- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 18 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its equity stake in Burntisland Fabrications, whether it has secured or is seeking representation on the company’s board.
Answer
As I disclosed to the Scottish Parliament on 18 April 2018, the Scottish Government has extended the loan facility made available to BiFab, to enable completion of contracts associated with the Beatrice offshore wind farm. Debt under the loan will be converted to a minority equity stake in the company. The extent of the shareholding will be determined by the extent to which the loan facility is drawn down in completing the BOWL contracts. The shareholding will not exceed 38%. The details of the loan facility, including repayment and conversion rates, are commercially confidential. The Scottish Government does not have representation on the BiFab board. The Scottish Government is actively managing its shareholding through a close working relationship with the company.
The Scottish Government did take independent advice on the transaction, including in relation to State Aid. The loan facility has been provided on a commercial basis.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 18 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has appointed a private equity manager for its equity stake in Burntisland Fabrications.
Answer
As I disclosed to the Scottish Parliament on 18 April 2018, the Scottish Government has extended the loan facility made available to BiFab, to enable completion of contracts associated with the Beatrice offshore wind farm. Debt under the loan will be converted to a minority equity stake in the company. The extent of the shareholding will be determined by the extent to which the loan facility is drawn down in completing the BOWL contracts. The shareholding will not exceed 38%. The details of the loan facility, including repayment and conversion rates, are commercially confidential. The Scottish Government does not have representation on the BiFab board. The Scottish Government is actively managing its shareholding through a close working relationship with the company.
The Scottish Government did take independent advice on the transaction, including in relation to State Aid. The loan facility has been provided on a commercial basis.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 18 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the value was of its loan to Buntisland Fabrications that was converted to the minority equity stake.
Answer
As I disclosed to the Scottish Parliament on 18 April 2018, the Scottish Government has expanded the loan facility made available to BiFab to enable completion of the BOWL contract and convert that loan to a minority equity stake in the new company.
The extent of that shareholding will be determined by the extent to which the loan facility is utilised in completing the BOWL contract. As previously stated, the shareholding will not exceed 38%.
In addition we will make available a commercial loan to support DF Barnes during this transition.
The Scottish Government sought independent legal and financial advice throughout this process, the details of which are commercially confidential.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 18 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the conversion of its loan to Burntisland Fabrications into an equity stake, whether it has secured any preferential (a) entitlement to dividends, (b) rights in the event that the company winds up and (c) limited voting rights.
Answer
As I disclosed to the Scottish Parliament on 18 April 2018, the Scottish Government has extended the loan facility made available to BiFab, to enable completion of contracts associated with the Beatrice offshore wind farm. Debt under the loan will be converted to a minority equity stake in the company. The extent of the shareholding will be determined by the extent to which the loan facility is drawn down in completing the BOWL contracts. The shareholding will not exceed 38%. The details of the loan facility, including repayment and conversion rates, are commercially confidential. The Scottish Government does not have representation on the BiFab board. The Scottish Government is actively managing its shareholding through a close working relationship with the company.
The Scottish Government did take independent advice on the transaction, including in relation to State Aid. The loan facility has been provided on a commercial basis.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many people are employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC).
Answer
As of 10 May 2018, the number of people employed by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner is 68.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many civil servants there are in the Police Division of its Justice Directorate.
Answer
As at 1 May 2018 there were 34 civil servants in the Justice Directorate Police Division of the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many people are employed by the Scottish Police Authority.
Answer
The number of staff employed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is 5199.59 FTE as at 31 March 2018. This comprises police, forensics and corporate staff.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium suggesting that town centre vacancy rates have reached a seven-year high.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2018
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 16 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Scottish Enterprise should treat women’s enterprise as a growth sector in the Scottish economy.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-16521 on 15 May 2018. 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 .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether Scottish Enterprise should treat social care as a growth sector in the Scottish economy.
Answer
Social care is a major contributor to the Scottish economy employing more than 200,000 people and making up 7.7% of all Scottish employment. The Scottish Government remain committed to transforming the way we deliver social care services and investing in the sector itself as reflected in our commitment to invest an additional £66 million in 2018-19 on adult social care compared to 2017-18, which is included in the local government settlement allocations to support social care. This will take the Scottish Government’s overall package of additional investment in social care and integration to over £550 million in 2018-19.
Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) recently published Business Plan for 2018-19 outlines SE’s approach to supporting competitiveness and inclusive growth. This approach means support is delivered to eligible businesses or individuals, irrespective of the sector a business operates in. Further detail on the plan can be viewed at:
https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/publication/business-plans
