- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s latest Report on Jobs, which was published on 10 May 2023.
Answer
The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Report on Jobs is one of several sources of evidence that the Scottish Government monitors, in the context of wider developments in the labour market. The Report draws on a monthly survey of recruitment agencies, and offers insights into broad trends and developments around recruitment.
The latest edition of the Report indicates reductions in staff placements, along with reduced staff availability and increased demand for permanent staff. The latest labour market data for Scotland from ONS indicates that Scotland’s employment rate remains high, while unemployment rates are at close to record lows.
The National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out our approach to ensuring that employers have a pipeline of skilled workers and makes clear that employers must invest in the skilled employees they need to grow their businesses. We are taking forward a range of measures, including working with business organisations to promote Fair Work; providing a range of employability support to help people to enter the labour market; and developing our Talent Attraction programme and Migration Service to attract workers with the skills that Scotland needs.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 May 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will help to ensure a future for the red squirrel by resourcing the continued delivery of landscape-wide invasive grey squirrel control following the end of the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels Transition Project in March 2024.
Answer
As outlined in response to question S6W-14224 on 24 January 2023 it remains a priority for the Scottish Government to ensure the important work undertaken by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels continues. NatureScot, Scottish Forestry and Forestry and Land Scotland are currently providing core funding for the roles of the Grey Squirrel Officers (GSOs) as part of the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels partnership project.
The Scottish Government and partners will continue to be involved in discussions on taking forward the work currently being undertaken by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-14072 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2023, whether it will provide an update on how many young people have now received a free bus pass through the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel scheme, broken down by local authority area, based on the latest information available.
Answer
As of Sunday 30 April 2023, there were 619,900 cardholders under the Young Persons’ (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel Scheme. The following table shows the number of cardholders broken down to local authority level.
Total | 619,900 |
Aberdeen City | 26,659 |
Aberdeenshire | 30,871 |
Angus Council | 12,566 |
Argyll & Bute | 7,211 |
City of Edinburgh | 74,217 |
Clackmannanshire | 3,901 |
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar | 1,958 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 10,513 |
Dundee City | 20,668 |
East Ayrshire | 15,893 |
East Dunbartonshire | 11,084 |
East Lothian | 14,083 |
East Renfrewshire | 12,491 |
Falkirk | 12,189 |
Fife | 50,825 |
Glasgow City | 66,539 |
Highland | 18,243 |
Inverclyde | 11,302 |
Midlothian | 11,486 |
Moray | 9,047 |
North Ayrshire | 18,962 |
North Lanarkshire | 41,658 |
Orkney Islands | 1,756 |
Perth & Kinross | 15,313 |
Renfrewshire | 20,384 |
Scottish Borders | 10,445 |
Shetland Islands | 2,754 |
South Ayrshire | 10,069 |
South Lanarkshire | 36,492 |
Stirling | 9,020 |
West Dunbartonshire | 11,795 |
West Lothian | 19,506 |
Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO supports the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data. The figure includes travel products collected from the Transport Scot Pass Collect mobile app.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much money is allocated to its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund; who may bid for this funding, and what the criteria are for successfully applying.
Answer
A total of £30m of Scottish Government funding is being made available through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund; with the expectation of leveraging an additional £30m from private sources. The Fund is directed at local authorities and assessment of bids will be based on criteria set out in the EV Infrastructure Fund Evaluation Template available on Scottish Future Trust’s website: www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/page/electric-vehicle-charging-network .
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the real terms spending, based on current prices, was on Scottish schools, in each year since 2007.
Answer
Table 1 provides real terms expenditure based on 2021-22 prices for Scottish schools in each year since 2007. Real terms expenditure is broken down by primary, secondary, and special education.
Table 1: Real terms expenditure, 2007-08 to 2021-22 (£000)
Financial
Year | Primary
Education | Secondary
Education | Special
Education | School Education |
2007-08 | 2,291,312 | 2,570,000 | 641,962 | 5,503,273 |
2008-09 | 2,266,389 | 2,550,632 | 645,280 | 5,462,301 |
2009-10 | 2,238,327 | 2,469,714 | 656,351 | 5,364,393 |
2010-11 | 2,247,021 | 2,441,262 | 648,359 | 5,336,642 |
2011-12 | 2,185,497 | 2,330,489 | 619,960 | 5,135,945 |
2012-13 | 2,157,200 | 2,309,964 | 605,403 | 5,072,566 |
2013-14 | 2,143,300 | 2,257,681 | 607,647 | 5,008,629 |
2014-15 | 2,137,097 | 2,225,583 | 614,385 | 4,977,065 |
2015-16 | 2,178,851 | 2,226,211 | 628,597 | 5,033,659 |
2016-17 | 2,210,760 | 2,213,670 | 618,241 | 5,042,671 |
2017-18 | 2,277,852 | 2,210,339 | 622,918 | 5,111,109 |
2018-19 | 2,356,577 | 2,304,687 | 645,383 | 5,306,647 |
2019-20 | 2,434,207 | 2,395,751 | 678,111 | 5,508,069 |
2020-21 | 2,395,511 | 2,358,155 | 667,672 | 5,421,337 |
2021-22 | 2,553,716 | 2,503,212 | 704,929 | 5,761,857 |
Figures are adjusted to exclude inter-authority transfers. Inflation adjustments are based on HM Treasury’s 31 March 2023 GDP Deflator outturn data.
Sources:
1. Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 01) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government: Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
2. GDP deflators at market prices: GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a regional breakdown of collaborations enabled by the Interface programme, also broken down by the estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) for each project.
Answer
Since August 2005, when Interface was established, it has played a role in facilitating 3,410 collaborative projects with 2,144 unique businesses. Between August 2018 and April 2023, Interface brokered 1,528 collaborations with universities, research institutes and colleges in Scotland. The regional breakdown of collaborative projects is 331 for Highlands and Islands, 353 for Glasgow City Region, 107 for South of Scotland, 359 for Edinburgh and the Lothians, 90 for Central and 288 for the North East. In 2021, an independent evaluation of Interface activity showed that the contribution to the Scottish economy from research and development projects between businesses and academics enabled by Interface was £88.9m GVA (gross value added) supporting 1,595 jobs, with expectations to reach £222.3m GVA and 3,193 jobs.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many NHS dentists require patients to pay a deposit before registering with them.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on increasing Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure to £1.75 billion by 2025, as outlined in its strategy for innovation, and what additional funding it has put in place to support this aim.
Answer
Provisional data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) expenditure estimate for Scotland in 2021 was £3.12bn. Note that the ONS has recently changed their measurement of BERD. The BERD statistics methodology has been improved to better capture data from smaller businesses, which has led to significant uplift revisions to BERD expenditure estimates. More work is required to further quality assure the new methodology and we will continue to work with the ONS on that. The Scottish Government and its agencies invested an additional £45m to support the increase of BERD between 2018 and 2021.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 May 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-17502 by Kevin Stewart on 4 May 2023, regarding the commitment on page 22 of the publication, Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership – A fresh start, to have "doubled the electric charge point network to at least 6,000" by 2026, what the projected cost of achieving 6,000 electric charge points by 2026 will be to the public purse; when it will be in a position to state in which regions the charge points will be located, broken down by a proportion of the total; from which country the infrastructure will be sourced and built; what the projected extra electricity requirement will be, or, if it has not quantified the electricity demand from 6,000 charge points before making the commitment, whether it will state that fact; what its expectation is of the rapidness of charging of the 6,000 charge points will be, or, if it has not undertaken preliminary thinking on that, whether it will state that fact, and what plans it has to ensure that there are sufficient skilled maintenance contractors to provide the maintenance role.
Answer
I refer to my previous answer to S6W-17502. The Scottish Government has made £30 million of public funding available to meet the target of achieving 6,000 public charge points by 2026.
Electric vehicle strategy and infrastructure expansion plans covering all local authorities in Scotland are expected to be completed over the coming months; these will identify local and regional charge point needs, the investment requirements and best approaches to delivering collaborative investment with commercial Charge Point Operators.
The strategies and infrastructure expansion plans will be agreed by Transport Scotland prior to confirmation of any support from the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund. Transport Scotland anticipate strategy and expansion plans will be published by the end of 2023, these are expected provide details of the charging infrastructure and approach proposed within each local authority area or region.
It is important that public electric vehicle charging infrastructure is planned at the local level to best suit the needs of communities, businesses and visitors. This will influence the number and mix of charge points including their power capabilities and ‘rapidness’. Equally, this will also help identify charge points where there is likely to be market failure and a requirement for public subsidy.
The additional electricity requirements of the charge points supported through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund will be determined by the mix and power outputs of charge points; it is not possible to quantify this in advance. However, on 26 May last year Transport Scotland published a report on the zero emission energy requirements for transport, including plug-in electric vehicles, that considered a range of scenarios out to 2045. One of the key findings of this report was that the amount of electricity (and hydrogen) the transport system is expected to need is well within the limits of what the energy sector is expected to generate.
As highlighted in my previous answer, the arrangements and responsibilities for the supply and maintenance of charge points will be determined through contractual arrangements between local authorities and private Charge Point Operators, which will be subject to public procurement regulations. This may influence the countries from which charge points and ancillary equipment are sourced. The Scottish Government is aware that there are opportunities for Scottish businesses to support the maintenance and repair of charge points and these opportunities are already being realised across parts of the ChargePlace Scotland network.
Transport Scotland has considered the range of skills required for maintenance of electric vehicle charge points. Two courses exist to Institute of the Motor Industry Level 3 in Scotland already and the industry expects electricians with an additional qualification to be able to maintain electric vehicle charge points. The lack of formal recognition of qualifications is a current barrier that will be assessed as part of a review falling under the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan Update. Access to training across Scotland is critical and Transport Scotland has been investing in mobile equipment for colleges to support training in more remote areas and support a Just Transition to Net Zero.
