Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-12535

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the contract to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, what the (a) total cost to date and (b) estimated cost up until the contract end date is of providing security for the MS (i) Victoria and (ii) Ambition.

Question reference: S6W-12533

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to renew the contract for the MS Ambition to accommodate Ukrainian refugees beyond the current contract end date, and, if so, for how long, and at what cost.

Question reference: S6W-12585

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent staff have been employed in (a) 999 and (b) 101 call centres in each year since 2013.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working closely with Police Scotland to support delivery of the Joint Policing Strategy. The findings of the HMICS review of Strategic Workforce Planning, published this year showed that the focus needs to rightly be on capacity and capability.

The data requested are not held centrally by the Scottish Government as the recruitment and deployment of police officers and staff in Scotland is a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA. It is important that he has the flexibility to develop his workforce in a way that responds to the challenges he faces by ensuring the right workforce mix.

Question reference: S6W-12570

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will next review Land and Buildings Transaction Tax thresholds.

As the Deputy First Minister noted in his appearance at the Finance and Public Administration Committee meeting on 4 October 2022, decisions in respect of amendments to the rates or bands for LBTT are to be taken as part of the Scottish Budget. This ensures that any prospective decisions are taken with all the relevant data and evidence in hand, while also supporting the principles of tax certainty and stability.

Question reference: S6W-12557

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid to private consultancies commissioned to undertake NHS contracts in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-12637

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide the attendance figures for (a) Dandelion project and (b) any other Scottish UNBOXED events.

Unboxed was a major UK-wide programme celebrating creativity and innovation, featuring ten large-scale commissioned projects designed to reach millions on-line and in person, bring people together and showcase the Four Nation's creativity.

Scottish Ministers appointed EventScotland as the Strategic Delivery Body for the commission and delivery of the Scottish UNBOXED project, Dandelion, which was funded by the Scottish Government through EventScotland.

The detailed external evaluation of all ten of the Unboxed programme, including Dandelion, is due to be published in Spring 2023. In the interim, the latest details are set out below under the relevant headings.

(a) attendance figures for Dandelion projects

Live events and hands-on schools activities

The following table shows the engagement figures to date for Dandelion, involving over 1,000 events at over 500 locations across Scotland.

	Overall Dandelion Attendance
Live & Participation	336,927
Schools Participation – including 89,101 pupils and families in 468 schools	252,134
Total In Person Attendance/Participation	589,061

In total over 589,000 people took part in person in live events and hands-on schools activities, across Scotland. The figures in the table above detail the number of people who took part in activities in person; both those that took part in person in the festival and public events elements of the programme (336,927) and those pupils and family members that took part in person in the learning and participation programme involving schools (est. 252,134).

These events included (but are not limited to):

Two free outdoor Dandelion festivals in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow (17 – 19 June 2022) and in Inverness (2- 4 September 2022) which attracted almost 67,000 attendees to two three-day festivals celebrating community growing and sustainability, with programmes featuring live music, locally food, workshops, talks, hands-on activities for all ages, representation from activists and community groups, plus free plants to take home encouraging audiences to ‘grow-their-own';
Events in the 12 Unexpected Gardens (and a ‘Floating Garden’ which toured Scotland’s canal network) which hosted over 500 events engaging more than 18,000 audiences and participants from communities, in particular young people, during the arc of the growing season from March-September 2022;
20 Free For All (FFA) events involved Dandelion giving away thousands of seeds and plant plugs to over 13,000 visitors to try their hand at growing;
The "Schools Growing Initiative’’ saw an estimated 89,101 pupils (plus their family members) in 468 schools become citizen scientists using vertical farm growing cubes. (The cubes are miniature vertical farms, growing hundreds of seedlings under LED light in an accelerated setting, combining design craft, traditional horticultural expertise and technological innovation). Schools across Scotland also took part in the "Big Tattie Experiment’’, which included sowing 258,000 potatoes in 2,000 tonnes of specially made, sustainably sourced, growing medium taken home by pupils to grow;
In addition to the school cube growing initiative, over 96,000 people at 17 locations across Scotland experienced ‘Show Cubes’ (integrated with multiple speaker systems) that either toured Scotland on cargo bikes or were installed in key locations such as the V&A Dundee, connecting with local bike clubs and introducing eleven local communities to future food growing technologies.

Digital and broadcast

In addition to the in person attendances detailed above, Dandelion’s digital and broadcast content allowed the programme to reach a broader audience who might not have been able to take part in events and activities in person, or the schools programme. Dandelion's digital and broadcast content engaged with 869,960. This included specially commissioned digital short films and featured broadcast content.

(b) Attendance figures for other Unboxed projects within Scotland

Four Unboxed projects toured to Scotland, providing free events and experiences in Paisley, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dumfries, Orkney Islands, and the Highlands. As the Strategic Delivery Body for Scottish activity, EventScotland offered advice and support to those cross-UK Unboxed events with a delivery footprint in Scotland, when asked to do so by the individual project.

Responsibility for, and funding of, these events remains with the central Unboxed organisation and the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and therefore the Scottish Government does not hold attendance information for these projects.

Question reference: S6W-12627

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are to progress the introduction of judge-only trials, and what its proposed timescale is for doing this.

The proposal for a time-limited pilot of single judge rape trials as recommended by the Lady Dorrian Review continues to be considered. Stakeholders have been engaged through a short life Working Group which brought together partners from across the justice system to give detailed consideration to proposals for implementing any pilot. Broader views on the proposal have also been sought through recent public consultation.

An independent analysis of the consultation responses and the Working Group’s findings will be published in December 2022. This material will be considered along with responses to the earlier consultation on Not Proven and associated reforms. To ensure the package of reforms maintains balance in the system and supports complainers to give their best evidence, the potential reforms will be considered together.

Question reference: S6W-12618

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop a strategic housing land availability assessment for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to develop a strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA) for Scotland. SHLAA is part of the English planning system for housing, as expected by the English National Planning Policy Framework.

Scotland has its own planning policy and processes relating to housing. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) set out new processes for Local Development Plans (LDPs) and policy for new homes in Scotland.

Our Revised Draft NPF4, if approved by the Scottish Parliament, will expect deliverable land to be allocated to meet the 10 year Local Housing Land Requirement in locations that create quality places for people to live. In addition, areas that may be suitable for new homes beyond 10 years are also to be identified. LDP delivery programmes will be expected to establish a housing land pipeline for the Local Housing Land Requirement. The annual housing land audit will sit alongside the delivery programme and will monitor the delivery of housing land.

Draft LDP Guidance has been consulted on, and is in the process of being finalised. This will include further information on how NPF4 housing policy is implemented in LDPs. We will provide updated guidance on housing land audits to support NPF4 housing policy.

Question reference: S6W-12604

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the candidate selection process that took place in order to appoint a new permanent chair to the board of Ferguson Marine, and whether it provide details of (a) how the post was advertised, (b) how many candidates (i) applied and (ii) were shortlisted and (c) (i) how and (ii) for what reason the final appointment was made.

Between 14 January 2022 and 17 February 2022 the role of Chair of the Board Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) was publicly advertised. Two candidates applied but were not successful.

Following the unsuccessful public recruitment exercise, a recruitment agency was engaged via the framework agreement with the Crown Commercial Service. Three potential candidates were invited for formal interview. The formal interviews tested strong leadership, change management, knowledge of the Public Sector, governance, analysis and decision making as well as communication, networking, influencing, mediation and conflict resolution skills. A recommendation was made to Ministers based on the ranking at formal interview and a formal offer of appointment was made to the highest ranking candidate assessed against the stated criteria.

Question reference: S6W-12605

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the (a) initial upfront capital and (b) annual ongoing resource cost would be to acquire body-worn cameras for all police officers in Scotland, and whether any supplier quotations or tendering have taken place in order to achieve best value for any such procurement.

The issue of body-worn cameras is a policy and operational decision for Police Scotland, acting under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.

Police Scotland have advised they have developed an initial business case for Body Worn Video which has been considered and approved by the SPA Resources Committee. Police Scotland will undertake a full procurement exercise in 2023 which will provide more clarity on costs – both upfront purchase costs and ongoing costs.

The Scottish Government would expect Police Scotland to achieve best value through all its procurement activity.

Chamber and committees