Chamber and committees

Termination of the previous employment was undertaken by the seller, when they wound down their business and FLS has no knowledge of the costs incurred.

The information requested is publicly available on the Scottish Government website and can be found here: Growth Sector Statistics Database .

The latest figures showing employment in the sector, in 2020, had remained broadly the same at 87,000, representing 3% total employment in Scotland.

We are aware however that they do not truly reflect some key aspects of the sector, such as the number of freelancers and self-employed people. We estimate this to be around 40,000, which we have gathered from the APS data source.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12059 on 30 November 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

All of the £830.6 million allocated to Additional Support for Social Care in the 2022-23 budget has been included in the block grant allocation provided to local authorities. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and the information requested on spend would therefore require to be requested from local authorities.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

Robust processes are in place for assessing the outcomes, performance and value for money of capital investment, tailored to the nature of the investment.

For example, projects within the Scottish City and Region Growth Deal Programmes are developed in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance which requires appraisal of the social economic and carbon outputs, outcomes and impacts from public sector investment; whole life cycle costing is examined and value for money reviewed. In addition, Benefit Realisation Plans for the Deal Programmes, aggregate project business case performance information, supplemented by qualitative information, to evidence the cumulative impact of public sector investment in the relevant region.

Our enterprise agencies also follow a rigorous appraisal process aligned to the Scottish Public Finance Manual and HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance to assess investment proposals. Evaluation of value for money is also undertaken. In the period from April 2017 to March 22, Scottish Enterprise delivered £85m of capital investment grant support to businesses which is expected to leverage a further £410m of private sector investment. The agency’s evaluation demonstrates that its capital investment grants also support other benefits, including company creation, innovation, increased company sales and exports, and attracting companies to locate to or stay in Scotland.

We are aware of the emerging issues around single-use vaping products. We will be discussing this with our local authority partners, who have responsibility for providing advice on responsible disposal of waste in their area.

Neither the Scottish Government nor Forestry and Land Scotland had cause to terminate any contracts and consequently no such payments were made to individuals, contractors or companies.

This is an operational matter for Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.