Chamber and committees

In June 2023 the Scottish Government published the National Innovation Strategy which sets out our ten year vision for Scotland to once again become one of the most innovative small nations in the world.

The Strategy sets out a number of programmes to enable us to achieve our vision and ensure all of our businesses, people and institutions are ready and able to meet the global economic challenges and opportunities we face over the next ten years. These include a National Productivity Programme, a Research Commercialisation Programme and the publication of an annual Innovation Scorecard.

Work on implementing the Strategy has begun, in close partnership with our enterprise agencies, and the Programme for Government recently announced an additional £15m enterprise package which will be utilised to help deliver the Strategy.

Further details will be announced following the conclusion of delivery discussions between the Scottish Government, it’s agencies and institutions.

There were 17,425 all-sector new housebuilding starts during the 12 months to June 2023. We are aware of the global issues affecting construction which are impacting the pace of housing delivery and are working closely with the construction industry and housing partners to mitigate this where possible.

We are pleased that all-sector new housebuilding completions of 23,346 are at their highest annual, year to end June rate, since 2008. This is an increase of 7% (1,481 homes) on last year, as reported on in the latest set of Scottish Government Quarterly Housing Statistics published on 12 September 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-20317 on 15 August 2023 for information on the approach taken across Scotland.

Scottish Water publishes details of individual projects on its website. Examples of investment in Dumfriesshire include https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/In-Your-Area/Investments-in-Your-Area/Kippford-Wastewater-Upgrades and https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/In-Your-Area/Investments-in-Your-Area/Gatehouse-of-Fleet-Sewer-Upgrade .

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 .

As outlined earlier this year in response to a similar question from Mr Rennie, our over £600 million investment in the R100 contracts, our R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme and continued commercial coverage – including the emergence of newer technologies such as Low Earth Orbit satellite – means that every property in Scotland is able to consider options for superfast broadband connection today as was the case at the end of 2021, meeting our commitment.

Decisions on where to locate their premises is an operational matter for National Museums Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland and their Boards of Trustees.

Both collections are committed to the important work that they do with local communities across Scotland, including in Glasgow and wider region. National Galleries of Scotland’s and National Museums Scotland’s connection with Glasgow ranges from the delivery of schools programmes, touring exhibitions, loans and acquisitions, professional skills development opportunities, and research.

Financial Transactions (FTs) are allocated to Scottish Government (SG) portfolios in the annual budget process. The Scottish Government centrally monitors the flow of FTs and records the end of year value. The financial information provided is for FTs that fall within the SG’s accounting boundary and are reported within the SG Consolidated Accounts. The loan values are the net book value, after consideration of any impairment of changes to fair value through multi-year discounted cashflow models or from consideration of the impact of housing prices on the housing equity based loans. All arms-length bodies outside the SG accounting boundary will be responsible for their own reporting.

The Scottish Government (SG) provides Financial Transactions (FTs) in the form of loans (such as Health Board GP Loans) and equity investments (such as the Help to Buy Scotland programme). Loans are capital amounts that are to be repaid.

FTs are managed and monitored by the SG Portfolio business area that issue them. FT outturn data is reported annually as part of the provisional and final outturn process. For those business areas falling within SG’s accounting boundary, information on performance is reported in the Scottish Government’s Consolidated Accounts. Overall FT performance is set out in the Scottish Government Annual Report, which reviews both the cash impact of schemes (advances, repayments, and write-offs) and their valuation through consideration of an annual impairment review and review of their fair value.

The Scottish Government and Agencies are responsible for reviewing and monitoring the performance of their FTs and reporting will vary: Fund managers (including Energy Savings Trust and the Scottish Investment Fund) may provide monthly or quarterly reporting alongside annual reports and multi-year programme performance reports to SG Portfolio teams. Loans paid out directly to loan applicants (such as the Help to Buy Scotland Programme) will be monitored directly by the Portfolio area responsible for them. These reports are reviewed and used to provide advice to Ministers on the future of individual programme and project funding.

The financial information provided in the answer to question S6W-21659 on 4 October 2023 is for FTs that fall within the SG’s accounting boundary and are reported within the SG Consolidated Accounts. The loan values are the net book value, after consideration of any impairment of changes to fair value through multi-year discounted cashflow models or from consideration of the impact of housing prices on the housing equity based loans. All arms-length bodies outside of the SG accounting boundary will be responsible for their own reporting.

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

Culture & Business Scotland (C&BS) received 39 applications for the Marketplace pilot programmes. 24 of these were successful and awarded places in the Marketplace pilot. Three of the successful applicants to participate in Marketplace had developed one of their proposed products to a business before.

C&BS state that they do not ask applicants to Marketplace about their contractual relationships with funders, and therefore they do not know if applicants have previously been unsuccessful for funding or had funding reduced by Creative Scotland.

FY 2022-23 - £150k was spent on internal development costs for the website. In the FY 2022-23 - £15k for hosting and support, we anticipate 2023-24 this will be £25k. Costs of c£5k was paid for misc. services such as legal advice, security certificates and promotional items.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

It is envisaged that the Task Force will continue to meet beyond September 2023 to support of OIC’s work on this important matter.