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: S5W-32344

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 October 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 10 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has given to the NHS national action plan to reduce food waste; which facilities the plan applies to, and what reduction in food waste it has achieved so far.

Food waste reduction is now a standing agenda item for the NHS Waste Management Steering Group and the Catering Services Experts Group. Both groups are working with Zero Waste Scotland to develop a food waste reduction strategy for NHS Scotland and a national action plan. The outputs from previously held workshops are being used, along with findings from pilot studies in key regional boards, to develop the national action plan and subsequent regional board plans. The plan will apply to all facilities within each board with focus on acute settings in the first instance, where food waste is most prevalent.

Question reference: S5W-32501

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the financial support that it has provided to food redistribution charities in each year since 2013.

The Food Waste Reduction Action Plan (FWRAP) was published in April 2019. It sets out how Scotland can work towards achieving the target and reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill, including building on existing food redistribution activities.

Alongside taking positive action to reduce food waste, the Scottish Government has provided funding to FareShare, a national charity that distributes surplus and donated food from the food industry to community organisations.

Direct funding provided to FareShare is outlined in the following table.

Financial Year	Amount
2014-15	£241,649.00
2015-16	£258,351.00
2016-17	£250,000.00
2017-18	£200,000.00
2018-19	£750,000.00
2019-20	£905,855.65
2020-21	£2,354,932.00
Total	£4,960,787.65

These figures include Scottish Government funding which mitigated against the potential impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union . In 2018-19, FareShare were provided with £500,000 to purchase ambient, chilled and frozen food to support community food initiatives responding to food insecurity, bolstering community resilience to the impacts of a potential No Deal EU Exit. Following extension of the planned date for the UK’s exit from the EU, a further £500,000 of funding was committed during 2019-20.

These figures include funding to increase the capacity of the community food sector and extend FareShare reach to cover the Highlands and Islands in 2019-20. In addition to the figures above, a further £50,000 of direct funding was provided to FareShare’s regional lead organisation in Grampian, Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE), to ensure they had sufficient warehouse capacity to support this growth.

These figures include £2.1m to support the purchase and distribution of additional food to community food organisations and food hubs as part of the Scottish Government’s response during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020-21.

Other Funding Streams

In addition to food insecurity funding, we have provided over £1.5 million to FareShare across 2018-21 to provide access to period products to low income families through its network of community organisations and groups. Almost 80,000 people have benefitted from this provision which represents around 25% of women and girls living in relative poverty. The funding is also supporting four Community Development Workers in FareShare’s main centres to break down barriers, and address stigma and embarrassment.

Spend on this work is laid out in the following table.

Financial Year	Amount
2018-19	£405,950
2019-20	£530,097
2020-21	£599,898
Total	£1,535,945

Question reference: S5W-32945

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the loans issued under the Home Energy Scotland Loan Scheme, (a) how many loans have been issued and (b) what the total value of (i) issued and (ii) repaid loans has been in each year since it launched.

The number of Home Energy Scotland loans issued, the value of those issued and the value of repaid loans, since its launch are:

Number of loans issued by year since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Number of loans issued	1173	1679	1352	4204

Value of loans issued by year since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Value of loans issued (£)	6,097,161	10,260,054	9,115,584	25,472,799

Total value of loan repayments since launch of scheme

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Total
Value of loan repayments (£)**	131,711	1,062,408	2,599,869	3,793,988

** Loan repayment periods can vary between 1 year and 12 years. It is policy to offer maximum repayment periods and then give customers choice as to whether to decrease this loan period or not.

Question reference: S5W-32908

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been received for each of its COVID-19 Restrictions Funds, broken down by local authority area; how many of these (a) have been approved, (b) have been declined and (c) are awaiting a decision; whether it will update this information on a regular basis and, if so, how often it will provide these updates.

The Scottish Government is working closely with COSLA and all local authorities to deliver the Restrictions Fund, including monitoring arrangements to record the numbers of applications received and payments made. Information for Closure and Hardships Funds which applied for the period 9 October– 2 November is published on the Scottish Government website, and we will ensure this information is updated regularly.

Question reference: S5W-32697

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 9 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture that "up to £9 million of funding will help with the costs of re-furloughing staff by supporting the 20% salary contribution required by the UK Government" and that "payment mechanisms for additional support on top of grants to support the top up costs of furlough currently met by business are being identified", when it expects to announce details of a payment mechanism to deliver additional support to businesses on top of existing commitments to help them meet their furlough contributions.

Businesses that have already applied for a Closure Grant will be contacted by their local authority directly to add the furlough support to their application. Any closure grant applications received before 5pm on 3 November will be considered to include the application for the furlough support grant. LAs will carry out a retrospective exercise of businesses that have already applied for the Closure Grant to identify those applications containing sufficient information to enable an award to be made and also proactively contact the other businesses (whether a Closure Grant has been awarded or not) to invite an application for the furlough support grant.

Any business that think they may be eligible can contact their local authority to check until 30 November.

Question reference: S5W-32656

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund, which local authorities will administer, will be part of its discretionary fund.

Question reference: S5W-32847

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 6 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32494 by Kate Forbes on 26 October 2020, how many home deliveries of office equipment and supplies have been made to public sector workers through its procurement framework in each month since March 2020.

The number of deliveries of IT equipment and supplies made directly by suppliers to home addresses through our procurement frameworks since March 2020 is shown in the following table. Items include laptop and desktop computers, monitors, and accessories such as keyboards and headsets.

The figures relate to direct deliveries of equipment and supplies to home addresses by framework suppliers and do not include deliveries made by individual public sector organisations.

2020	Number of Home Deliveries
March	155
April	425
May	695
June	1,118
July	900
August	768
September	1,224
October	886
Total	6,171

Question reference: S5W-32548

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reducing Air Passenger Duty to support the aviation industry through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) is currently set by the UK Government, with introduction of Air Departure Tax (ADT) in Scotland deferred to allow the issues raised in relation to the Highlands and Islands exemption to be resolved. We made clear last year that reducing ADT would not be compatible with Scotland’s new emissions targets.

The Scottish Government is committed to helping businesses with the impact of COVID-19, which is why we have put in place a package of support measures worth over £2.3 billion. As part of this, the Scottish Government has introduced 100% non-domestic rates relief for airports and ground handling providers situated at airports for the financial year 2020-21.

Question reference: S5W-32505

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 5 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much landfill tax has been recovered from illegally deposited waste by Revenue Scotland in each year since 2014.

Question reference: S5W-32849

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 October 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 November 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what specific risk factors were identified that led to casinos being entirely disassociated from hospitality businesses in the COVID-19 Strategic Framework where currently they are permitted to remain open alongside hospitality businesses outside of the Central Belt.

Casinos are subject to hospitality rules if situated in areas at levels where they can open, levels 0 and 1, and the industry COVID guidance is linked to the Scottish Government guidance on hospitality. Within the Strategic Framework approach they are treated as leisure and entertainment. This is because the settings and circumstances of engagement in leisure and entertainment activities are different to those for the broader hospitality sector.

The overall package of measures within each level is designed to suppress the virus as far as possible whilst minimising broader harms. We know how difficult the measures are for businesses and we are seeking to finely balance the needs of the economy with the absolute need to supress the virus. We are doing everything we can with the limited powers we have to help businesses, offering support which now exceeds £2.3 billion, as well as closure grants for those affected by the current measures.

We will keep the protective measures in all levels under review to ensure that they remain necessary and proportionate to address the ongoing public health emergency.