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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-23001

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its capital expenditure per head of population has been in each local authority area in each of the last 10 years.

The following table shows capital expenditure per head of population for the 32 local authorities shown.

In any given year, capital expenditure per person varies substantially between local authority areas. This will in part reflect the different priorities of local authorities. However it also reflects differences in the timing of capital projects. Expenditure on capital projects can be highly variable as some projects can be high-value and infrequent, and expenditure per head in local authority areas will move, possibly substantially, from year to year as projects begin or wind down.

Capital expenditure information is excluded from the table for Valuation Joint Boards, Tay Road Bridge and Transport Authorities (HITRANS, NESTRANS, SESTRAN, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), SWESTRANS, TACTRAN and ZetTrans).

See Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics ( Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics 2021-22 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) for more information.

Capital Expenditure (£) per head of population by Local Authority, 2011-12 to 2021-22

Sources:

LFR CR & LFR CR Final. Various Years.

NRS Population Estimates Time Series Data.

Local Authority	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Aberdeen City	328	290	362	432	607	950	1,261	1,181	919	591	1,005
Aberdeenshire	297	340	528	673	546	508	495	538	708	812	753
Angus	352	360	286	426	503	631	375	429	383	361	788
Argyll & Bute	305	422	401	462	340	315	1,068	429	441	268	505
City of Edinburgh	690	686	510	423	365	383	401	533	875	627	825
Clackmannanshire	168	320	501	448	320	326	373	443	402	350	318
Dumfries & Galloway	219	245	322	295	207	369	706	374	210	191	232
Dundee City	603	611	601	508	599	694	1,060	956	655	390	510
East Ayrshire	576	520	345	475	314	461	555	1,100	895	467	488
East Dunbartonshire	301	300	248	356	392	607	421	282	417	378	779
East Lothian	722	573	454	385	517	403	520	571	682	535	879
East Renfrewshire	247	343	231	242	266	410	540	436	535	368	384
Falkirk	333	383	526	392	329	399	389	414	479	412	511
Fife	466	499	424	431	557	638	378	387	469	376	440
Glasgow City	486	455	524	484	444	486	392	503	1,190	379	439
Highland	442	494	629	650	780	855	604	664	764	533	871
Inverclyde	1,048	614	403	333	393	371	393	349	338	223	289
Midlothian	562	567	399	271	364	715	310	729	917	354	696
Moray	923	585	640	604	489	523	646	433	796	538	438
Na h-Eileanan Siar	2,025	1,147	811	661	745	693	417	442	694	750	1,072
North Ayrshire	306	379	462	455	565	531	772	455	530	630	673
North Lanarkshire	563	362	273	354	355	426	393	475	591	411	514
Orkney Islands	1,853	2,280	1,335	851	703	568	671	645	873	718	590
Perth & Kinross	312	294	400	503	454	641	803	531	742	390	614
Renfrewshire	472	493	418	404	278	358	387	369	509	302	453
Scottish Borders	274	207	259	310	405	547	515	425	382	757	513
Shetland Islands	742	627	577	537	623	988	3,208	1,038	1,521	693	781
South Ayrshire	200	164	268	294	401	598	583	475	776	465	807
South Lanarkshire	508	514	529	445	439	397	293	356	353	377	418
Stirling	417	400	489	422	563	434	403	370	456	474	629
West Dunbartonshire	356	493	678	730	778	991	1,017	802	1,222	1,039	734
West Lothian	445	415	400	389	541	667	541	542	386	432	761
Average across the 32 Local Authorities	479	457	453	449	461	537	542	536	687	472	605

Question reference: S6W-22716

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Glasgow City Council only posting a draft statement of its accounts for the financial year 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-22692

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the reason for four out of five local authorities not publishing their audited accounts in the financial year 2022-23.

In line with the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, all local authorities have published their unaudited 2022-23 annual accounts on their websites by 30 June 2023 and these are available for inspection.

Local authorities were required to publish their audited 2022-23 annual accounts by 31 October 2023 and are required to publish the audit report of those accounts by 30 November 2023.

As part of routine discussions between the Scottish Government and Audit Scotland, some audit delays have been identified, primarily as a continuing consequence of the pandemic. Audit Scotland have raised no concerns and expect most local authority audits to be completed by 30 November 2023.

Question reference: S6W-23117

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has provided any assistance to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, following reports of a suspected ransomware attack, and what plans it has to prevent similar attacks on (a) local authorities and (b) Scottish Government agencies in the future.

The Scottish Government is aware that Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is dealing with a significant cyber incident. The Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre are working together to provide advice and support to the Council as they manage this incident.

It is the responsibility of every organisation to ensure they have their own cyber resilience arrangements in place. The Scottish Government works closely with the public sector to help improve its cyber security and resilience.

The Public Sector Action Plan associated with the Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilience Scotland has recently been refreshed and sets out how the Scottish Government will continue to work with the sector to improve its cyber resilience standards and best practice.

We have established the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) to improve national incident response coordination, early warning and threat intelligence. Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and the National Cyber Security Centre are lead members. SC3 shares threat intelligence with the Scottish public sector, including early warning of critical software vulnerabilities which could be exploited to conduct a cyber attack. This helps the wider sector proactively defend their networks and systems from similar attacks.

In addition, the Scottish Government, through its delivery partners is providing:

incident response training events aimed at preparing public sector organisations for responding to cyber incidents and attack
upskilling funding to help bolster cyber security skills within public bodies, and
cyber awareness training for public sector board members to improve knowledge and understanding at the highest levels within organisations.

Question reference: S6W-23090

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12253 by Keith Brown on 29 November 2022, how many directors, managers or partners of corporate bodies were found guilty of offences under regulation 44(1) of the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-23092

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12252 by Keith Brown on 29 November 2022, how many people were found guilty of offences under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-23108

Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been released by Creative Scotland to (a) charitable organisations and (b) businesses/for-profit organisations in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6W-23049

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how the Barnett consequential funding that it received as a result of the UK Government's funding support for swimming pools in England will be distributed.

The funding received was included within the Scottish Government’s Autumn Budget Revision published on 28 September. It also formed part of the consequentials figures included in the Deputy First Minister’s letter to the FPAC on 21 November providing an update on the in-year budget changes.

This funding was utilised to support the range of measures outlined within the Autumn Budget Revision including £264.5 million being provided to Local Government for pay offers, £30 million for additional costs relating to the Ukrainian Resettlement programme and £50 million of additional capital funding being provided to the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-23008

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people experiencing a stroke were transported to an A&E department by the Scottish Ambulance Service in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023 to date.

Question reference: S6W-23095

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12254 by Keith Brown on 29 November 2022, how many directors, managers or partners of corporate bodies were found guilty of offences under regulation 67 of the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 in 2021-22.