickness absences among prison officers.

Question reference: S5O-03715

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on improving farm-level emissions and carbon sequestration data.

Question reference: S5O-03686

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what formal assessment Social Security Scotland made over the summer of the implementation of Wave One and Two devolved benefits.

Question reference: S5W-25629

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on Brexit preparations, and what it expects the final amount will be.

On 1 August UKG announced further funding of £2.1 billion to ‘turbo-charge’ no deal exit preparations for 2019-20. The Scottish Government will receive £40.7 million in consequentials from the circa £900 million already allocated to individual UK departments. Where spend was allocated to reserved areas (the £344 million on borders and customs for example), the Scottish Government did not receive Barnett consequentials.

Prior to the £40.7 million in consequentials, the Scottish Government had received £98.7 million in total (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20) from the UK Government as a consequence of EU Exit preparation funding. £98.25 million has been spent or allocated to date on activities such as negotiations, legislative preparations and supporting stakeholders including businesses, cultural bodies, higher education institutes, local governments and the third sector. Furthermore, we have funded the Prepare for Brexit campaign at a cost of £2.2 million and provided an additional £1.5 million in funding to Fareshare to deal with food insecurity.

Of the £2.1 billion, HM Treasury have set aside £1 billion for an ‘operational contingency fund’. The Scottish Government requested £52 million from this fund to help us prepare for a ‘no deal’ outcome in the lead up to 31 October. The £20.22 million granted in response will be ring fenced to the specific activity in the bid and not baselined for future years. This bid includes costs for the Scottish Ambulance Service, Food Standards Scotland, Export Health Certification for seafood exports, and marine compliance assets.

The UK Government Spending Round on 4 September 2019 confirmed an additional £2 billion will be set aside for preparations in 2020-21. The Barnett consequentials generated by this allocation will be £48.8 million.

Scottish Ministers will continue to prioritise funding to those areas most in need. The costs of EU Exit are expected to far exceed the consequentials we have received from the UK Government. This would require the Scottish Government to divert resources from other services.

A full breakdown of money allocated to EU Exit preparation is contained within the Scottish Government overview of no deal preparations published on 8 October: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-overview-no-deal-reparations/ .

Question reference: S5W-25627

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects to receive in additional Barnet consequentials arising from the UK Government's expected further expenditure on Brexit preparations, and how it expects to allocate this.

Question reference: S5W-25628

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to each local authority to assist with Brexit preparations; what criteria it has set for the councils to receive this funding, and what the timescale is between these criteria being met and the money being allocated.

The Scottish Government has met COSLA's request to allocate £50,000 to each council to coordinate EU exit preparedness. This is a total of £1.6 million. The additional £50,000 will be paid to each local authority as part of the redetermination of the 2019-20 general revenue grant in March 2020.

In the event of a No Deal EU exit, the Scottish Government is also committed to creating a £7 million Rapid Poverty Mitigation Fund to help councils target money at the people who need it most. The distribution of this funding is subject to discussion with COSLA.

Local government can submit further funding requests for EU exit costs through the submission of a business case. Each submission will be considered on a case by case basis and decisions on any requests will be made as soon as practicable. This process has been put in place for all public sector bodies and local government is not being treated differently.

Question reference: S5W-25626

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has received in Barnet consequentials arising from the UK Government's expenditure on Brexit preparations, and how it has allocated this.

The Scottish Government has been allocated £139.4 million from the UK Government as a consequential of EU Exit preparation funding over 18-19 and 19-20. £98.7 million of this has been received and of this, £98.25 million has been spent on a raft of preparatory measures. This includes but is not limited to activities such as negotiations, legislative preparations and supporting stakeholders, including businesses, cultural bodies, higher education institutes, local governments and the third sector. The Scottish Government has also funded the Prepare for Brexit campaign at a cost of £2.2 million and provided an additional £1.5 million in funding to FareShare to deal with food insecurity. A full breakdown of money allocated to EU Exit preparation is contained within the Scottish Government’s overview of no deal preparations published on 8 October.

On 1 August UKG announced further funding of £2.1 billion for No Deal exit preparations for 2019-20. The Scottish Government will receive £40.7 million in consequentials from the circa £900 million already allocated to individual UK departments. In the event of No Deal on 31 October, £7.0 million of this has been confirmed for establishing a Rapid Poverty Mitigation Fund, to scale up current poverty mitigation measures including the Scottish Welfare Fund, Discretionary Housing Payments, and responses to food insecurity and fuel poverty.

Scottish Ministers will continue to prioritise funding to those areas most in need. The costs of EU Exit are expected to far exceed the consequentials we have received from the UK Government. This would require the Scottish Government to divert resources from other services.

Chamber and committees