Chamber and committees

Tim Hair, Turnaround Director of Ferguson Marine, updated the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on the delivery timetable and budget for vessels 801 and 802 in March 2021. The next of the regular quarterly updates on progress, as requested by the committee in their report on ferry procurement is expected at the end of June 2021.

SMEs and micro businesses are critical to the social, economic and environmental health of Scotland and we are committed to leveraging the full procurement rules to make it as easy possible for SMEs to bid for and win public procurement contracts and/or participate in local supply chains:

• Scotland outperforms the UK Gov target of 33% central government procurement spend going with SMEs by 2022. Even without target setting, in Scotland, 47% of public procurement spend in 2018-2019 went to SMEs; exceeding UKG( 26%), EU average (45%) and US(30%).
• last year, 58% of procurement spend on Scottish businesses went to SMEs, which account for only 40% of business turnover in Scotland, showing that SMEs are able to take advantage of the significant benefits that exist in relation to engaging with public procurement in Scotland.
• In 2019-20, over 26,000 suppliers were awarded public sector contracts worth £6.9bn through our Public Contracts Scotland portal; our data shows that 79% of suppliers awarded contracts in Scotland were SMEs from all locations and 63% were Scottish SMEs.
• We continue to provide funding (up to £150,000 in 2021-22) to the Supplier Development Programme which delivers free training and guidance on how to submit and win public procurement bids. During FY 2020-21, over 2,400 Scottish SMEs attended training events with 93% stating they were more likely to bid for public sector contracts as a direct result.
• The Supplier Development Programme also delivers free local and national Meet the Buyer events to put suppliers in touch with public sector buyers to learn more about up and coming contracts
• In March 2021, we published the results of a comprehensive survey of suppliers which received over 1550 responses. Its findings indicate that there is much to be positive about in respect of Scottish public sector procurement and the recent work done to improve it. At the same time it found that there are clearly areas in which the Scottish public sector could do more to build on the steps already taken to maximise the impact of public procurement in Scotland.
• This year we have also launched a series of SME round table meetings to hear directly from SME suppliers about their experiences of bidding for and winning public contracts.
• Of the [1] £369 million that Scottish Government spent through its contracts, over £120 million went directly to SMEs, with many more SMEs benefiting through our supply chains; they shared over £40 million of spend as subcontractors, with £30 million of that going to Scottish SMEs.

[1] Scottish Government Procurement Annual Report 2020

Arrangements are being put in place to establish the new Council for Economic Transformation, which will shape and drive our 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation. We have already publicly committed to do this within our first 100 days and we will update with regard to progress shortly.

To clarify, the one off pro rata thank you payment for all eligible health and social care staff is £500. We are working at pace with our key stakeholders to establish an effective way to pay Personal Assistants. We will issue further details as soon as this is agreed. We are confident that we have developed an online portal to reach all eligible Personal Assistants and we are aiming to have it open very soon.

Responding to incidents is an operational matter for our Emergency Services and the Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on response times to specific incidents or locations.

Teachers are not expected to be in contact with SQA, schools, or individual pupils over the summer break. Results will be published on 10 August, and schools are not required to manage handling of any queries and initiating of any appeals processes at a local level until they return from summer holidays.

Since the start of the pandemic supporting the recovery of Scotland’s businesses is a key focus for the Government with businesses directly benefitting from £3.6 billion in support overall, with £434.6 million paid out through restart grants and transitional payments. The Scottish Government recognises it is crucial to get businesses open safely and back to full profitability, delivering the maximum support for businesses and the economy as possible.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes statistics and management information relating to its Covid-19 business grants on our website at Coronavirus (COVID-19): business support funding statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , the next publication is due on 11 June 2021.

The deadline for priority appeals was originally set as 16 August to ensure that SQA and their appointees have sufficient time to process these cases to meet with UCAS deadlines of 8 September.

Following discussion with education partners on the National Qualifications 21 Group, this date has now been extended to 24 August to ensure that there is sufficient time after the start of the new session for centres to submit appeals and supporting evidence for those learners with immediate progression needs for further education, higher education or workplace progression. In moving to this date, the proposal is that centres will submit evidence digitally.

The Scottish Government does not hold any official information about the number of persons who may have undergone mesh removal surgery privately in the past and as a consequence, cannot confirm how many people may be eligible for reimbursement under the proposed legislation. The Government believes at the moment that there may be a very limited number of persons who have arranged such surgery in the past. If the Parliament approves the legislation that the Government plans to propose, arrangements will be made and publicised to allow for potentially eligible persons to apply for reimbursement.

To progress the implementation of this policy ahead of August 2023, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have agreed a Joint Implementation Plan under which five local authorities will pilot early implementation of this obligation in 2021-22. Those authorities are: Angus; Argyll and Bute; Falkirk; Scottish Borders; and the Shetland Islands. The Scottish Government has committed £3 million to support this early implementation.

We have committed to seek to add further pilots in August 2022 to further inform full implementation of the obligation. Local authorities would be selected based on their suitability for evaluation purposes, and on their readiness to deliver the obligation early. We anticipate that the pilot authorities for 2022-23 will be announced in Autumn 2021 following engagement with local authorities and CoSLA.