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: S6W-19980

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the original timetable was for the (a) completion and (b) opening of the planned National Treatment Centre Golden Jubilee Phase 2, and what the revised timetable is as of 30 June 2023.

Question reference: S6W-19967

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the original cost was for the planned National Treatment Centre Golden Jubilee Phase 1, and what the revised cost is as of 30 June 2023.

Question reference: S6W-19978

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 1,500 new clinical and non-clinical staff, committed to in its NHS Recovery Plan, will be based in the National Treatment Centre Forth Valley.

National Treatment Centres (NTCs) require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 98 people were employed in NTC Forth Valley. 19 are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-19935

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of Serco’s contract to run HMP Kilmarnock has been over the period that it has been active; what the cost has been in each financial year, and what the projected cost is for the 2023-24 financial year.

Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd (KPSL) are contractually responsible for the design, construction, management and finance of the services at HMP Kilmarnock. KPSL subcontract this requirement to Serco Justice and Immigration.

The costs to provide the service, for each relevant financial year, are as follows.

Financial Year	Core Charges	Additional Places Purchased	Total
2000	£1,029,150	£0	£1,029,150
2001	£12,652,885	£81,753	£12,734,638
2002	£12,675,125	£102,061	£12,777,186
2003	£12,618,346	£112,914	£12,731,260
2004	£12,782,427	£592,042	£13,374,470
2005	£12,843,260	£557,209	£13,400,469
2006	£12,893,135	£607,969	£13,501,104
2007	£13,780,974	£590,952	£14,371,926
2008	£14,714,350	£1,041,519	£15,755,869
2009	£14,765,116	£1,205,540	£15,970,656
2010	£15,241,765	£170,735	£15,412,500
2011	£16,732,430	£394,848	£17,127,278
2012	£16,168,020	£1,257,986	£17,426,006
2013	£16,305,268	£1,012,111	£17,317,379
2014	£16,558,446	£0	£16,558,446
2015	£17,034,850	£0	£17,034,850
2016	£18,915,215	£0	£18,915,215
2017	£13,570,104	£0	£13,570,104
2018	£13,915,415	£0	£13,915,415
2019	£14,602,908	£0	£14,602,908
2020	£15,156,566	£1,330,768	£16,487,334
2021	£15,494,163	£291,281	£15,785,443
2022	£14,674,020	£176,130	£14,850,150
2023	£16,222,501	£226,974	£16,449,475
Total	£341,346,440	£9,752,793	£351,099,233
Service Credits 2000-2023			-£8,243,282
Net Payment			£342,855,950
Estimate 2024 Core Charges			£17,419,500

The budget for the financial year 1 April 2023 until contract expiry on 16 March 2024 is £17,419,500. This figure is based on SPS purchasing 548 Prisoner Places every day.

Question reference: S6W-19934

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £540.8 million combined revenue and capital expenditure that it plans to spend on the Scottish Prison Service, broken down by each individual prison.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The following table provides a breakdown of the £540.8 million combined revenue and capital expenditure broken down into prisons:

SPS Budget 23-24

ESTABLISHMENTS:
Barlinnie	31,837,204
Dumfries	7,894,850
Greenock	10,002,423
Low Moss	19,588,811
Shotts	19,206,262
Edinburgh	25,409,513
Glenochil	21,049,160
Inverness	6,048,759
Perth	19,027,948
Polmont	21,750,779
Grampian	17,312,256
Castle Huntly	6,814,047
Stirling	9,736,600
CCU Bella	1,928,179
CCU Lilias	1,958,057
Establishment Total	219,564,848

Private Prisons	90,528,000

HQ (Note 1)	88,507,152	Note 1: Includes budgets that will be allocated to Establishments at Spring Budget Revision (SBR).

Total Resource Budget	398,600,000

Capital Budget
Prison Replacement Programme	84,900,000
Digital Capital spend	1,750,000
Estates Infrastructure Works	10,350,000
Total Capital Budget	97,000,000

Depreciation Total (Note 2)	46,348,000	Note 2: Depreciation costs for SPS Assets held centrally

TOTAL SPS Budget 23/24	541,948,000

Question reference: S6W-19933

Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08446 by Keith Brown on 20 May 2022, when the cost consultation exercise in relation to taking HMP Kilmarnock back into public ownership will be completed.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is developing the operating cost of HMP Kilmarnock post transfer, with initial outcomes expected by the end of September 2023, and final submissions being provided within the usual budget planning process at the end of the calendar year.

SPS is working to agree proposals for a transitional operating model, and a target operating model, which is to be adopted within the first year of the prison transferring to the public sector.

Question reference: S6W-19905

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the latest known levels of education spending per person in Scotland, and on how this compares to levels in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Estimates of education spending per person for the 2021-22 financial year were published in HM Treasury’s 2022 Country and Regional Analysis. Education spending (including school and higher and further education) per head of population across Scotland, England and Wales is shown in the following table.

	Scotland	England	Wales
Education spending per person	£1,758	£1,439	£1,680

Source: Country and regional analysis 2022 , table A.15, HM Treasury, November 2022

More recently, April 2023 research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that in 2022-23 school spending per pupil was around £1,300, or 18% higher in Scotland than in England and Wales. A side-by-side comparison of this spending is shown in the table below.

	Scotland	England	Wales
School spending per pupil aged 3-19	£8,500	£7,200	£7,200

Source: How does school spending per pupil differ across the UK? , Institute for Fiscal Studies, April 2023

Question reference: S6W-19907

Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the latest known levels for the higher education participation rate among people in the 16- to 30-year-old population in Scotland, and how this compares to the levels in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Information on the Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) is published by the Scottish Funding Council in their annual publication Higher Education Students and Qualifiers, table 37.

In 2020-21, the HEIPR for 16–30-year-olds in Scotland was 60.2%

HE Students and Qualifiers at Scottish Institutions 2020-21 (sfc.ac.uk)

Methodology for England isn’t directly comparable due to the inclusion of Alternative Providers and a slightly different age range (17 to 30). However, by removing Alternative Providers this gives a figure of 55.6% for England.

Participation measures in higher education, Academic year 2020/21 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

No HEIPR is published for Wales.

Question reference: S6W-19898

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent known level at which business rates begin to be paid for the rateable value of individual properties is in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with the level in (a) England and (b) Wales.

The Scottish Budget delivered a package of reliefs for 2023-24 worth £749 million, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme which offers up to 100% relief for eligible individual properties in Scotland with a rateable value of up to £20,000.

To improve the design of the scheme, the Scottish Government expanded the upper eligibility threshold for the Small Business Bonus Scheme from £18,000 to £20,000 and made the relief more progressive by introducing a taper for properties with a rateable value between £12,001 and £20,000. The Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK, and continues to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether. Table 1 provides a comparison of small business rates reliefs in Scotland, England and Wales.

Table 1: Small Business Rates Reliefs in Scotland, England and Wales in 2023-24

Scotland

England

Wales

Small business 100% relief threshold (rateable value) *

The relief is 100% for properties with a rateable value up to £12,000.

The relief is 100% for properties with a rateable value up to £12,000

The relief is 100% for properties with a rateable value up to £6,000.

Small business relief thresholds (rateable value) for relief less than 100% *

The relief tapers from 100% to 25% for properties with rateable value from £12,001 to £15,000.

The relief tapers from 25% to 0% for properties with a rateable value from £15,001 to £20,000.

The relief tapers from 100% to 0% for properties with a rateable value from £12,001 to £15,000.

The relief tapers from 100% to 0% for properties with a rateable value from £6,001 to £12,000.

Small business relief cumulative rules for ratepayers with multiple properties.

The relief may also be available for ratepayers with multiple properties where the total rateable value of all of the properties does not exceed £35,000.

Where the total rateable value is £12,000 or less, the relief is 100%.

Where total rateable value is between £12,001 to £35,000:

The relief is 25% for properties with an individual rateable value of £15,000 or less.

The relief tapers from 25% to 0% for properties with an individual rateable value of £15,001 to £20,000.

The relief is available for ratepayers with only one property.

If a ratepayer occupies a second property, the relief continues to be available on the existing property for 12 months before expiring, unless the rateable values of both properties are less than £2,900 and the total rateable value is less than £20,000 (£28,000 in London).

The relief is limited to two properties per business in each local authority.

*Note: A property is required to meet eligibility criteria other than rateable value in order to be eligible for the relief. For example, in Scotland properties used for the purposes of payday lending or betting shops are not eligible. Similarly, there are eligibility restrictions for ratepayers occupying multiple properties as shown in the table.

Question reference: S6W-19880

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many Preference Waiver Payments have been made to student teachers completing their probation year in the North East Scotland region in each of the last three years.

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	Total
Aberdeen City	7	11	17	35
Aberdeenshire	4	12	9	25
Moray	30	50	31	111