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: S5W-16421

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants there are in the Police Division of its Justice Directorate.

Question reference: S5W-16423

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are employed by the Scottish Police Authority.

Question reference: S5O-02117

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium suggesting that town centre vacancy rates have reached a seven-year high.

Question reference: S5W-16398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Scottish Enterprise should treat women’s enterprise as a growth sector in the Scottish economy.

Question reference: S5W-16399

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Scottish Enterprise should treat social care as a growth sector in the Scottish economy.

Social care is a major contributor to the Scottish economy employing more than 200,000 people and making up 7.7% of all Scottish employment. The Scottish Government remain committed to transforming the way we deliver social care services and investing in the sector itself as reflected in our commitment to invest an additional £66 million in 2018-19 on adult social care compared to 2017-18, which is included in the local government settlement allocations to support social care. This will take the Scottish Government’s overall package of additional investment in social care and integration to over £550 million in 2018-19.

Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) recently published Business Plan for 2018-19 outlines SE’s approach to supporting competitiveness and inclusive growth. This approach means support is delivered to eligible businesses or individuals, irrespective of the sector a business operates in. Further detail on the plan can be viewed at:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/publication/business-plans

Question reference: S5W-16400

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent developing growth in women’s enterprise in 2017-18.

Through Scotland CAN DO, we have expressed the ambition to be a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation: a CAN DO place for business. Projects being taken forward with our partners range from promoting entrepreneurial mindset in schools to supporting businesses of scale.

The Scottish Government recognizes the immense potential associated with growth in women’s enterprise, and in 2017-18 committed £400,000 to its development. This figure was twice that committed in 2016-17.

Question reference: S5W-16401

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent on developing growth in social care in 2017-18.

In the financial year 2017-18, Scottish Government spent almost half a billion pounds on social care services and integration. This continued to support the delivery of the real Living Wage for adult care workers.

The Scottish Government remain committed to transforming the way we deliver social care services and investing in the sector itself as reflected in our commitment to invest an additional £66 million in 2018-19 on adult social care compared to‎ 2017-18, which is included in the local government settlement allocations to support social care. This will take the Scottish Government’s overall package of additional direct investment in social care and integration to over £550 million in 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-16297

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any potential distribution centre closures and associated job losses arising from the proposed merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Question reference: S5W-16296

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any potential store closures and associated job losses arising from the proposed merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Question reference: S5W-16295

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 15 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it (a) had before and (b) has had since the announcement of the merger proposal with (i) Asda and (ii) Sainsbury’s.

The Scottish Government was made aware of proposals to merge Asda and Sainsbury’s on 30 April 2018 in correspondence from both retailers. My officials have been in regular contact with representatives from both organisations since and I also held a call with representatives of Asda on 1 May it was made clear that the proposed merger will result in no store closures in Scotland.

We were also informed that Asda intends to keep its two distribution centres at Falkirk and Grangemouth open, and there are no indications of job losses. We will continue to engage with both supermarkets to ensure that those promises are followed through, that Scottish consumers benefit and that Scottish suppliers benefit and do not lose out.