Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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-12221

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11686 by John Swinney on 28 October 2022, whether it will provide detail on what steps it will take to invest in innovation to boost productivity in Scotland.

Investing in our innovative businesses is a key priority of the Scottish Government and we are committed to becoming a world leading, innovation nation, to increasing productivity, growing our economy and creating sustainable, green jobs.

That is why this winter we will publish a new National Innovation Strategy for Scotland, that will set out our 10 year vision for Scotland to become one of the most innovative small nations in the world by 2032.

As investing in our innovative businesses is key to productivity growth, the strategy will introduce a comprehensive and joined up package of investment support.

We will build on the support already available to businesses through our Enterprise Agencies, who since 2017 have distributed around £600m directly to businesses to build their capacity and capability to innovate, and initiatives such as the Digital Development Grant, which since September 2020 has invested almost £50m to over 5,600 SMEs to help them utilise digital technologies and enhance workforce skills.

This will ensure that all of our businesses, people and institutions are ready and able to meet the global economic challenges and opportunities we face over the next ten years.

Question reference: S6W-12222

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-11686 by John Swinney on 28 October 2022, whether it will provide detail on how it plans to expand international opportunities to boost productivity in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s drive to boost productivity and innovation is set out in the third programme of (NSET) . Our approach to expanding international opportunities is set out in NSET’s fifth programme “New Markets”, which is in turn driven by our Trade and Investment plans, and .

The inward investment plan, which was published in October 2020, takes a targeted approach to attract high quality inward investment into nine opportunity areas where Scotland’s strengths meet international demand, that fall within the overarching areas of Net Zero, Digital and High Value Manufacturing. The export plan refocuses the enterprise agencies’ export support activities to the markets with the international opportunities that best match our strengths, and to support the companies most able to service these opportunities.

Evidence suggests that foreign owned firms make a disproportionate impact to our economic performance and productivity. Just 3% of business in Scotland are foreign owned but account for over a third of jobs, almost half of GVA, just under two thirds of business research & development spending and three quarters of exports.

Progress to date on both the export growth and inward investment plans was set out in detail in and .

Question reference: S6W-11936

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Enterprise has undertaken an equalities impact assessment to inform its reported proposal to close all its office locations except those in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.

Any proposals around its future operational estate are a matter for Scottish Enterprise. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to respond to you directly. However, I do understand that the current consultation on office requirements - which includes consideration of co-location with other public sector bodies and industry partners, to enhance collaborative working – will include completion of an Equality Impact Assessment as a key component.

Question reference: S6O-01610

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will reject the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and Average Weekly Earnings average of 4.2% for uprating the Staff Cost Provision in the financial year 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-11960

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the proportion of net inward migration to the UK that settled in Scotland in each of the last 10 years, and what steps it is taking to grow this relative proportion in future years.

Based on NRS and ONS data, the number of international migrants who have settled in Scotland in the last 10 years, and comparative UK data, is:

	Scotland	UK
mid-2012	35,900	517,754
mid-2013	28,200	503,723
mid-2014	33,200	582,621
mid-2015	37,800	636,277
mid-2016	40,400	649,550
mid-2017	32,900	571,515
mid-2018	32,900	625,927
mid-2019	39,900	609,308
mid-2020*	39,200	741,000
mid-2021*	41,000	573,000

*Figures are provisional.

In this year’s Programme for Government, in support of delivering the Population Strategy’s “Attractive and Welcoming Country” pillar, the Scottish Government has committed to launching a Talent Attraction and Migration Service to attract people to come and live in Scotland, help those moving to Scotland settle into communities, and support employers to navigate the immigration system. Service design is ongoing to ensure it achieves these outcomes and the service will launch during 2023.

Question reference: S6W-11959

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with the National Shipbuilding Office on developing Scottish workstreams in the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

The Scottish Government engaged with the UK Government throughout the development of the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh and continues to engage with the National Shipbuilding Office through the National Shipbuilding Strategy Board, which is scheduled to meet again in December.

Scottish Government agencies are also members of wider structures that support the strategy. For example, representatives of Skills Development Scotland are members of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, chaired by Dr Paul Little of City of Glasgow College.

The Scottish Government will continue to contribute to these forums and ensure that Scotland’s world class shipbuilding industry remains well represented.

Question reference: S6W-12033

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will develop a plan to maximise the utilisation of the Home Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme when it is introduced later in 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11665

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve outcomes for female clients of the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment scheme, in light of evidence that just 14% of female clients described their new role as higher skilled and higher responsibility than their previous role, compared to 27% of men.

We recognise the importance of improving labour market outcomes for females and we monitor the influence of PACE support through a major survey every two years. The most recent 2022 PACE Client Experience Survey report was published in September 2022,

The report shows that female clients were more likely than males to have gone straight to paid work for an employer which may suggest a desire to get a job quickly rather than hold out for a ‘better job’. Female clients were also much more likely to go into part-time work which tends to be lower-paid and require fewer skills; also fewer females than males are actively looking for jobs with greater responsibility or higher skill levels, likely to be due to these jobs not tending to be available part-time or in the sectors within which they typically work.

PACE Advisers assist female clients by helping them to break down barriers to accessing better paid work/sectors. We will seek to ensure as many females as possible access this service and if appropriate are directed to the Women Returners programme. This programme provides one-to-one bespoke support, advice and access to opportunities for women aged 25 and over who have been out of the labour market for six months or more and want to restart their career journey.

A refreshed Fair Work Action Plan, due to be published in the next few months, will refresh and take forward our commitments in our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan making explicit that addressing gender pay gaps is a key element of Fair Work.

Question reference: S6W-11893

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it expects to publish the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

The Scottish Government committed to publishing a refresh of the 2017 Energy Strategy in the Programme for Government and as part of the Bute House Agreement. Following the Scottish Government's response to the Just Transition Commission, we committed to publishing a Just Transition Plan for energy, which will be integrated with the forthcoming Energy Strategy Refresh to ensure a cohesive and joined up framework for action.

In parliament on 29 March 2022, I announced that the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) would be published in Autumn 2022 for consultation.

We intend to publish the draft ESJTP for consultation in the coming months.

Question reference: S6T-00975

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that nursing staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital are routinely left in charge of up to 30 patients and are forced to conduct 5.00 am bed washes due to staff shortages.