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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-27367

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much money from the Apprenticeship Levy has been spent in each year since 2017-18, also broken down by programme.

Question reference: S5W-27368

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of funds from the Apprenticeship Levy has been spent on delivering (a) modern, (b) graduate and (c) foundation apprenticeships in each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government has no responsibility for the UK Government’s Apprenticeship Levy which is a tax on employers. HMRC hold data on what is raised by the Levy.

The following table sets out Scottish Government funding for Apprenticeships in the years 2017-18 and 2018-19. Figures for 2019-20 will be available at the end of the financial year.

	2017-18 (£ million)	2018-19 (£ million)
(a) Modern Apprenticeships	81.5	81.3
(b) Graduate Apprenticeships	4.7	6.1
(c) Foundation Apprenticeships	6.8	12.5

Question reference: S5W-27263

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much Transport Scotland has spent on the installation of brown tourist information signs in each year since 2007-08, also broken down by local authority area.

Under the Transport Scotland “Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signing Guidance (2016)”, applicants are expected to meet the costs associated with the provision (design and installation) and replacement of tourist signs. General maintenance of erected signs is managed by Transport Scotland at no cost to the applicant.

The brown tourist information signs that are installed as part of our major trunk road improvement projects (e.g. Aberdeen Western Peripheral route) are included within the construction contract and the cost cannot be disaggregated from the overall cost of each project. This is commercial information as part of the contractors’ overall tender for each project.

Question reference: S5W-27275

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on legal action in relation to disputes with (a) Pentland Ferries and (b) David MacBrayne Ltd in each year since 2007-08.

The following table details the legal costs in relation to the disputes with (a) Pentland Ferries Ltd and (b) CalMac Ferries Ltd as at 30 January 2020.

Year	Company	Legal Costs	Total
2018	Pentland Ferries Ltd	£1,750.00
2019	Pentland Ferries Ltd	£58,385.00	£60,135.00
2019	CalMac Ferries Ltd	£2,450.00
2020	CalMac Ferries Ltd	£1,560.00	£4,010.00
			£64,145.00*

*These are net figures exclusive of VAT.

Pentland Ferries Ltd

Scottish Ministers were awarded costs, and we are currently in the process of recovering judicial expenses (i.e. costs) from Pentland Ferries.

CalMac legal proceedings

CalMac raised legal proceedings in the Court of Session on 25 November 2019 against the decision to award the Northern Isles Ferry Services (NIFS) contract to Serco Northlink.

CalMac offered to abandon their case on 31 January 2020, on a no expenses basis, which Scottish Ministers accepted. This means that both parties will bear their own costs.

It should be noted that not all invoices in relation to the dispute with CalMac Ferries Ltd have been received.

Question reference: S5W-27276

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether work to dual the (a) A9 and (b) A96 road is progressing on target.

The Scottish Government intends to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025. Construction of the second section to be dualled between Luncarty and Birnam is progressing well and at the same time, design work continues at pace with eight of the remaining nine dualling schemes now subject to the statutory process. We are currently reviewing procurement options to bring forward the remainder of the programme following completion of the statutory process.

Design work is also well underway on the A96 Dualling Inverness to Aberdeen programme. The Scottish Government intends to dual the A96 by 2030, subject to the satisfactory completion of the statutory process for each section of the dualling programme.

Question reference: S5W-27369

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much money from the Employability Fund has been spent in each year since 2017-18, also broken down by provider.

Employability Fund contract spend is published in the SDS Annual Procurement Reports, linked to below:

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/44806/annual-procurement-report-2017-2018-july-2018.pdf

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/45803/annual-procurement-report-2018-19.pdf

Contract Values are published and are broken down by each employability fund provider:

https://www.stf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/employability-fund-201718-contract-values.pdf

https://www.stf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ef-contracts-2018-19.pdf

2019/20 contract values are not yet published, but are set out in the table below:

Employability Fund 2019-20 (Feb 2020)
Organisation	Contracted volumes	Contract Value
Aberdeen Foyer	127	£130,950
Action for Children	126	£220,650
Angus Council	38	£77,049
Apex Scotland	10	£23,373
Argyll and Bute Council	22	£50,186
Barnardo's	699	£1,440,014
Business Development Advisers Ltd	20	£32,326
CEIS Ayrshire	66	£111,816
Clackmannanshire Council	28	£44,860
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	40	£86,358
Cornerstone Community Care	0	£3,700
Culture and Sport Glasgow	12	£36,740
Cyrenians	52	£77,800
DEAP Ltd	87	£117,210
Direct Partners Limited	69	£151,150
Doosan Babcock Ltd	8	£34,672
East Ayrshire Council	91	£178,016
ENABLE Scotland (Leading the Way)	489	£826,112
Essentials Plus Ltd	41	£70,326
Falkirk Council	228	£438,617
Fife Council	160	£258,702
First Steps Future Training Limited	30	£90,002
Galloway Training Limited	65	£171,272
GP Strategies Training Limited	87	£184,274
GTG Training Limited	166	£285,112
Helm Training Ltd	169	£374,535
IDTC Limited	208	£423,074
Impact Arts (Projects) Ltd	30	£61,619
Jim Mair Driver Training Ltd	60	£106,750
Jobs & Business Glasgow	0	£25,972
Kingdom Housing Association Limited	205	£320,518
L&G Learning (Scotland) Ltd	189	£361,231
LAMH Recycle Ltd	69	£134,136
Lanarkshire Catering School	171	£282,199
Life Skills Centres Ltd	88	£108,611
Lowland Training Services Ltd	330	£491,186
Midlothian Council - Lifelong Learning and Employability	20	£27,200
Momentum Scotland	169	£262,694
Moray College UHI	51	£62,859
Moray Council (Moray Training)	16	£24,020
Move On	41	£79,234
New College Lanarkshire	246	£529,008
Nigg Skills Academy Ltd	49	£249,621
North Edinburgh Childcare	34	£73,529
Orkney Islands Council (Orkney College)	15	£26,820
P C T Partnership Limited	6	£22,900
PeoplePlus Group Ltd	0	£17,532
Qualitas International Limited	193	£384,969
Rathbone Training	221	£1,162,448
Renfrewshire Council	43	£81,793
Right Track Scotland Ltd	230	£431,371
Routes to Work Limited	97	£182,436
Routes To Work South	249	£372,002
Rural and Urban Training Scheme Ltd	66	£128,171
Scottish Borders Council	50	£99,092
SIBBALD LTD	6	£31,130
South Ayrshire Council	68	£150,049
South Lanarkshire College	75	£161,638
South Lanarkshire Council	15	£30,563
South West Arts and Music Project (SWAMP)	50	£127,707
Station House Media Unit	52	£89,773
Stirling Council	30	£57,413
Street League	1090	£2,004,916
The Larder West Lothian	67	£132,953
The Ridge (Scotland) CIC	0	£400
The Shirlie Project	10	£14,228
The Springboard Charity	56	£88,450
The Tell Organisation Limited	420	£668,283
The Venture Trust	10	£30,572
TIGERS STA Ltd	201	£545,402
Train'd Up Railway Resourcing Limited	116	£212,900
Training for Care	38	£79,495
Training Initiatives Ltd	88	£196,843
Triage Central Ltd	471	£790,547
West Dunbartonshire Council	55	£102,950
West Highland College UHI	32	£63,624
Workers' Educational Association	20	£26,850
Working Rite	55	£107,810
Total	9101	£17,763,312

Question reference: S5W-27266

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which targets each NHS board has missed in each year since 2007.

For 2007-08 to 2014-15, information for those targets that were due for delivery in each year at a national level and NHS Board level is available at the UK Web Archive at the link below. Over this period, NHS Boards were also expected to deliver, on an ongoing basis, targets that been due for delivery in previous years. Consideration of whether these targets had been delivered by NHS Boards were able to be made each time data was updated in the Scotland Performs NHSScotland web pages. This was a ‘live’ system and these web pages have not been archived.

https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20180707034706/
http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/NHSScotland
performance/HEATstandards

National information showing trend performance against the LDP Standards for 2015-16 onwards, and NHS Board level information for the latest period is presented in the LDP Standard pages on the current Scottish Government website. Also included in these pages are links to the statistical publications including additional data.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhsscotland-performance-against-ldp-standards/pages/introduction/

Data showing performance for the NHS Board targets or standards varies from monthly data to annual data and biennially data. So standards that have data available monthly could be met 12 times a year, while standards with data available annually could be met once a year.

Question reference: S5W-27269

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applicants for modern apprenticeships have been unsuccessful in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-27264

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on external private treatment in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S5W-27267

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the per capita funding from the General Revenue Grant has been for each local authority in each year since 2007-08.

It would be misleading to provide per capita funding from General Revenue Grant (GRG) alone as the Scottish Government guarantees the combined formula share of each local authorities GRG plus Non-Domestic Rates Income (NDRI) as part of the overall funding package.

The total GRG and NDRI per capita funding by local authority since 2007-08 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 61383.

It should be noted that due to the removal of Police and Fire services from the Local government settlement in 2013-14, figures before and after this period are not comparable.

It should also be noted that significant additional funding for local government core services provided through specific grants is also not included in this analysis.