Stephen Kerr

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scotch whisky industry regarding the inclusion of glass in the Deposit Return Scheme, and what the outcomes were of any such meetings.

Answer · Lorna Slater: The Scottish Government meets regularly with representatives of the Scotch whisky industry to discuss Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The Scotch Whisky Association is a member of the DRS System Wide Assurance Group which meets often to monitor the pro…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to Keep Scotland Beautiful in each year since 2016.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered a range of initiatives on the Scottish Government's behalf and has been allocated the following funding since 2016 to enable it to do so: 2016-17: £11,147,463 2017-18: £11,152,455 2018-19: £11,131,472 2019-20: £8,642,…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will work with the Scotch whisky industry to restore Scotland's peatlands.

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The Scottish Government is providing significant funding for peatland restoration and our delivery partners are working with the Scotch Whisky industry to explore how they can contribute to this restoration work.  

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with the Scotch Whisky Association to discuss decarbonisation, and what the objectives were of any such meetings.

Answer · Mairi Gougeon: The Scottish Government meets with the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) regularly to discuss a range of topics, including decarbonisation matters. The Scottish Government Industrial Decarbonisation Team is due to meet the SWA by mid April 2023 to discuss the…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken since May 2021 to improve the digitisation of medical records.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The 2021 Digital Health and Care strategy aims to make the right information available to all appropriate staff, when and where it is needed. It builds on the existing use of electronic patient record systems used by all Health Boards and GP practices. Our …

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a whisky levy.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The Scottish Government has no plans to implement a whisky tax.  

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on flood defences in each year since 2016.

Answer · Mairi McAllan: Local authorities are statutorily responsible for taking forward flood protection schemes and other actions to reduce flood risk. In 2016, agreement was reached between Scottish Ministers and COSLA on a new strategic funding plan for flood protection. The agr…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have (a) opened and (b) closed in Scotland since May 2021.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Statistics on business births and deaths are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) within their Business Demography publications. Data are available on a calendar year basis and on a quarterly basis. Links to the latest versions of these public…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has provided to local authorities to promote the teaching of the Scots language.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government has made clear our support for indigenous languages, including Scots. The Scottish Government provides around £550,000 of funding to Scots organisations who support Scots education. Organisations such as the Scots Language Centre, Dic…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to local authorities to cover the cost of updating "when necessary" the laptops, Chromebooks and tablets that are being given to every school child.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: I refer the member to answer to question S6W-10759 on 20 September 2022. 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-committ…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to local authorities to cover the cost of the laptops, Chromebooks and tablets that are being given to every school child.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: We provided £25 million of funding in 2020-21 to local authorities across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion.

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which companies provide the laptops, Chromebooks and tablets that are being given to every school child.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: I refer the member to answer to question S6W-07294 on 22 March 2022. 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/…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many school children have been given a free digital device to gain access to online learning and resources.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that every school aged child has access to a device by the end of this Parliament. In 2020-21, we provided £25 million to local authorities across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers have been employed in Scotland in each year since 2016.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Statistics on the number of teachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland since 2016 are published in Table 3 of Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland 2022, available on the Scottish Government website:https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statisti…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the school attainment gap has been in each year since 2016.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Data on the poverty-related attainment gap in schools for each year since 2016 is publicly available in the NIF Interactive Evidence Report , which holds data on a range of key measures by academic year from 2016-17 onwards. In December we published the 20…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on closing the school attainment gap in each year since 2016.

Answer · Jenny Gilruth: Investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge is available in a number of publications. In June of last year we published the Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Fifth Interim Report - Year 6, detailing the funding streams and allocations for the first six…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on delivering affordable housing in each year since 2016.

Answer · Paul McLennan: Information on annual spend on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme is reported through our published annual out-turn reports and can be accessed through the following link Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The fo…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many affordable homes have been constructed in each year since 2016.

Answer · Paul McLennan: Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of social and affordable homes, and…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in social care in each year since 2016.

Answer · Maree Todd: Scottish Government has provided additional funding for social care and integration as set out in the following table.  £m 2015-16 130 2016-17 380 2017-18 487 2018-19 551 2019-20 711 2020-21 811 2021-22 884 2022-23 1,603 In addition, the Sco…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated to spending on NHS frontline services in each year since 2016.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The annual Scottish Budget document sets out the detail of the health, including Scottish Government funding for NHS boards. Budget documents are available from the Scottish Government’s website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The Scottish Gov…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities regarding the protection and promotion of local cultural heritage.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: The Scottish Government recognises the crucial role local authorities play in communities across Scotland. Through various published strategies and plans, as well as sponsorship of our public bodies, we support and empower local authorities to act on behalf o…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the overall staff absence rate was in each of its directorates over the last 10 months.

Answer · Shona Robison: Absence rates for each of the Scottish Government directorates are as follows: Organisation/Rolling year period Apr21-Mar22 May21-Apr22 Jun21-May22 Jul21-Jun22 Aug21-Jul22 Sep21-Aug22 Oct21-Sep22 Nov21-Oct22 Dec21-Nov22 Jan22-Dec22 SG CORE 3.25% …

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies currently exist for any Scotland representation on UK-level bodies and organisations.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government does not maintain a central record of appointments, or vacancies, pertaining to UK level bodies.  

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which UK-level bodies and organisations it currently has representation on, and how any such appointments are made.

Answer · Shona Robison: Appointment to UK-level public bodies is a reserved matter, and is overseen by the UK Cabinet Office.  

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many appointments it has made to UK-level bodies and organisations in the last 12 months.

Answer · Shona Robison: Appointment to UK-level public bodies is a reserved matter, and is overseen by the UK Cabinet Office.  

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what review has been undertaken of the effectiveness of its use of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement, and how any such use compares on (a) a financial and (b) an operational basis to that of the One Scotland Mapping Agreement.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The Public Sector Geospatial Agreement, or PSGA, as its commonly known is a 10 year agreement between the Cabinet Office and the Ordnance Survey. The Agreement sets out Ordnance Survey’s public task and also provides the licence mechanism through which OS dat…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has provided to the Care Inspectorate for the financial year 2023-24.

Answer · Maree Todd: The Scottish Government has not provided any guidance specific to the Care Inspectorate for the financial year 2023-24. As a non-departmental public body (NDPB), the Care Inspectorate follows the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Government Financial Rep…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it provided to (a) Historic Scotland and (b) Historic Environment Scotland in each year since 2007.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: Details of Scottish Government funding for Historic Scotland, from 2007-08 until it became part of Historic Environment Scotland, can be found in the following table. These figures come from the annual Scottish Budget publication. Year Historic Scotland Fun…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Historic Environment Scotland in its efforts to preserve historic buildings.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: In 2023-24 we are providing Historic Environment Scotland with £72.7m in funding, which is 82.6% higher than the £39.8m level of support before the impact of the pandemic in 2019/20. As its commercial income continues to recover strongly from the impact of th…

27 Mar 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has provided to Historic Environment Scotland for the financial year 2023-24.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: The Scottish Government’s grant in aid to Historic Environment Scotland in 2023-24 is to support the priorities agreed by Ministers in its corporate plan, Heritage for All, and enables HES to invest in fair staff pay, in running and maintaining its properties…