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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: S4W-25218

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) direct and (b) indirect jobs the spending on innovation centres has created, broken down by centre.

The current total number of staff directly employed by the eight Innovation Centres is 65. This number was broken down by centre in the answer to question S4W-25217 on 29 April 2015.

This does not take account of in-kind staff contributions across industry and academic partners. Projects funded by Innovation Centres will also include academic and industry staff time.

Innovation Centres are in the initial phase of development and we do not know how many indirect jobs have been created at this stage. Their business plans indicate that they have the potential to create up to 5,000 jobs in their first five years.

The focus for each of the Innovation Centres has been in establishing the framework for effective operations through recruitment of key board members and operating staff and in securing the initial academia-industry projects that will drive the growth in each industry sector and lead to the creation of new jobs.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S4W-25215

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its budget is for innovation centres; what it has spent already and over what time period, broken down by centre, and whether it plans to make additional funding available for centres to apply for.

The Scottish Government is investing in Innovation Centres through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which has committed £124 million of funding for the Innovation Centres programme over six years (2013-19) comprising £110 million of core funding and £14 million to support capital investment. An additional £2 million per annum has also been set aside for postgraduate training places at the Innovation Centres.

As announced in the Programme for Government, an Innovation Centre challenge fund of £1 million will also be launched in academic year 2015-16. This will support the centres to work together on industrial and societal challenges.

To date, the SFC has approved £78.5 million of the core funding (out of the £110 million core funding) towards the eight Innovation Centres and this is outlined in the following table:

Innovation Centre	Offer of Grant	Core Funding Awarded over six years (£ million)	SFC Payments to 31 January 2015 (£)
Digital Health Institute	March 2013	10.0	2,054,572
Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems	March 2013	10.0	2,070,000
Stratified Medicine Scotland	March 2013	8.0	2,461,536
Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre	December 2013	10.0	1,400,000
Oil and Gas Innovation Centre	February 2014	10.6	920,003
Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre	February 2014	11.1	1,600,000
Construction Scotland Innovation Centre	March 2014	7.5	1,053,625
The Data Lab	March 2014	11.3	865,022
Total		78.5	12,424,758

Note: Data was provided by the SFC

Initially, the Innovation Centres have focused on building the necessary and appropriate infrastructure in terms of staff and operating processes. However spend is expected to increase significantly once project activity accelerates.

Question reference: S4W-25216

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the total budget is for each innovation centre, including funding from academic institutions, private enterprise and other major sources.

The total budget for each Innovation Centre is provided in the following table. It includes indicative funding from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), academic institutions, private enterprise and other major sources.

Innovation Centres (IC)	SFC funding (£ million)	Total IC budget (including projected income) – core, capital and project from SFC, public and industry) (£ million)
Digital Health Institute	10.0	33.7
Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems	10.0	25.1
Stratified Medicine Scotland	8.0	23.8
Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre	10.0	45.8
Oil and Gas Innovation Centre	10.6	34.9
Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre	11.1	17.7
Construction Scotland Innovation Centre	7.5	17.8
The Data Lab	11.3	25.0
Total	78.5	223.8

Note: This information was provided by the SFC.

It should be noted that with the exception of SFC funding, all figures are indicative and are based on current estimates as set out in the Innovation Centres’ business plans.

Question reference: S4W-25217

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what total number of staff is working for innovation centres, also broken down by centre.

Currently, the total number of staff directly employed by the eight Innovation Centres is 65. The following table breaks this down by centre.

The numbers in the table are based on current ‘core’ team structure and those directly employed by the Innovation Centres. This does not take account of in-kind staff contributions across industry and academic partners. Numbers are subject to change as the Innovation Centres continue to grow and develop.

Innovation Centres (IC)	Number of staff directly employed by IC
Digital Health Institute	15
Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems	16
Stratified Medicine Scotland	5
Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre	8
Oil and Gas Innovation Centre	8
Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre	2
Construction Scotland Innovation Centre	4
The Data Lab	7

Note: Data provided by the Scottish Funding Council

Question reference: S4W-25235

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which cabinet secretary sought agreement from the Cabinet for the policy of full fiscal autonomy and when the matter was discussed.

Question reference: S4W-25234

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it adopted the policy of full fiscal autonomy.

The Scottish Government has published a range of proposals for how full fiscal responsibility within the UK could operate. These include:

Fiscal Autonomy in Scotland: The case for change and options for reform (February 2009)

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/261814/0078318.pdf

Your Scotland, Your Voice: A National Conversation (November 2009)

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2009/11/26155932/0

More Powers for the Scottish Parliament: Scottish Government Proposals (November 2014)

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0046/00460563.pdf

Question reference: S4W-25270

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that its estimate of boosting UK spending by £180 billion is incorrect while asserting that debt would reduce in every year from 2016-17 onwards and that the correct figure is £165 billion.

Question reference: S4W-25274

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the spend for (a) the NHS, (b) schools and (c) pensions in Scotland was in 2014-15.

Question reference: S4W-25242

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24763 by John Swinney on 1 April 2015, when it analysed the responses to its consultation on an interim constitution for Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-25241

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24763 by John Swinney on 1 April 2015, how many responses it received to its consultation on an interim constitution for Scotland.