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: S4W-27759

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26449 by John Swinney on 31 July 2015, when it will provide an assessment of the additional costs.

Question reference: S4W-27758

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26452 by John Swinney on 31 July 2015, whether it will provide details of each project expected to have a financial close in each month from July 2015 to March 2016.

Question reference: S4W-27763

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26543 by John Swinney on 31 July 2015, whether it will publish details of the limited contractual adjustments made for each project.

Question reference: S4W-27771

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26467 by John Swinney on 31 July 2015, what the implications are for projects transferring to the new structure and, other than the schools referred to in the response, which projects will transfer.

Question reference: S4W-27766

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-26461 by John Swinney on 31 July 2015, which projects where capital contributions are no longer being made are affected and, in these cases, what the unitary payments (a) were before and (b) are expected to be now.

A list of projects where capital contributions are no longer being made is provided in the following table. Unitary payments for these projects will be confirmed when contracts are signed.

Health Design, Build, Finance and Maintain (DBFM) Projects

Project Name	Territory	Procuring Authority
Inverclyde Care Home	West	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
NHS Lothian Bundle	South East	NHS Lothian
Pharmaceutical Special Services	East Central	NHS Tayside
Stirling Care Village	East Central	NHS Forth Valley
Gorbals/Woodside Health Centre	West	NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Schools DBFM Projects

Project Name	Territory	Procuring Authority
Oban and Campbeltown High Schools	North	Argyll and Bute Council
Newbattle High School	South East	Midlothian Council
South of the City Academy	North	Aberdeen City Council
West Calder High School	South East	West Lothian Council
Barrhead High School	West	East Renfrewshire Council

Question reference: S4W-27887

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been in the trading fund operated by Registers of Scotland in each year since its inception; what its purpose is; what restrictions are placed on its use, and how it has been deployed.

Registers of Scotland (RoS) delivers customer-focussed registration and information services that create value for Scotland. Operating as a trading fund since 1996, the fees paid by its customers must be sufficient to cover its expenditure, including cyclical downturns in the property market, compensation payments under the keeper’s warranty, and investment in the business.

The financial arrangements for RoS are set out in section 9 of Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. This provides that the sums received by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland are to be retained and applied to meet expenditure on the keeper’s functions, such as to maintain and improve the registers under the keeper’s control. In doing this, the keeper must operate within financial objectives set by Scottish Ministers, who also set the statutory fees that can be charged by RoS.

As an accountable public body, RoS lays its audited annual report and accounts before the Scottish Parliament. Their framework document and corporate plan are also held in SPiCe.

The annual retained profit and/or loss levels since RoS became a trading fund are displayed in the following table.

	Profit/(Loss) £ million
1996-97	(3.0)
1997-98	6.7
1998-99	5.9
1999-00	(4.7)
2000-01	5.4
2001-02	5.9
2002-03	9.5
2003-04	16.8
2004-05	21.8
2005-06	24.5
2006-07	29.2
2007-08	10.8
2008-09	(10.6)
2009-10	(24.7)
2010-11	(30.6)
2011-12	(10.3)
2012-13	(2.6)
2013-14	9.2
2014-15	7.5

Question reference: S4W-27883

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Scottish Ministers' pay remit guidance.

Question reference: S4W-27886

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether all government agencies, non-departmental public bodies and other arm's-length government bodies are expected to follow the public sector pay policy.

Question reference: S4W-27884

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will relax some of the restrictions in the forthcoming pay remit guidance to allow employers to update and modernise their pay systems.

Question reference: S4W-27751

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the key differences were between the bids from Anglian Water and Scottish Water for the £350 million contract for the supply of water to the public sector.