Daniel Johnson

24 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how the £1.3 million 2023-34 Connecting Scotland funding was spent.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: In 2023-24, total Scottish Government funding for Connecting Scotland and Ethical Digital Nation combined was £1.3 million. This was allocated as follows:Grant funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to develop digital trainin…

24 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much of Connecting Scotland’s £1.6 million budget for 2024-25 has been committed, and on what this is being spent.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: There is a budget of £1.8m which covers Connecting Scotland, Ethical Digital Nation and Unlocking the Value of Data programmes. To date, the following spend has been committed:Grant funding to the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to d…

24 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its targets are for the Digital Inclusion Charter.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The targets set out in SCVO’s grant agreement are 200 signatories by the end of March 2025. To date we have attracted 42 organisations, across the public, private and voluntary sectors, who have made a range of pledges to support the Charter.Current sig…

24 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the delivery of the Digital Inclusion Charter.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Scotland’s Digital Inclusion Charter is delivered by SCVO as part of an annual grant of £308,000. This funding supports a much wider programme of activity delivered by SCVO to tackle digital exclusion. SCVO estimates that around 10% of the annual …

24 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will evaluate the success of the Digital Inclusion Charter.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The purpose of Scotland’s Digital Inclusion Charter is to support, guide and recognise the work of organisations doing digital inclusion. SCVO will support organisations to take action to meet each pledge. The Charter is one tool that is being used to e…

23 Oct 2024 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it evaluates the performance of the enterprise agencies in directly investing in businesses.

23 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the Digital Economy Skills Group last met, and how many times it has met since the start of 2023.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The last meeting of the DESG was held on 31 October 2024. Although officials from the Scottish Government are invited to attend meetings of the group, the Digital Economy Skills Group is organised by Skills Development Scotland. A request for the number of me…

23 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the minutes of meetings of the Digital Economy Skills Group since 2023.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Although officials from the Scottish Government are invited to attend meetings of the group, the Digital Economy Skills Group is organised by Skills Development Scotland. A request for the minutes of the meetings should be directed to Skills Development Scotl…

17 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-29275 by Kate Forbes on 13 September 2024, when the outcome of the governance review will be completed.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The governance review will be completed by the end of 2024. As part of the review, the First Minister has formally agreed to the creation of the Cabinet Sub-Committee for Investment and Economy.

2 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of foreign direct investments over the last five years can be classified as greenfield.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Data on supported inward investment projects secured and created in Scotland is tracked by Scottish Development International.SDI reports that for the financial years 2019-20-2023-24 there were 172 new inward investment projects supported, i.e. inward investo…

2 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many foreign direct investment recipients there have been in the last five years, broken down by sector. 

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Data on supported inward investment projects secured and created in Scotland is tracked by Scottish Development International.Supported inward investment projects (Foreign Direct Investment and Inward Investment from the Rest of the UK) over the last five yea…

2 Oct 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many customs sites are being used by businesses at the two Scottish Green Freeports.

Answer · Kate Forbes: In order for businesses to utilise Green Freeport customs sites they must first be designated by HMRC. Both Green Freeports are currently at full business case stage and working towards customs site designation.

5 Sep 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26079 by Richard Lochhead on 19 March 2024, when the innovation scorecard will be published, in line with the National Innovation Strategy.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: As you are aware, the Scottish Government’s National Innovation Strategy included an action to publish an annual innovation scorecard allowing us to track our progress towards becoming a more innovative nation across multiple key metrics.The first itera…

4 Sep 2024 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the latest achievement rates for Modern Apprenticeships across all frameworks.

3 Sep 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28739 by Tom Arthur on 29 August 2024, whether it will outline the scale of the limited exception applied to each receiving body, including (a) grant amount and (b) number of employees affected.

Answer · Tom Arthur: Based on administrative data currently available, detail on the number of exceptions approved by the Scottish Government and public bodies between 1 July 2023 and 31 March 2024 will be published by the end of September on the Fair and inclusive workplaces web…

3 Sep 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many businesses and organisations applied for funding from the Fairer Workplaces Fund prior to it being closed on 21 August 2024. 

Answer · Tom Arthur: Prior to the announcement that the Fairer Workplaces Fund was closing on 21 August 2024 a total of three applications had been received.

3 Sep 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of civil servants' time was spent (a) preparing the Fairer Workplaces Fund to open and (b) processing applications prior to the fund being cancelled. 

Answer · Tom Arthur: This Information is not held. Detail on hours spent by civil servants on specific individual tasks is not recorded.No time was spent processing applications prior to the fund being cancelled.

2 Sep 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-28739 by Tom Arthur on 29 August 2024, how many public sector (a) grants and (b) contracts that have been awarded since 1 July 2023 have exempted the receiving body from complying with the "effective workers' voice" criteria, broken down by the (i) …

Answer · Tom Arthur: (a) There are no exemptions to the Fair Work First conditions in public sector grants. There is provision in the Fair Work First policy for limited exceptions where a potential grant recipient cannot afford to pay the real Living Wage to all or part(s) of its…

29 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it remains its position to issue fair work grants and, if so, by what date it will do so.

Answer · Tom Arthur: As announced on 21 August as part of emergency budget controls, the Fairer Workplaces Fund 2024 to 2025 has been cancelled.This is just one of a number of spending plans that we have been forced to withdraw due to the extremely challenging financial position …

23 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many regulations have been removed as per advice from the Regulatory Review Group since it was relaunched in autumn 2023 as recommended by the New Deal for Business Group.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The remit of the Regulatory Review Group is to provide the Scottish Government with advice on all aspects of Better Regulation from a business and regulatory perspective. It does not propose removal of regulations but works to identify implementation challeng…

23 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many floorcovering Modern Apprenticeship starts there have been in each of the last five years.  

Answer · Graeme Dey: The number of Modern Apprenticeship starts for floorcovering in the last 5 years are as follows; 19-2020-2121-2222-2323-24Total4230393355

22 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27776 by Tom Arthur on 7 June 2024, how Scotland has performed relative to other UK nations and regions on inward investment, both from UK located firms and foreign firms, in each of the last five years.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The latest EY Attractiveness survey, published 11 July 2024, shows that for the ninth consecutive year Scotland was the top performing part of the UK for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects outside of London. Scotland remains highly attractive as an FDI …

22 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) Economic Leadership Group was established, and how many times it has met.

Answer · Kate Forbes: As stated in this summer’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation Second Annual Progress Report, Second Annual Progress Report (www.gov.scot) with NSET now two years into its 10-year term, a governance review is underway. As part of that review w…

7 Aug 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the three-year small business productivity programme that was announced in its Programme for Government 2023-24 is operational, and, if so, what its outputs are.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The Scottish Government is funding Peer Works to deliver the productivity programme set out in the 2023-24 Programme for Government. Formerly called Productivity Clubs, Peer Works has been delivered by Prosper in partnership with the Scottish Government since…

24 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many public sector (a) grants and (b) contracts that have been awarded since 1 July 2023 have exempted the receiving body from complying with the Fair Work First principle, broken down by the (i) receiving body. and (ii) reason for exemption.

Answer · Tom Arthur: In total, between July 2023 and March 2024, 26 organisations in receipt of grants from the Scottish Government have an approved limited exception to the real Living Wage grant condition. A list of these organisations can be found in the following table.Name o…

24 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many public sector (a) grants and (b) contracts that have been awarded since 1 July 2023 have required the receiving body to comply with the Fair Work First principle, broken down by the receiving body.

Answer · Tom Arthur: Based on the information available, since the implementation of the more stringent Fair Work First grant conditionality, requiring public sector grant recipients to pay their workers the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, F…

18 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not regularly adhered to the agreement under the New Deal for Business to publish monthly, the Scottish economic bulletin.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The Scottish Government publishes monthly reports on the Scottish economy at: Economic briefs and bulletins - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) A report was not published in June 2024 due to the pre-election period for the UK General Election.

11 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what average number of jobs has been created via foreign direct investment projects in Scotland in each of the last five years.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The primary source for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance is through Scottish Development International’s (SDI) annual inward investment results on behalf of the Enterprise Agencies. SDI tracks the number of planned and safeguarded jobs assoc…

11 Jul 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of foreign direct investment in Scotland came via a UK-based parent company in each of the last five years.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The primary source for measuring Scotland’s inward investment performance is through Scottish Development International’s (SDI) annual inward investment results on behalf of the Enterprise Agencies. SDI’s annual inward investment results show that the propor…

21 May 2024 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund will reopen for applications, and what its budget allocation is for 2024.

Answer · Gillian Martin: We are currently delivering Calls 1, 2 and 3 of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund. A decision on potential future funding rounds will be taken once the 2025-26 budget allocation is confirmed. £8.8 million is allocated in 2024-25.