- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 27 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times ministers have called in planning applications from planning committees in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Information on committee processes in relation to individual planning applications which are called in by Scottish Ministers is not recorded centrally. The figures below are the collective total of applications called in by Scottish Ministers per year from 2012 to date. This includes cases called in at points before, during and after consideration by a council committee, and also those where the council’s consideration had been delegated to planning officials.
Year | 20 12 | 20 13 | 20 14 | 20 15 | 20 16 | 20 17 | 20 18 | 20 19 | 20 20 | 20 21 | 20 22 |
All called-in cases | 3 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 13 |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to deliver a (a) gradual and (b) flexible reintroduction of non-domestic rates to enable businesses to concentrate their resources on business re-growth.
Answer
Decisions on non-domestic rates, including the poundage and any reliefs, are generally considered in the context of the Scottish Budget in line with other government priorities.
The Scottish Budget 2022-23 maintains a competitive non-domestic rates regime, delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row as well as a generous package of reliefs which are forecast to be worth £801 million.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many Ukrainian refugees are being hosted by hotels in the City of Edinburgh Council area.
Answer
We are working closely with local authorities and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and doing all we can to speed up the matching process and increase the numbers of displaced people moving into host accommodation.
On 22 September, the Scottish Government published its first summary of the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine coming to Scotland through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme visa schemes, including data on the number of displaced people in welcome accommodation: Key points - Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics - gov.scot.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many laptops it has purchased since 1 March 2020, broken down by the brand of laptop, and what the total cost was of these purchases.
Answer
The Scottish Government have purchased the following laptops since 1st March 2020 for use on the SCOTS network.
Number of laptops | Brand | Total Cost (inc VAT) |
7584 | HP | £4,845,550 |
55 | Microsoft | £78,900 |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many computers it has purchased for each of its directorates in each of the last five years.
Answer
The breakdown of this information by Directorate is not held centrally and to collate this information would be at disproportionate costs. Computers have been defined as any device which has been configured for use on the SCOTS Network. The overall number for Scottish Government over the past 5 years are
Year | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 |
Number of Computers | 1523 | 6030 | 4070 | 3569 | NIL to date |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much money has been allocated to Scottish Canals in each of the last five years.
Answer
Scottish Canals has benefitted from significant increases in grant in aid awards in recent years. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital grant from the Scottish Government has increased by 87% and it has received an annual uplift in resource funding since 2020. The Organisation has also received substantial additional funding support. A breakdown of the funding is attached in the following table.
Year | Grant allocation | Capital funding | Revenue funding | Additional funding | Total funding |
22-23 | £22.7m | £12.2m | £10.5m | | |
21-22 | £21.9m | £12.2m | £9.7m | £662k (rev) Covid consequential funding. £2.4m in additional funding. (cap) | £14.6m (cap) £10.4m (rev) £22.6m(total) |
20-21 | £20.7m | £12.2m | £8.5m | £1m (cap) Dredging Caledonian and Crinan. £545k(cap) Weedcutter. £6.5m (cap) Union Canal Breach. £1.1m (rev) Covid funding £2.8m in additional funding. (cap) | £20.2m (cap) £12.4m (rev) £32.6m (total) |
19-20 | £15m | £6.5m | £8.5m | £262k (rev) Bowling works. | £6.5m (cap) £8.8m (rev) £15.3m (total) |
18-19 | £11.6m | £3.5m | £8.1m | £1.625m (cap) Twechar, Bonnybridge and Ardrishaig. £5.350m (cap) Cullochy Lock Gates and Fort Augustus. | £10.475m (cap) £8.100m (rev) £18.575m (total) |
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 22 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the expected cost of its current case in the Supreme Court regarding the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill.
Answer
We published the costs incurred by the Lord Advocate’s reference to the Supreme Court on 22 September, which can be found here: www.gov.scot/publications/independence-referendum-supreme-court-referral-legal-costs . We will continue to publish costs on a quarterly basis until litigation ends. As the litigation is ongoing, and the costs may be affected by a number of factors, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the total costs we will incur.
As the First Minister explained to Parliament on 28 June, there is a substantial majority in Scottish Parliament in favour of an independence referendum and therefore a clear democratic mandate for this work. The UK government, regrettably, is refusing to respect Scottish democracy.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 21 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff members will accompany the First Minister on her visit to Copenhagen to open the Danish office, and what the total cost of the journey is to the Scottish Government.
Answer
Details of all Ministerial engagements and expenses are proactively published by the Scottish Government, including the costs of travel and accommodation. The information can be accessed at the following below: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 21 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the gender breakdown by age grouping of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Scotland under its Super Sponsor scheme.
Answer
The most recent published figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is available at: Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and Ukraine Family Scheme: Visa data by age and sex of applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .This provides the sex breakdown by age grouping of displaced people from Ukraine who have arrived under the Super Sponsor Scheme.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 21 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what performance indicators it has set HaskoningDHV UK Limited to determine whether it has successfully "identified ways to improve the competitiveness" of the Ferguson Marine yard.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s contract with First Marine International (FMI), a subsidiary of HaskoningDHV, sets out deliverables around timing and the quality of the work done on the report that the Scottish Government has commissioned. These are being used to determine performance and are linked to milestone payments to the supplier. The use of milestone payments is a common mechanism in Scottish Government contracts.
Any decisions around potential investment at the yard will be subject to value for money considerations and to subsidy control rules.