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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-25592

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 14 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the large business rates supplement has been in each of the last 15 years, broken down by how much tax revenue this generated.

The large business supplement to the non-domestic rate in each of the last 15 years is set out in the table below, along with the estimated associated revenue. The estimated net revenue up until 2011-12 is based on the Assessor's Valuation Roll. The Scottish Government holds property-level relief information from 2012-13 onwards, which has been used in addition to the Valuation Roll to improve the accuracy of the estimates in those years. While the two methodologies used to derive the figures are broadly similar, comparisons over the 15-year time period should be made with caution.

Year	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Large Business Supplement (pence)	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.9	1.1	1.3	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.6
Estimated net LBS income (£m) based on Assessors Valuation Roll	13	14	11	15	16	33	33
Estimated net LBS income (£m) based on Assessors Valuation Roll and Local Authority billing information								38	43	52	62	125	127	129	130

Source: Assessors' Valuation Roll, Local Authority Billing information.

Question reference: S5W-25577

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its paper, Government spend over £25,000: January 2019, for what purpose it spent £98,651.60 on Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, UK Branch.

In line with the Scottish Government Digital Strategy, the Social Security Directorate, Chief Digital Officer Division, has adopted a cloud first approach and are delivering the vast majority of Social Security Scotland technology from the cloud.

This figure is for delivering our technology from the cloud for the period 1 January – 31 January 2019.

Adopting a cloud first approach ensures we have resilience and are able to expand or contract our systems according to future demand whist maintaining a sharp focus on costs compared to the traditional or historical technology model of over provisioning.

Question reference: S5O-03620

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to protect families who have been affected by domestic abuse.

Question reference: S5W-25377

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 September 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much each local authority has been allocated from the Town Centre Fund, also broken by how this has been spent.

The £50 million Town Centre Fund was developed in partnership with COSLA and launched on 1 March. The fund has been distributed across all local authorities to enable them to stimulate and support a wide range of investments which encourage town centres and city neighbourhoods to diversify and flourish.

It is for local authorities to decide how to allocate funding in the context of the Town Centre First Principle and Town Centre Action Plan and, more recently, the Place Principle. These decisions should be based on an understanding of town centre performance and ownership, shared visions and plans; with the involvement of local communities, partners and stakeholders.

Town Centre Fund – Local Authority Allocation

Local Authority	Allocation
Aberdeen City	£1,351,000
Aberdeenshire	£3,286,000
Angus	£1,080,000
Argyll and Bute	£1,242,000
City of Edinburgh	£2,613,000
Clackmannanshire	£683,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£1,529,000
Dundee City	£735,000
East Ayrshire	£1,701,000
East Dunbartonshire	£944,000
East Lothian	£1,275,000
East Renfrewshire	£981,000
Falkirk	£1,976,000
Fife	£4,335,000
Glasgow City	£3,010,000
Highland	£2,965,000
Inverclyde	£660,000
Midlothian	£910,000
Moray	£1,233,000
Na h-Eileanan Siar	£223,000
North Ayrshire	£1,418,000
North Lanarkshire	£3,250,000
Orkney Islands	£200,000
Perth and Kinross	£1,983,000
Renfrewshire	£1,459,000
Scottish Borders	£1,421,000
Shetland Islands	£205,000
South Ayrshire	£1,064,000
South Lanarkshire	£2,506,000
Stirling	£1,077,000
West Dunbartonshire	£859,000
West Lothian	£1,826,000
Scotland	£50,000,000

Question reference: S5O-03525

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support Highlands and Islands businesses experiencing losses due to cuts in rural banking services.

Question reference: S5W-23993

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the results of the Good Food Nation consultation.

Question reference: S5W-23717

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what figures are used for benchmarking NHS boards equality and diversity data, and whether the figures are nationally or locally based.

Data on equality and diversity is published on an annual basis in June within the workforce section of NHS National Services Scotland's Information Services Division (ISD) website: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/ .

This data is broken down nationally, regionally and by NHS boards to provides figures for benchmarking and comparison purposes.

Decisions relating to benchmarking equality and diversity data are matters for each individual NHS board within the framework of the current legislative requirements under the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. This includes a Public Sector Equality Duty that requires NHS boards to have due regard to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Regulations impose specific duties on Scottish public authorities to publish a set of Equality Outcomes at four yearly intervals and thereafter to report on progress every two years.

Question reference: S5W-23719

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action NHS boards are (a) taking and (b) expected to take to increase the diversity of their workforce.

Action NHS Boards are (a) taking and (b) expected to take to increase the diversity of their workforce are matters for each individual NHS board within the framework of the current legislative requirements under the Equality Act 2010, and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

This includes a Public Sector Equality Duty that requires NHS boards to have due regard to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Scottish Government is taking action to increase the diversity of our NHS workforce by funding partnerships with the Business Disability Forum and Stonewall Scotland. We have also committed to delivering an NHS Scotland wide campaign to promote more effective equalities outcomes.

Question reference: S5W-23718

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS boards have published annual workforce data for (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-23416

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) ensure the health of and (b) maintain farmland biodiversity, and how it will ensure that this work will be able to meet the expected scale of future biodiversity challenge.

In response to the recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) on the state of global biodiversity, the Scottish Government has committed to carrying out a thorough analysis of the report’s findings and policy options. As part of this process, we will examine what we are already doing to protect and promote biodiversity, where we need to do more, and what we need to do differently. We will write to the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee with our initial assessment by the end of 2019.

The Scottish Government, through the Farm Advisory Service, also helps farmers and crofters consider how to support and enhance biodiversity on their land. The service features free events, publications, videos and online tools that transfer knowledge, enhance understanding and promote uptake of practices. It also offers farmers and crofters access to expert consultancy support to develop an Integrated Land Management Plan tailored to their business that includes a biodiversity review.