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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: S5O-03158

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to young people from armed forces families when applying for further and higher education.

Question reference: S5W-22485

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to organise an alternative event to the Great Scottish Swim in Loch Lomond, and whether such an event will take place in 2019.

As a funding partner of the Great Scottish Swim for a number of years, EventScotland were in ongoing contact with the organisers of the event, The Great Run Company, regarding this year’s event and their decision to cancel it. Despite growing numbers of participants and best efforts to find alternative arrangements, the event was not at a level that was sustainable for the organisers in the long term.

However, EventScotland has been supporting Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park to explore options to attract a new operator to deliver another open water swimming event for 2019. A new operator has now been found and the event will take place this year on 7 th September. Registrations for the event are now open.

Question reference: S5W-22487

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the organisers of the Great Scottish Swim in Loch Lomond regarding their decision to cancel the event in 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22486

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Great Scottish Swim in Loch Lomond has been cancelled in 2019.

Question reference: S5W-22225

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by (a) how much and (b) what percentage it has reduced payments to bus companies for concessionary fares in March 2019, broken down by bus company.

Question reference: S5W-22226

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reduced payments to bus companies for concessionary fares in March 2019; how much notice it gave, and what its likely impact is.

Final payments made to bus operators have been reduced in accordance with the legislation which underpins the concessionary travel scheme. Concessionary travel reimbursement rates and the payment cap level are agreed each year by negotiation with the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT).

Forecasts are shared with CPT throughout the year. In addition, all operators were advised in January 2019 (with an update in February 2019) of the likelihood of the cap being applied to final payments for 2018-19 as the forecast claim value for the year was greater than the cap level for the year.

We are having constructive discussion with the bus industry about impact and to assist operators cash flow, some additional advance payments were made for 2018-19, where appropriate.

Four weekly advance payments will resume as normal from 1 April 2019 in line with the 2019-20 agreement terms, with a payments cap of £213.65m for the year (around a 5.7% increase from 2018-19).

Question reference: S5W-22231

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 29 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers 18 months is an extensive period of time for the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to have been investigating a complaint without concluding their investigation.

The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is a non-ministerial office and part of the Scottish Administration. OSCR is an independent regulator and does not form part of the Scottish Government.

In line with the framework agreement between the Scottish Government and OSCR, given that this question asks about matters that are the responsibility of OSCR and that Scottish Ministers are not accountable for OSCR’s operations the Member is invited to refer the question to OSCR.

Question reference: S5W-22228

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the rate of offending for sexual crimes has been in each year since 2010.

The latest rates of crimes per 10,000 population were published in the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2017-18
available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2017-18/ (Table 8)

Sexual Crimes recorded in Scotland per 10,000 population, 2008-09 to 2017-18

Crime/Crime Group	2008- 09	2009- 10	2010- 11	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
Sexual crimes¹	12	12	13	14	14	16	18	19	21	23
Rape & attempted rape	2	2	2	2	3	3	4	3	3	4
Sexual assault	6	7	6	5	6	6	7	7	8	9
Crimes associated with prostitution	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	0
Other sexual crimes	3	3	3	5	5	5	7	8	9	10

1 - Implementation of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act on 1 December 2010 affected the comparability of the breakdown of Sexual crimes over time. For further information please see the ‘Data Considerations’ section under Sexual crimes within Chapter 3 of the Recorded crime in Scotland 2017-2018 publication ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2017-18/ )

Number of proceedings in Scotland per 10,000 population, 2008-09 to 2017-18

Crime/Crime group	2008- 09	2009- 10	2010- 11	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
Sexual crimes	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3
Rape and attempted rape	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Sexual assault	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Crimes associated with prostitution	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other sexual crimes	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1

Number of convictions in Scotland per 10,000 population, 2008-09 to 2017-18

Crime/Crime Group	2008- 09	2009- 10	2010- 11	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
Sexual crimes	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Rape and attempted rape	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual assault	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1
Crimes associated with prostitution	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other sexual crimes	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Question reference: S5W-22229

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 18 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the rate of re-offending has been for people convicted of sexual crimes in each year since 2010.

Reconviction rates for sexual crimes from 1997-98 to the most recent available year of 2015-16 are published in Table 6 of the National Statistics publication, Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2015-16 Offender Cohort. The publication can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/reconviction-rates-scotland-2015-16-offender-cohort/pages/0/ .

Note that the reconviction rates shown in Table 6 includes reconvictions for all types of crime following a sexual crime. Table 7 in the publication separates out reconvictions by crime type.

Question reference: S5W-22281

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its original target was for the growth in exportingfor 2010-17, expressed in (a) percentage terms and (b) value; what the actual figures were and, if the target was not met, (i) for what reason and (ii) what lessons it has learned.

The Scottish Government set an ambitious target to grow the value of Scottish exports by 50% between 2010 and 2017. This would have required a increase of approximately £11billion based on the value of exports calculated at the time. In 2017, Scottish exports increased to £32.4billion from £24.1billion in 2010, representing a 35% increase. This was a significant improvement compared with 18% growth over the previous eight years (2002 to 2010). The reasons the target was not achieved are complex and varied. The target period was marked by challenging global economic conditions and a worldwide slowdown in trade growth that was not unique to Scotland.

Nevertheless, we recognise that achieving a greater step change in Scotland's export performance will require a different approach. This will be set out shortly in the forthcoming Export Growth Plan, which is backed by a £20million investment in new actions to significantly grow the value of Scottish exports as a proportion of GDP. The Plan will be published by 1 May, subject to avoiding major disruption from Brexit.