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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: S6W-36628

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what barriers to hydrogen production development in Scotland it has identified.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop. To help identify and better understand the barriers to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland we have established the Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum (SHIF) chaired by myself. It includes representatives from our electricity and gas network operators and a list of members is available on the Scottish Government website here Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum - gov.scot.

Expertise in hydrogen related planning has been identified as a potential barrier to timely determination of planning consents for hydrogen production development. The creation of a Planning Hub in Scotland was announced on 10 September 2024. This initiative is providing support to planning authorities to improve their skills and capacity to deliver planning determinations promptly. The initial focus of the planning hub has been to improve the pace of the consenting process for hydrogen developments.

The high cost of electricity has also been identified as a potential barrier to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland. This is a wider and complex issue.

The introduction of the Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) Programme by the UK Government is a welcome step in incentivising the production and use of renewable hydrogen. However, the slow roll out of the programme has been identified as a potential barrier to deployment may be undermining investors’ confidence.

It is vital now that all efforts are made to support and to streamline the decision-making process for HAR 2 to allow shortlisted projects to move forward with urgency.

A lack of clarity on UKG decisions on the future of the gas grid and the UK-wide hydrogen network and hydrogen blending is also leading to uncertainty amongst investors and developers.

Many of the levers required to support the emergence of a flourishing hydrogen economy in the devolved nations are reserved to the UK Government, as highlighted above and so we will continue to work closely with the UKG to ensure that our collective vision for the development of the hydrogen economy is aligned, and the benefits are realised across all nations of the UK.

Question reference: S6W-35694

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) ages and (b) prior qualifications, by SCQF level, were of people starting a graduate apprenticeship in each year since 2017-18.

The latest Graduate Apprenticeship statistics are available on the Skills Development Scotland website covering the 2021-22 academic year - https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/statistics/graduate-apprenticeships

Information broken down by age can be found within the publication in Table 4.

Prior qualification by SCQF level is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or included in the above publication.

Question reference: S6O-04528

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported prevalence and trend of crimes committed where the perpetrator was wearing a disguise, particularly in relation to antisocial behaviour.

Question reference: S6W-35572

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 25 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much the (a) Scottish Funding Council and (b) Student Awards Agency for Scotland has spent on the delivery of (i) Graduate and (ii) Foundation Apprenticeships in each of the last five years, and what that spend delivered.

Funding

The following tables set out how much the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) has spent on the delivery of Graduate Apprenticeships (GAs) and Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs) in each of the last 5 complete financial years.

Accountability for, and funding of, Graduate Apprenticeships and Foundation Apprenticeships (delivered through colleges) was passed to the SFC in Academic Year (AY) 2021-22. In the same year SAAS became responsible for funding tuition fees for new GA enrolments.

In this time period, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) also provided funding for FAs and GAs that resulted in enrolments in addition to those below.

Table 1: Split of GA Funding Across SFC and SAAS from 2019-20 to 2023-24

Academic Year	SFC funding (£m)	SAAS funding (£m)
2019-20	-	-
2020-21	-	-
2021-22	7	2
2022-23	15	3
2023-24	23*	5

*Note: SFC funding for 2023-24 should be treated as notional

Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by SAAS and SFC and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms)

Table 2: Split of FA Funding Across SFC and SAAS from 2019-20 to 2023-24

Academic Year	SFC funding (£m)	SAAS funding (£m)
2019-20	-	-
2020-21	-	-
2021-22	9	-
2022-23	9	-
2023-24	10	-

*Note: SFC funding for 2023/24 should be treated as notional

Note: Figures are those provided to the Scottish Government by SAAS and SFC and are rounded to the nearest £, million (cash terms)

Enrolments resulting from funding

Table 3 and 4 below show the enrolments for FAs and GAs that this funding has delivered.

Table 3: Number of Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) enrolments by academic year funded by SFC/SAAS

Academic Year	GA Enrolments
2019-20	-
2020-21	-
2021-22	1,165
2022-23	1,140
2023-24	*

Source: HESA Student data, SFC Secondary Analysis

Note: GA Enrolments: The number of new apprentices registered on a GA framework at the beginning of each academic year, regardless of entry point.

Note: These figures will not align with the data published in the SDS Modern Apprenticeship Statistics as SDS stats represent a snapshot of enrolments mid-way through the academic year

*Note: As part of official statistic regulations the Scottish Funding Council are unable to share data prior to publication

Table 4: No. of pupils enrolled on a Foundation Apprenticeship (FA) by academic year funded by SFC/SAAS

Academic Year	FA Enrolments
2019-20	-
2020-21	-
2021-22	2,925
2022-23	2,485
2023-24	*

Source: SFC's Further Education Statistics (FES) return.

Note: FA Enrolments: The number of new apprentices registered on a FA or pilot FA framework at the beginning of each academic year, rounded to the nearest five

*Note: As part of official statistic regulations the Scottish Funding Council are unable to share data prior to publication

Question reference: S6O-04506

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-34356

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Scottish Engineering report, Engineering Skills Gap Analysis for Scotland.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, myself, and Scottish Government officials have held several meetings with Scottish Engineering to discuss the report Engineering Skills Gap Analysis for Scotland. We will continue to engage with the sector in the coming weeks to assess options and expect to finalise an action plan by April.

We will also continue to drive agility and efficiency in the post school education and skills system through our programme of reform. This includes work on skills planning that will put in place a mechanism to collectively agree and prioritise Scotland strategic skills needs, to meet our economic, social and environmental aims

Question reference: S6T-02380

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it will work with the UK Government on the recently announced £200 million investment in Grangemouth, as part of the National Wealth Fund.

Question reference: S6W-32930

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many grants it has awarded to Tesla Inc in each year since 2016; what the total value of any such grants is, and whether it will provide details of each project funded by any such grants.

Question reference: S6W-32235

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it used to calculate the increase of around 1% in real terms to the 2025-26 block grant settlement compared with the latest 2024-25 allocation, as set out in its draft Budget 2025-26, including the (a) figures and (b) sources of figures used in this calculation, and, following that methodology, whether it can calculate the percentage increase to three significant figures.

All figures are drawn from Table A.02 set out in Annex A of the 2025-26 Budget publication. The around 1% real terms increase figure quoted is in relation to the change in real terms in Resource Barnett Block Grant between the latest 2024-25 figure and the 2025-26 figure. All figures reconcile to the agreed HM Treasury aggregates. HM Treasury aggregates include some non-Barnett elements in the overall total which are excluded from the year on year comparators (these are disclosed elsewhere in the funding position at table A.02 - specifically within the Migrant Surcharge and Other/Budget Cover Transfer lines).The GDP deflator values used in calculating the real terms movement are as published by the Office for National Statistics.

Methodology for calculation.

Figures –.

2024-25 core Barnett settlement is £39,635 million (made up of the £38,202 million total UK Settlement plus £1,433 million of additional consequentials received at UK Budget Statement.
The 715 million ringfenced funding has been baselined in 2025-26 so is included in 41141 figure.
£41,141 million is the is the core Barnett Settlement for 2025-26.
GDP deflator is 1.0239

Calculating the % increase in real terms 2024-25 to 2025-26;

Real terms figures are quoted in 2024-25 process. The GDP deflator is used to put the 2025-26 funding in 2024-25 terms.

41141 / 1.0239 = 40180.68171

You then calculate the % increase by;

(2025-26 funding in 2024-25 real terms – 2024-25 funding) / 2024-25 funding * 100

( 40180.68171 – 39635.254 ) / 39635.254 * 100 = 1.38% increase to 3 significant figures.

Question reference: S6W-32446

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to make a decision on the future of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.