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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-11345

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the allegations and potential instances of impropriety described in the BBC programme, Disclosure: The Great Ferries Scandal, could constitute criminal offences.

Question reference: S6W-11346

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what internal investigations (a) it and (b) its agencies are undertaking into any impropriety by ministers or officials that may have taken place in relation to the allegations featured in the BBC programme, Disclosure: The Great Ferries Scandal.

Question reference: S6W-11342

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it had with CMAL regarding any changes to the requirement for bidders following the commencement of the tendering process for vessels 801 and 802.

Question reference: S6W-11343

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it indicated any support to CMAL for Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd’s bid during the tendering process for vessels 801 and 802.

Question reference: S6W-11349

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what contact it has had with the Serious Fraud Office regarding its investigation into GFG Alliance.

Question reference: S6W-11351

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 27 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding (a) its, (b) its agencies and (c) Police Scotland's ability to provide assistance to the Serious Fraud Office in relation to its investigation into GFG Alliance and any issues arising in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-11360

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether each event awarded funding though the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Fund took place as described on its application.

Question reference: S6W-11359

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 25 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many companies applied for awards from the 2021 round of funding from the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Fund, broken down by the (a) name of, (b) amount requested by and (c) amount awarded to each company, and for those companies that were awarded funding, what payments have been made to date in each case.

Name of Organisation	Amount requested	Amount Awarded	For Those Organisations That Were Awarded Funding) Payments Made to Date.
UX Glasgow	£1,000	£1,000	N/A
Product Forge	£49,750	£15,000	N/A
Digital for Good	£17,600	£0	N/A
Scotland IS	£115,000	£0	N/A
Cloud Cover	£18,300	£0	N/A
DIGIT	£50,000	£10,000	£10,000
Easthouse	£10,000	£0	N/A
FutureX	£45,000	£25,020	£25,020
Digital Scotland	£28,000	£0	N/A
University of Glasgow	£20,000	£5,000	£3,864
First Time Founder Podcast / Gigged.AI	£8,500	£8,500	N/A
Michael Boniface	£3,000	£1,000	£1,000
I to I Communications	£46,520	£0	N/A
Open Source Glasgow	£2,500	£0	N/A
HALO	£50,000	£0	N/A
Gigged.AI (separate application to above)	£3,800	£0	N/A
Proximity	£50,000	£0	N/A
Vivolution	£30,000	£30,000	£30,000
Direct Partners	£46,000	£0	N/A
Egg	£39,900	£0	N/A
Startup Grind	£45,000	£45,000	£44,942.97
Startup Grind (Separate application to above)	£6,900	£6,900	£5,707.49
Pawprint	£15,000	£0	N/A
RookieOven	£40,400	£0	N/A
SCDI	£41,490	£0	N/A
Creative Edinburgh	£30,500	£30,500	£30,500
Metta	£44,500	£0	N/A
Equity Gap	£4,000	£4,000	£4,000
Actionable Business	£35,000	£0	N/A
Digital Skills Education	£12,800	£0	N/A
CrowdX	£43,000	£0	N/A
Digital for Good / Crisis	£24,000	£0	N/A
EMEC / Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ)	£46,000	£0	N/A
SIS Ventures	£48,190	£0	N/A
Women's Enterprise Scotland	£43,466	£43,466	£43,466
Scottish Business Network	£49,346	£49,346	£47,089.79
Scottish Summit	£50,000	£0	N/A
Codebase	£239,512	£0	N/A
NoCode Scotland	£14,245	£14,245	£13,496.91
Solstice Digital	£26,100	£0	N/A
Community Lab	£42,000	£42,000	£42,000
CENSIS	£3,764	£0	N/A
EdinburghJS	£3,250	£3,250	£2,979.48
Codebase (Second Application)	£42,800	£42,800	£39,836.69
Make It Happen	£36,980	£0	N/A
The Data Lab	£70,000	£50,000	£50,000
Goddess Gaia Ventures	£50,000	£50,500	£50,500
Codebase (Third Application)	£49,000	£49,000	£47,500
Traveltech for Scotland	£22,800	£0	N/A
Founder.Scot	£7,598	£0	N/A
ScotApps	£39,090	£0	N/A
Glasgow City Innovation District	£24,900	£24,900	£23,689.15
Heriot-Watt University	£47,982	£0	N/A
Robert Gordon University	£14,000	£0	N/A
Scottish Games Network	£49,425	£49,425	£49,425
Code The City	£10,500	£0	N/A
Tech Meetup Stirling	£1,000	£1,000	N/A
Exolta Capital Partners	£41,650	£41,650	£41,650
Scottish Business Network and FutureX	£29,700	£29,700	£28,091.80
University of Edinburgh - Accelerating Climate Tech Adoption	£12,600	£0	N/A
University of Edinburgh - EI Student Services: Breaking Barriers Events	£18,000	£0	N/A
University of Edinburgh - EIE	£70,000	£70,000	£69,125.75
University of Edinburgh - Fife Tech Meet up – DDE	£19,650	£0	N/A
University of Edinburgh - Health and Social Care Data Driven Innovation Community (HSCDDI)	£18,000	£0	N/A
Altra	£28,470	£0	N/A
Scotland's International Environment Centre (SIEC)	£40,000	£0	N/A
Games Jobs Live	£9,750	£9,750	£9,750
eteaket	£5,990	£0	N/A
Female Founder Squad	£38,350	£38,350	£26,428
New Norm	£3,750	£3,750	N/A
Renfrewshire Council	£5,000	£0	N/A
Ping Creates	£29,500	£0	N/A
Raising Partners	£49,875	£49,875	£49,874.52
DTLX	£33,500	£0	N/A
One HealthTech Aberdeen	£10,900	£0	N/A
Construction Scotland Innovation Centre	£49,175	£0	N/A
Turing Fest	£46,000	£46,000	£46,000
CodeCraft	£5,000	£5,000	£143.88
STAC	£48,400	£0	N/A
Eureka!Europe	£50,000	£0	N/A
AAI	£48,440	£0	N/A
Prewired	£11,918	£0	N/A
Korero Studios	£20,800	£0	N/A
DataKirk	£50,000	£0	N/A
Mint Ventures	£34,350	£34,350	£34,348.71
STEM Leaders Meetup	£6,636	£0	N/A
British Esports	£25,000	£0	N/A
Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance	£39,240	£0	N/A
Heriot-Watt University and Filament PD	£48,000	£0	N/A
Master the Curriculum	£22,000	£0	N/A
Macresco	£9,000	£0	N/A
DNA Coach	£30,000	£0	N/A
Ewa Grabowiecka	£11,000	£0	N/A
The Startup Race	£50,000	£50,000	£50,000
Niki Hutchison	£45,000	£0	N/A
Drupal Scotland	£8,600	£0	N/A
MoneyMatiX	£50,000	£0	N/A
Urban Foresight	£42,350	£0	N/A
University of Edinburgh - City Region Deal DDI Programme Office	£13,500	£0	N/A
University of Stratclyde Business School	£16,400	£16,400	£11,863.08
Scottish AI Alliance	£45,000	£0	N/A
Glasgow City of Science and Innovation	£48,600	£0	N/A
Venus and Mars Dating	£20,000	£0	N/A
A Wild Haggis	£40,000	£0	N/A

Question reference: S6W-11035

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons its Rural Entrepreneur Fund (a) has not yet been introduced, in light of its inclusion in the Programme for Government 2021-22 and (b) is not included in its Programme for Government 2022-23.

The Rural Entrepreneur Fund was a 2021-22 Programme for Government (PfG) commitment to invest £20 million over the lifetime of the current parliament.

In light of the challenging financial environment, we need to prioritise our investments to ensure that they are deliverable, impactful and affordable. Consequently, there has been no money made available for Rural Entrepreneur Fund to date.

Our PfG 2022-23 prioritises support for households, businesses and public services. Following the UK Government’s Emergency Budget we will carry out a budget review to assess opportunities to redirect additional resources to those most in need.

Question reference: S6W-11037

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 3 October 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will no longer seek to put measures in place to double the amount of land used for organic farming by 2026, and, if so, what the reason is for its decision on this matter.

The commitment to the 2021-22 Programme for Government ambition to double the amount of land used for organic farming by 2026 is still firmly in place, alongside our commitment to establish a new Organic Food and Farming Action Plan by the end of this parliamentary session. We will extend the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme up to the end of the period of stability in 2024, which will continue to underpin the ambition for organic farming.