Parliamentary questions

Daniel Johnson

1,103 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

19 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a legal requirement for (a) a clerk of works to oversee the construction and (b) architects or other design professionals to verify the safety, of public buildings.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: We have no current plans to make this a legal requirement. We will publish guidance towards the end of this year setting out the importance of employing the appropriate professional expertise and the factors to be considered in assessing what constitutes appr…

19 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings have been constructed under hub procurement contracts by each local authority in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Derek Mackay: Information on completed projects within the hub programme between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2017 is as follows: Council 2011-12 2012-13- 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Aberdeen City 1 1 3 1 Aberdeenshire 1 1 Angus 1 2 …

19 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how much each local authority has allocated to fund training courses for building control officers in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Each local authority should be contacted for this information.

19 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many clerks of work there have been in each local authority in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Each local authority should be contacted for this information.

19 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many building control officers there have been in each local authority in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by the number of each type of building that have responsibility for.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Each local authority should be contacted for this information.

15 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools have aluminium composite cladding panels installed, and what information it has on other buildings that have had these panels installed.

Answer · John Swinney: I wrote to all local authorities on 24 June 2017 to seek assurances about external cladding systems used in school buildings. As we are still awaiting response, I will respond in full after recess.

14 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason a recent bonus payment of £2,000 has been made to prison officers in certain grades and not in others or to Scottish Prison Service civil servants, and what changes there were in the role of the officers who received the payment.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has been clear that the payments that have been made to Prison Officers are connected to their continuing engagement with the process of transformational change. This change will deliver a new operating model which it is anti…

14 Jun 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24492 by Michael Matheson on 3 March 2015, in light of the comment provided in the response by the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service that the "one off payment for prison officers is made in recognition of a specific set of circumstances…

Answer · Michael Matheson: When the first payment was made in 2015 it was anticipated that the change process would be completed within a 2 year time frame. This has not proved possible because of the extent of the work that was required to inform the development of a model. It has ta…

26 Apr 2017 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce waiting times at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

12 Apr 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work on 20 March 2017, (Official Report, c. 82), to whom the chair of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will be accountable under the new enterprise and skills governance structure; what role the new strategic board wi…

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Chair of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will remain accountable to Scottish Ministers. The Ministerial Letter of Guidance to the SFC sets out the SG’s priorities for the SFC and the SFC will continue to be held to account against this framework. Follo…

12 Apr 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the 2017-18 guidance issued to the Scottish Funding Council by the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science on 30 March 2017, what role it considers this will mean colleges and universities will have in delivering the national priorities set by ministers.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Education is this Government’s defining mission. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that every young person can access learning that will provide them with the skills and qualifications to succeed in life and enable them to help create and benefit from s…

12 Apr 2017 · Written Question

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Skills Development Scotland (SDS) base projections of future labour market needs through a range of routes including direct engagement with employers, engagement with industry bodies and Industry Leadership Groups, and joint work with other partner agencies i…

12 Apr 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, what its position is on whether the 2017-18 guidance issued to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) by the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science on 30 March 2017 reflects a narrowing of the focus of the SFC to prioritise on issues within the remit of the new strateg…

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: This year’s letter of guidance clearly sets out Ministers’ priorities for the HE and FE sectors and the process is no different from previous years.

12 Apr 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on removing unit assessments from Advanced Highers.

Answer · John Swinney: The Deputy First Minister’s announcement of 21 September included the removal of mandatory unit assessments from Advanced Highers. The removal of the mandatory unit assessments will significantly reduce workload and liberate teachers to focus on teaching th…

31 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported concerns of the Law Society of Scotland regarding the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s plan to increase their annual levy by 12.5%, and whether it will take any action to ensure that this is set at a manageble rate.

Answer · Annabelle Ewing: The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission is an independent statutory body and operates independently of both the Scottish Government and the legal profession. It is for the Commission to determine the annual levy to be paid by the legal profession, in accorda…

29 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has given to support inter-faith groups in each year since 1999, and how much it will provide in 2017-18.

Answer · Angela Constance: Since 2002, the Scottish Government (and formerly the Executive) has provided a total of £2,565,693 to interfaith organisations in Scotland. We do not hold information on funding prior to 2002. Applications received seeking funds from the Scottish Governmen…

29 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has given to the Voluntary Action Fund in each year since 1999, and how much it will provide in 2017-18.

Answer · Angela Constance: The following table sets out how much funding the Voluntary Action Fund (VAF) has received from the Scottish Government since 2001-02; and how much it has received to date in 2017-18. We cannot comment on any on-going funding applications at this stage. We a…

29 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to provide schools with evidence-based information on the interventions that will most effectively reduce the attainment gap.

Answer · John Swinney: Online materials have been published this year through Education Scotland's National Improvement Hub to give teachers and school leaders access to effective interventions to help close the poverty related attainment gap which are based on practice examples fr…

29 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing with the Education Endowment Foundation to provide a Scottish version of its toolkit; how much this partnership will cost; when the Scottish version will be complete, and how it will vary from the current toolkit.

Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government is in the process of finalising a contract with the Education Endowment Foundation over a three year period, at a cost of £300K including VAT, for the provision and updating of its toolkit data and application interface to support the …

16 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the information not being available at gov.scot/Publications/, whether it will confirm what the average time has been for it to respond to consultations since 2007.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: Consultations and published responses are available on the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/

16 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the information not being available at gov.scot/Publications/, whether it will confirm which of its consultations since 2007 it took longest to respond to.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: Consultations and published responses are available on the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/

16 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06824 by Jamie Hepburn on 22 February 2017, in light of quarterly figures not being available, whether it will provide the annual figure for each of the last five years.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Neither programme has been in operation for five years. Foundation Apprenticeships are in the early development phase. They are two year courses delivered in the senior phase since 2014. They were tested during 2014-16 with pilots running in West Lothian and…

15 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07305 by Mark McDonald on 15 March 2017, how many teachers have worked in nurseries in each of the last 10 years, broken down by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile of the nursery locations.

Answer · John Swinney: Data is not collected for nursery settings specifically, but for all centres providing the funded entitlement of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). The following tables show the number of teachers working in ELC settings from 2010 onwards, broken down by the…

15 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07305 by Mark McDonald on 15 March 2017, if it does not gather the data requested, how it can determine whether it will meet its pledge to ensure that nurseries in the most deprived areas will benefit from an additional teacher or graduate by 2018.

Answer · Mark McDonald: Although we currently do not collect data on graduates working within nurseries in Scotland, we will add questions on graduates to the Early Learning and Childcare census in September 2017 to be published in December. This will include the location of where g…

13 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07503 by Michael Russell on 7 March 2017, what correspondence it has had with the (a) European Free Trade Association (EFTA), (b) Faroese Government and (c) Danish Government regarding (i) the possibility of and (ii) possible routes to Scotland join…

Answer · Michael Russell: The Scottish Government has corresponded with European Free Trade Association (EFTA) officials to make practical arrangements for the meetings referred to in the answer to S5W-07503. The Scottish Government has similarly been in contact with representative…

13 Mar 2017 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will ensure that changes to unit assessments will not increase teacher workload, in light of reports that 63% of teachers believe that they will.

10 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the number of apprenticeships are on course to meet the annual target of 26,000 for 2016-17.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Statistics published by Skills Development Scotland on 14 February 2017 showed that there had been 18,245 MA starts by the end of Quarter 3 2016-17. SDS is due to publish statistics under Official Statistics protocols with the year end (Quarter 4 2016-17) pos…

10 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the modern apprenticeship target of 30,000 starts will be for 2019-20 or 2020-21.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: 2019-20.

10 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) modern, (b) foundation and (c) apprenticeship targets will be for (i) 2016-17, (ii) 2017-18, (iii) 2018-19, (iv) 2019-20 and (v) 2020-21.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The MA target for 2016-17 is outlined in the Skills Development Scotland Letter of Guidance 2016-17 as 26,000 starts https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/41986/letter-of-guidance-2016-17-final-web-publication-version.pdf . The target for 2017-1…

9 Mar 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on advertising free early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds in each of the last five years, broken down by spending on (a) research, insight-gathering and audience-testing, (b) creative development and production, (c) media buying, (d) website design…

Answer · Mark McDonald: The Scottish Government publishes annual total marketing spend, broken down by services provided by the Marketing Services Framework. The spend on each of its advertising campaigns in each of the last five years, including campaigns to promote the extension …