Chamber and committees

VisitScotland already works closely with ScotRail as a key national partner. The relationship includes liaising on matters relating to the visitor experience and running joint marketing campaigns, including a spring 2022 campaign to promote family days out in Scotland's cities.

ScotRail Trains Limited have been charged with producing a Market Growth Strategy, from April 2022, that develops and implements appropriate products and services to address post–Covid markets including, in particular, tourism. To assist with the development of that strategy and in furtherance of the relationship that exists between ScotRail and VisitScotIand. I have asked my officials to establish with them what more can be done to promote tourism and, in particular, actions to encourage visits to national attractions by rail.

Tables A and B set out information about the number and percentage of written questions up to the week commencing 7 February 2022 that have been processed within the timeframe set out in the question.

In providing this information, “processed” has been taken to mean the number of calendar days between a question being submitted by a Member and the question either being published or not lodged. As the information is based on calendar days, it does not take into account factors such as days on which the office of the clerk is closed, i.e. a question which was submitted on a Friday and published on a Monday will be included in the tables as having taken 2 to 3 calendar days rather than reflecting the processing having taken 0 to 1 working days. The data is not held in a format that would enable this further disaggregation to be provided.

There are also a number of elements that may be involved in processing questions. Factors such as seeking clarification of the purpose of a question, editing a question so that it meets the requirements of Standing Orders and Guidance on Parliamentary Questions, or seeking input on issues such as sub judice or compliance with data protection obligations may impact on the time that it takes for questions to be processed. These factors can also impact on the processing time where batches of interrelated questions are submitted among which only one or two may raise more complex considerations. The necessary prioritisation of other items, such as Urgent Questions or motions and amendments for debate, may also impact on the time between a question being submitted and published or not lodged. As noted in the response to S6W-06278, additional staffing resources have been deployed to the Chamber Desk. Once training and familiarisation have been completed, it is anticipated that there will be a positive impact on the time taken to process questions.

Table A

Table B

The Scottish Government is wholly committed to a just transition to net zero and using the energy transition to build a better and more equal society.

Our ten-year £500m Just Transition Fund will accelerate the energy transition of the North East and Moray regions, and will also support the role of Aberdeen and the wider north east as one of Scotland’s centres of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy as we grow Scotland’s offshore wind sector and supply chain – which Scottish Ministers have called on the UK Government multiple times to match.

We have invested £26.3m to support the creation of the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) in Aberdeen. The ETZ will be a place to attract and develop green energy related R&D, innovation, manufacturing, testing, and demonstration, and will help to position Aberdeen as a global hub for offshore wind and other innovative renewables technologies such as the development of green hydrogen projects.

On Monday 28 th February 2022, the First Minister announced that ETZ Ltd have the National Floating Wind Innovation Centre as their anchor tenant. The £9 million centre will be located within the Altens Industrial Estate of the Energy Transition Zone and is being developed to ensure that the North East of Scotland and wider UK capitalise on the massive opportunity created by the Scottish seabed leasing round, Scotwind, which will drive the development and demand for floating offshore wind. ETZ Ltd is providing £4m for the capital costs of the innovation centre and ORE Catapult are contributing £5m to operationally run it. Through the Energy Transition Fund we are providing the full £4m that ETZ are investing. It is due to go out in Financial Year 2022-23.

In addition, the Scottish Government’s £75m Energy Just Transition Fund (ETF) will not only support our energy sector and the North East but will also benefit the wider Scottish energy sector and offshore wind supply chain, working with local businesses to maximise the economic benefits, create and support sustainable jobs and contribute to inclusive economic growth across the country.

Furthermore the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) has been identified by both industry and the Scottish Government as a key vehicle for taking forward the strategic supply chain opportunities that emerge from ScotWind. A key role for SOWEC is the implementation of the recommendations in the Strategic Investment Assessment (SIA), which was commissioned by SOWEC and led by Professor Sir Jim McDonald of Strathclyde University. The primary recommendation focusses on bringing the manufacturing of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s 2021/22 Programme for Government commits to work to ensure that a legitimate and constitutional referendum can be held within this Parliamentary term, if the Covid crisis is over, and that a detailed prospectus for an independent Scotland will be prepared to allow the people of Scotland to make an informed choice over their future.

The work to prepare an independence prospectus is being co-ordinated by the Constitutional Futures Division within the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate. This division is currently comprised of one Senior Civil Servant and thirteen other officials (12.9 FTE).

The work to take forward referendum legislation will be co-ordinated by a team in the Elections and FOI Division, also in the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate. The team is currently comprised of three officials.

The staff numbers may change as the work programme evolves. Both streams of work will also draw on other civil servants who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government.

As civil servants are not required to record the time spent on individual tasks we cannot provide a figure for total staff hours spent on taking forward these commitments.

Session 6 has seen a change in the nature of the items that the Chamber Desk processes. In particular, the number of Urgent Questions being lodged has increased significantly. This had had an impact on the previous pattern of work undertaken by the Chamber Desk. When Urgent Questions are submitted, they are given priority due to the timeframe for such questions to be taken if selected and only selected questions are published. This, combined with the necessary prioritisation of oral questions and motions and amendments for debate, has resulted in a longer turnaround time for written questions than Members will previously have been used to.

To respond to these changes in demand and pattern of work, additional staffing resources have been deployed to the Chamber Desk. Due to the specialist nature of the services provided by the Chamber Desk, the impact of these additional resources will not be immediately realised as staff require to undertake training and familiarisation with the role. However, the position is being actively assessed on an ongoing basis to ensure that questions and motions are processed in the timeliest manner possible. We are grateful for Members’ forbearance while the necessary training is undertaken.

Attached are the figures for FTE requested since 2016 and broken down by workstreams.

The Scottish Government has today introduced legislation to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004, to ensure the process by which a trans person can obtain legal recognition is simplified, in line with the commitment made in the 2021/22 Programme for Government and the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme.

The reason for the increase in FTE staffing level’s from 2016 and 2021 are due Transport Scotland’s increasing pieces of work through changing ministerial responsibilities. These responsibilities include our work on EU Exit, COP26, Free Bus Travel for U22’s and the Strategic Transport Projects Review (SPTR2). These key commitments have led to the need for an increase in staffing numbers to ensure their delivery.

The data on vandalism that the Scottish Government receives from Police Scotland does not include any information on the type of location in which they were committed. As such we are unable to separately identify whether any individual crime of vandalism recorded by the police or proceeded against in court, occurred in a public toilet facility.