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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-15111

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have (a) received legal aid and (b) had an application for legal aid declined in each year since 1999.

Financial Year	Number of applications to SLAB	Grants of applications to SLAB	Total not granted*	Number of other** grants of legal aid
1999-2000	88,000	74,000	14,000	361,000
2000-2001	90,000	76,000	14,000	370,000
2001-2002	97,000	82,000	15,000	371,000
2002-2003	99,000	87,000	12,000	362,000
2003-2004	101,000	88,000	13,000	353,000
2004-2005	103,000	90,000	13,000	339,000
2005-2006	103,000	90,000	13,000	322,000
2006-2007	106,000	93,000	13,000	316,000
2007-2008	99,000	86,000	13,000	275,000
2008-2009	82,000	71,000	11,000	242,000
2009-2010	83,000	71,000	12,000	221,000
2010-2011	80,000	64,000	17,000	208,000
2011-2012	91,000	79,000	12,000	183,000
2012-2013	85,000	71,000	14,000	175,000
2013-2014	92,000	78,000	14,000	168,000
2014-2015	90,000	74,000	16,000	156,000
2015-2016	89,000	72,000	17,000	150,000
2016-2017	83,000	71,000	11,000	147,000
2017-2018	77,000	67,000	11,000	147,000
2018-2019	73,000	64,000	9,000	138,000
2019-2020	75,000	67,000	8,000	135,000
2020-2021	65,000	59,000	6,000	104,000
2021-2022	72,000	63,000	9,000	103,000

Notes

Figures provided by Scottish Legal Aid Board. SLAB is unable to say how many individuals have been granted legal aid as it is possible for a person to have more than one grant of legal aid.

All figures are rounded to the nearest 1000 cases.

Due to rounding, some totals may not correspond with the subtraction of the separate figures.

*Not granted figures include cases refused and those where the application process was not completed.

**Other grants includes grants of legal assistance by solicitors and by the courts.

Question reference: S6W-15041

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the promotion of (a) Scotch Beef, (b) Scotch Lamb, (c) Specially Selected Pork and (d) game and venison, in each year since 2016.

The Scottish government has provided grant funding for marketing campaigns to Quality Meat Scotland and we have also supplied funding to the Scottish Venison association for the marketing of venison.

The funding to QMS was over two years and is as follows:

July 2018: £200,000 To support a range of key activities behind the Scotch Lamb promotional campaign in 2018.

November 2018: £125,000 To support key activities behind the Specially Selected Pork promotional campaign in 2019.

October 2019: £200,000 To support a targeted initiative in the Meat with Integrity Campaign and a fuller range of key activities behind the Scotch Lamb promotional campaign in 2019.

The funding to the Scottish Venison Association was as follows:

March-May 2021: £60,000 To support an online campaign as part of the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership Covid recovery programme to support Scottish Venison producers and processors.

Question reference: S6W-14737

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have accessed the Employability Fund in each year that it has run.

Question reference: S6W-14744

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many employability hubs, jointly hosted by local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions, there have been in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Employability hubs are generally a local arrangement between The Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities. The Scottish Government does not hold the data you have requested however, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions may be able to provide you with this information.

Since the devolution of employability services to the Scottish Government, support is being delivered through a combination of locally designed services, No One Left Behind, and our national employment support service, Fair Start Scotland.

No One Left Behind, which commenced in 2019, is the Scottish Governments approach to transforming employment support in Scotland. It aims to deliver a system that is more tailored and responsive to the needs of people of all ages who want help and support on their journey towards and into work, particularly people with health conditions, disabled people and others who are disadvantaged in the labour market.

The No One Left Behind approach moves away from funding and delivering several separate and distinct employability programmes, to a more flexible approach. Scottish and Local Government are working with third and private sector to deliver support which aims to be more joined-up and responsive to the needs of individuals of all ages and tailored to local labour market conditions.

Fair Start Scotland, our devolved employability support service, launched in April 2018 and offers 12 to 18 months of tailored, flexible and person-centred pre-employment support to people who want help to find and remain in work. Up to 12 months in-work support is also available for the participant as well as the employer, helping to ensure fair and sustainable employment.

Fair Start Scotland is delivered by a mixed economy of public, private and third sector providers across nine geographical areas throughout Scotland. A breakdown of the providers in each local authority area can be found at the following website.

https://www.employabilityinscotland.com/employability-services/fair-start-scotland/individual/

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring everyone has access to person centred employability support that meets the needs of individuals, helping them towards, and into sustainable employment.

Question reference: S6W-14887

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when Helensburgh Fire Station was first identified as requiring urgent capital maintenance due to having a flat roof constructed from reinforced autoclave aerated concrete (RAAC), and what work has been done at Helensburgh Fire Station since then to ensure that the site is safe for those who (a) work in and (b) visit the building.

Maintenance of its estate and the allocation of its capital budget is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. The safety of its staff is paramount and SFRS are continuing to monitor the measures put in place to rectify the defects and support staff to deliver its service safely.

In 2019 an urgent issue was identified in relation to an obsolete method of roof construction (Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC). As soon as the defects were discovered (from May 2019 to 2020) action was immediately taken with temporary support (acrow props) to reinforce identified weak points and scaffolded out crash decks to catch roof collapses and minimise the risk of injury to occupants. All roofs are subject to quarterly inspections by building surveyors to monitor the condition/identify any deterioration. There has been no negative impact on SFRS operations from these sites.

Question reference: S6W-14888

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated cost is of the refurbishment of Helensburgh Fire Station.

Maintenance of its estate and the allocation of its capital budget is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

SFRS is currently conducting an options appraisal exercise to identify the best and most economic options for the 14 fire stations identified with Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC) roof construction.

SFRS is also continuing to work with partner agencies to explore if there is potential for greater shared services across all of its estate and in particular those fire stations which require significant capital maintenance because of the defective RAAC roofing.

Question reference: S6W-14886

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are any plans to relocate Helensburgh fire station to another site, rather than refurbishing the existing building.

Question reference: S6W-15068

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to replace funding for land managers for mechanical or chemical bracken control, in light of its decision to cease funding for these elements through the 2023 Agri-Environment Climate Scheme application round.

To maximise the benefits of the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) in mitigating climate change, the 2023 round will target support for agri-environment, organics and slurry storage applications. This approach will focus on enabling options within the scheme, offering support to as wide a number of beneficiaries as possible.

Significant budget cuts arising from the UK Government reneging on public commitments that farmers and crofters would not be worse off as a result of the EU Exit, has led to the difficult decision to suspend some elements of the 2023 round, including public funding for the mechanised and chemical control of bracken.

The suspension of mechanical and chemical bracken control applies to applications for AECS funding in 2023 and there are no plans to offer alternative funding in 2023.

Manual bracken control continues to be offered, and this is often the preferred treatment method on species rich grassland and other habitats offering high biodiversity value.

Those with existing AECS contracts or new contracts, following the 2022 AECS awards announced on 19 January 2023, which contain bracken control through chemical and mechanical means will continue to be supported.

Decisions on future rounds of AECS will be taken once detail is confirmed on the budgetary position for 2024 onwards.

Question reference: S6W-14735

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many times Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) teams have provided support to businesses in each year since the initiative was launched.

The number of employers supported was especially high in 2020-21 as this was when employers submitted HR1 notifications as they thought they would have to make large numbers of employees redundant as a result of the pandemic.

Full details are as follows.

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Unique Employers Supported	302	272	365	297	298	252	301	299	233	304	295	523	173	168

Source: Skills Development Scotland

Note 1: PACE was formed in 2000 but no statistics are available prior to 2009-10 as PACE was administered by Scottish Enterprise.

Note 2: Statistics for the year 2022-23 are for the period April 2022 until January 2023.

Question reference: S6W-15070

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 1 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it decided to remove capital funding for muirburn from the 2023 Agri-Environment Climate Scheme application round.