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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-26532

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has purchased £0.5 million of food from Asda for Fareshare to distribute.

The Scottish Government has not purchased any food from Asda on behalf of FareShare.

Due to the uncertainty around the UK’s proposed EU Exit, The Scottish Government has provided FareShare with funding to purchase additional food to supplement the quality and volume of food supplies to organisations to responding to food insecurity across Scotland. This food is being made available to community organisations free of charge.

The purchase of food was undertaken by FareShare, following negotiation with a number of suppliers. The Scottish Government understands that as a result of these negotiations, Asda have offered to purchase food from their suppliers on behalf of FareShare at cost price, enabling FareShare to access higher volumes of food. Asda have forfeited any profit on the products requested by FareShare and have provided an in-kind donation of staff time to coordinate the purchasing and delivery of products.

Question reference: S5W-26530

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it will provide to food banks in each local authority in 2019-20; how much has been allocated in the financial year so far, and how much it plans to provide in 2020-21, also broken down by the amount for each food bank receiving direct assistance.

The Scottish Government is supporting communities to respond to food insecurity in a way that promotes dignity and helps to move away from emergency food aid as a primary response.

Our Fair Food Fund has been increased to £3.5 million in 2019-20 to underpin this work, with £2 million being focused on tackling food insecurity in the school holidays. Around £1 million of our £11.5 million Investing in Communities Fund in 2019-20 will go to organisations responding to food insecurity as a primary aim.

The Scottish Government has also made an additional £1 million available for FareShare to support organisations responding to food insecurity to manage pressures arising from the uncertainty around Brexit.

In 2019-20, the former £1 million Fair Food Transformation Fund became part of the multi year £11.5m Investing in Communities Fund, which brought together several funds to give community organisations a more cohesive, streamlined opportunity to access funding.

As funding decisions for this new fund were made midway through the 2019-20 financial year, former Fair Food Transformation Fund organisations, regardless of making an application to the Investing in Communities Fund, were provided with interim funding in order to continue their projects. 33 formerly funded Transformation Fund organisations received interim grant extensions, these are listed below.

The Investing in Communities Fund is in the process of administering preliminary technical checks, the amount of funding that will be provided specifically to organisations responding to food insecurity will be available once these have been completed.

Due to the UK General Election, the Scottish government agreed with the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee on 14 November that our 2020-21 Budget will not now be published before the Christmas recess. Scottish Ministers are focused on introducing a Scottish Budget for 2020-21 at the earliest practical opportunity. We therefore cannot at this time confirm the amount of direct financial assistance that will be available to organisations responding to food insecurity in 2020-21.

Organisation	Local Authority	Allocated Funding
Apex Scotland	Dumfries and Galloway	£7,000.00
Beith Community Development Trust	North Ayrshire	£8,660.00
Bethany Christian Trust	Edinburgh	£7,000.00
Bridging the Gap	Glasgow	£27,568.00
Calderwood Baptist Church	South Lanarkshire	£4,700.00
Castlemilk Parish Church of Scotland	Glasgow	£9,500.00
Central and West Integration Network	Glasgow	£15,500.00
Cheviot Youth	Scottish Borders	£10,000.00
Community Renewal Trust	Glasgow	£16,750.00
Crookston Community Group	Glasgow	£18,009.50
Cyrenians	Edinburgh	£24,028.00
Granton Community Gardeners	Edinburgh	£8,000.00
Edinburgh Food Project	Edinburgh	£13,630.00
First Base Agency	Dumfries and Galloway	£3,250.00
Kate's Kitchen	Dumfries and Galloway	£10,950.00
Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust	Highland	£18,500.00
Midlothian Foodbank, Gorebridge Parish Church	Midlothian	£8,000.00
Moray Food Plus	Moray	£12,500.00
Oasis Food Bank	Glasgow	£5,500.00
Penicuik Community Alliance	Midlothian	£1,450.00
Pilmeny Development Project	Edinburgh	£4,400.00
Pilton Community Health Project	Edinburgh	£22,100.00
Sauchie Active-8	Clackmannanshire	£10,000.00
St Pauls Youth Forum	Glasgow	£15,200.00
Start-Up Stirling	Stirling	£19,500.00
Stepwell Consultancy	Inverclyde	£19,500.00
The Everlasting Foodbank	Glasgow	£10,646.00
West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare	West Dunbartonshire	£9,670.00
Food For Thought	West Dunbartonshire	£10,000.00
Whitlawburn Community and Resource Centre	South Lanarkshire	£4,350.00
Woodlands Community Development Trust	Glasgow	£10,750.00
Yoker Parish Church	Glasgow	£5,450.00

Question reference: S5W-26079

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25553 by Derek Mackay on 8 October 2019, in the absence of any further financial transaction funding, how the Scottish National Investment Bank will be capitalised after March 2021.

If financial transactions were to be discontinued after March 2021, other sources of capital would need to deployed in order to capitalise the Scottish National Investment Bank. This could include channelling the returns to the Scottish Government from existing financial transaction investments to the Bank, traditional capital, or use of the Scottish Government’s borrowing powers. Decisions about the precise mix and source of capital that will deliver the balance of the £2 billion for the Bank would be made in light of future budget settlements and other calls on the Scottish Government’s capital programme.

Question reference: S5W-26074

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25553 by Derek Mackay on 8 October 2019, what (a) capital and (b) resource profile is anticipated for the Scottish National Investment Bank from March 2021 onwards, and what the source will be of this funding.

The capital to be provided to the Scottish National Investment Bank from March 2021 to March 2028 is £1.5 billion, as projected in the Financial Memorandum. The Financial Memorandum also explained that the presumption was that around £200 million a year would be provided, but the actual profile will depend on future budgets, demand for the Bank’s products, the performance of existing investments to be made and held by the Bank and the Scottish Government’s wider capital programme requirements. For the source of capital investment please see the answer to S5W-26079 on 2 December 2019.

The resource profile estimated for the Bank from March 2021 onwards, as set out in the Financial Memorandum, was £6.3 million. This would come from a resource budget to be allocated to the Bank which is subject to future budget settlements, the Bank’s eventual Target Operating Model and the amount of revenue income (eg interest and dividends) which the Bank is able to generate from its investment portfolio to offset its operating costs.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-26432

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25962 by Michael Matheson on 13 November 2019, what the additional capital was in each year since 2012-13.

Details of the information requested are given in the following table:

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Additional capital	1,330	4,250	1,000	0	0	1,295	6,975

The additional funding was provided for projects identified as appropriate for further in year funding and further details for some of the projects undertaken are available on the Scottish Canals website under the attached links.

https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/news/1million-regeneration-of-gateway-to-forth-clyde-canal-begins/

https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/assets/what-we-have-done/ardrishaig-pier/

https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/news/additional-1-625m-funding-to-get-bonnybridge-twechar-operational-for-2019/

https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/news/additional-funding-for-scotlands-canals-vital-repairs-to-go-ahead/

Question reference: S5O-03877

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns that the out-of-hours services at the Vale of Leven, Inverclyde Royal and Royal Alexandra hospitals are not functioning effectively.

Question reference: S5W-26433

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 27 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-24508 by Derek Mackay on 16 August 2019, whether it has now published the consolidated account for the public sector.

As explained in the response to question S5W-24508, a draft account for 2017-18 was shared for internal consultation in summer 2019. As per the Public Finance and Accountability Act, any account produced has to be audited and laid in Parliament before it can be published. Audit Scotland were invited in July to consider the draft, and we await their views on format and content. Final format, plans and dates for publication have therefore not yet been agreed.

We are currently already working to now produce further accounts for the 2018-19 financial year.

Question reference: S5W-25968

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether any residential properties owned by Scottish Canals and leased out to tenants are considered to be below tolerable standard.

Question reference: S5W-25964

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many residential properties were owned by British Waterways in Scotland in each of the last five years of its operation, and where they were located.

Question reference: S5W-25967

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many residential properties owned by Scottish Canals have been sold in each year since its inception, broken down by (a) location and (b) income received.