Kezia Dugdale

25 May 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

18 May 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

11 May 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

8 May 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

27 Apr 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

20 Apr 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

13 Apr 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

27 Mar 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

24 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the apprenticeship levy will have on (a) the social care sector and (b) registered charities.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The apprenticeship levy is a new way of the UK Government raising funds directly from employers, a policy they announced in 2015 without consultation with employers, stakeholders or the Scottish Government, despite apprenticeship policy being a fully devolved…

24 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the contributions to the Workforce Development Fund from social care sector businesses can be refunded to cover additional costs for workforce training or upskilling.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The detail of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund is currently being shaped through a process of engagement with key stakeholders and employers. Further information will be released in due course.

24 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be of removing statutory training costs from social care sector businesses prior to the implementation of the apprenticeship levy.

Answer · Mark McDonald: To meet their requirements under the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) Codes of Practice and the National Care Standards, employers are required to ensure that their staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to undertake their roles and continuously…

24 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had or plans with (a) the social care sector and (b) registered charities regarding the implementation of the apprenticeship levy.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Despite the UK Government introducing the Apprenticeship Levy tax on employers without any consultation, we have taken time to speak with those affected including representatives of social care and registered charities sectors. Cabinet agreed to consult on th…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will cost to provide LGBTI+ education training to teachers, and what support it will provide to (a) local authorities and (b) external organisations to organise this.

Answer · John Swinney: The Delivery Plan for Equity and Excellence in Scottish education makes clear our commitment to review initial teacher education programmes to ensure they provide appropriate detail on equality across both primary and secondary sectors; and that we will also …

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the “into headship” qualification for teachers will include training in LGBTI+ education.

Answer · John Swinney: The Into Headship programme is designed to support teachers to meet the Standard for Headship and focuses on the specificity of headship and the strategic leadership role of the headteacher. The Standard for Headship makes clear that all headteachers must dem…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will use the Scotland Reserve, and what rules will be applied to it.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scotland Reserve became available on 1 April 2017 and the key operational principles were set out in the Fiscal Framework. Scottish Ministers will take decisions on the use of the Scotland Reserve within those principles at the appropriate points in the f…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what targets it has set for (a) capital and (b) revenue borrowing; what it will use the borrowing for; whether it will set a limit to the amount that it borrows, and how long it will take to repay this.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The 2017-18 Draft Budget set the intention to borrow £450 million to support the Scottish Governments capital investment programme in 2017-18, with the repayment anticipated to be based on appropriate value for money considerations at the time of drawdown. Af…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of what programme boards have been established by the fiscal responsibility steering group, and how many times these have met.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The Fiscal Responsibility Steering Group oversees the work of the Fiscal Framework Implementation Board (FFIB) and the Finance Capacity and Capability Board (FCCB). FFIB has met 4 times and will meet again later this month. FCCB last met during 2016 and its b…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government who the members are of the fiscal framework implementation board, and how many times it has met.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The Fiscal Framework Implementation Board currently has the following members : Eleanor Emberson, Director of Financial Strategy (Chair) Gordon Wales, Director of Financial Management Gary Gillespie, Chief Economic Adviser Stephen Kerr, Director of Social…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will announce its decision regarding the methodology that will be used for assigning a share of VAT to the Scottish budget.

Answer · Derek Mackay: As agreed under the Fiscal Framework, the VAT assignment methodology is being jointly developed by Scottish Government and HMRC officials. Once this work is completed it will be presented to Scottish and UK Ministers for agreement. This will be in advance of …

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will use the forecasts of the Scottish Fiscal Commission from April 2017 and, if not, what figures it will use.

Answer · Derek Mackay: For the 2017-18 Budget, the Scottish Fiscal Commission provided independent scrutiny of the Scottish Government's forecasts of revenue from income tax, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and Scottish Landfill Tax, as well as the forecasts of the economic dete…

22 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what programmes it has established or plans to introduce to implement each of the additional financial powers being devolved under the Scotland Act 2016, and how much each programme will cost.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The implementation of the Scotland Act 2016 financial powers is being governed by a single programme board; the Fiscal Framework Implementation Board. Existing staff resources are allocated to this work and no additional costs are incurred. The Scottish Gov…

20 Mar 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

13 Mar 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

6 Mar 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

1 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any representations from the Registrar General of Scotland regarding how same sex couples are recorded on birth certificates.

Answer · Annabelle Ewing: The Scottish Government has not received any representations from the Registrar General for Scotland in respect of how same sex couples are recorded on birth certificates. Birth certificates are extracts from the Register of Births, the form of which is lai…

1 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review how adoptions by same sex couples are recorded on updated birth certificates.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop: There are at present no plans to review how adoptions by same sex couples are recorded on ‘updated birth certificates’ (i.e. official extracts from the statutory Adopted Children Register). The headings for parents on such extracts ('Mother/Parent' and 'Fathe…

23 Feb 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

20 Feb 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

6 Feb 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.

30 Jan 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what engagements she has planned for the rest of the week.