- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates the Scottish National Investment Bank will receive overall in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.
Answer
The budget provision for the overall Scottish National Investment Bank programme and Directorate was £280 million in the 2020-21 budget settlement. The amount that the Scottish National Bank plc and its group directly receives this financial year will be confirmed in the final out-turn position to March 2021 which will be reported on later this year. The overall proposed budget allocation specifically for the Scottish National Investment Bank in 2021-22 will be included in the draft budget which is scheduled to be published later this month.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32339 by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020, how many people saw its 2018-19 Food Waste Gone Bad campaign, and what the size of the target audience was.
Answer
The Food Waste Gone Bad campaign included television, radio and digital campaigns. The TV element was showed on STV, C4 and ITV breakfast Scotland and the following table shows how many times all adults in Scotland will have seen the advert one (1+ reach), three times (3+ reach) and how many opportunities to see (OTS) the advert there are:
TV audience | 1+ Reach | 3+ Reach | OTS |
All Adults (in Scotland) | 64% | 39% | 6.3 |
This advert was also served digitally; 589,831 impressions on catch up services and 224,595 impressions on YouTube were planned.
The radio advert played across all Local Authorities who have recycling collections. The table below summarises the impact, reach and opportunities to hear (OTH) the advert:
| Impacts | Reach | Reach | OTH |
All Adults 15+ | 33,117,000 | 2,504,000 | 57.4% | 13.2 |
The reach of the digital advertising for the campaign was as follows:
- 1,354,761 impressions on Facebook and Instagram
- 1,108,864 impressions on Twitter.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review its decision that football clubs in local authority areas that are subject to Level 2 restrictions and above are not permitted to allow fans into their grounds.
Answer
With the increase of transmissions in Scotland and the new strain, there are no current plans to review this decision. We keep the content of the Strategic Framework under regular review.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm that all community payback orders put on hold during the current pandemic will be fulfilled, and what targeted support will be provided to local authorities to allow them to clear any backlogs.
Answer
The difficulties faced by justice social work in delivering community orders during the coronavirus pandemic were acknowledged by the Scottish Parliament through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which extended timescales for completion of unpaid work and other activity requirements, and created new regulation-making powers enabling community orders to be postponed or varied if necessary, subject to Parliamentary approval.
Social Work Scotland raised significant concerns during the summer about the ability of justice social work to deliver outstanding unpaid work and other activity requirements within reasonable timescales, suggesting that the effective operation of the community justice system is at significant risk unless action is taken to reduce the backlog, utilising the regulation-making powers mentioned above. I made clear to the Justice Committee I will keep the situation under review.
The Covid restrictions mean that unpaid work hours are not able to be completed in the same way they were pre-Covid, therefore serious consideration must be given to the options provided within the regulation-making powers, which all parties voted for. I will update Parliament on any decision I make in this regard.
In regards to wider support, an additional £4m in justice social work services has been invested in 2020/21 with flexibility to utilise this in responding to emerging pressures arising because of the pandemic. A further investment of up to £1m was agreed in December 2020 to assist in reducing the backlog of undelivered unpaid work or other activity requirements and there has been regular engagement with Social Work Scotland, local authorities and other partners throughout the pandemic.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-32552 and S5W-33181 by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 and 25 November 2020 respectively, whether it will provide the information requested regarding when it last met representatives of the (a) Scottish Football Association, (b) Scottish Professional Football League, (c) Scottish Amateur Football Association, (d) Scottish Premiership club chairmen and (e) Scottish Football Supporters Association.
Answer
The Scottish Government last met with the:
Scottish Football Association on 16 December 2020
Scottish Professional Football League on 10 December 2020
Scottish Amateur Football Association on 4 December 2020
Scottish Football Supporters Association on 25 November 2020
We routinely meet with the Chairmen – and senior representatives like Chief Executives – of SPFL Premiership clubs, the last discussion was with the Chairman of Ross County on 18 November.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the sources from whom it has received advice on the potential risks of allowing fans to return to stadium football matches; when that advice was last received, and when it will next seek to update it.
Answer
Our approach and principles remain those we set out in our Framework for Decision-Making , based on clinical evidence, expert advice, and a balanced assessment of the risks.
Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators. Given that the situation with the virus remains fragile – with many cases and continuing pressure on the NHS – we are taking a cautious approach.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 January 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether evidence from the epidemiologist, Professor Gary Macfarlane, who backed Aberdeen FC’s request for 2,000 supporters to be allowed into Pittodrie stadium, will be considered as part of fans returning to football stadia.
Answer
Ministers, clinicians and officials regularly consider the latest advice and information and reflect this in the decisions we take in managing the return of spectators.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32908 by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020, whether it will provide an update on the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, including details of how many applications have been received for each of the funds, broken down by local authority area, and how many of these (a) have been approved, (b) have been declined and (c) are awaiting a decision.
Answer
Details on the applications and payments made through the Covid-19 Restrictions fund were published on the Scottish Government website on the 18 December and can be found here .
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33142 by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 November 2020, whether it will confirm the five local authorities that were selected to provide the compositional household waste data.
Answer
The UK waste compositional study referred to in S5W-33142 was conducted by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Information on the five local authorities that were selected is not held by Scottish Government. However, Zero Waste Scotland expect to begin fieldwork for a revised analysis of the composition of household municipal waste in Spring 2021, and publication of the full results is expected in 2022.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33603 by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 December 2020, when the enforcement sub-group of the Litter Managers Network was set up, and on what dates it has met.
Answer
The enforcement sub-group of the Litter Managers Network was set up in 2018 and has met six times (August 2018, October 2018, January 2019, June 2019, September 2019 and December 2019). The meeting scheduled for March 2020 had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Litter Managers Network has continued to meet quarterly, with the most recent meeting taking place in November 2020.