Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-26883

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what external training CalMac has commissioned in each year since 2010; who supplied the training; how much was spent in each year on this training, and whether it (a) took place and (b) is available in Scotland.

CalMac Ferries Ltd and the David MacBrayne Group believes in supporting worthwhile learning, training and personal development initiatives for all its staff. CalMac provides extensive structured training programmes for both marine and shore staff, encouraging all employees to continuously update their skills and knowledge.

Details of CalMac’s external training since 2010, including who supplied the training, where the training took place and whether it was available in Scotland, is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 57115)

The following table sets out CalMac’s spend on external training for each year since 2010:

Year	CalMac spend on external training
2010	£721,351
2011	£699,782
2012	£1,174,614
2013	£1,189,573
2014	£1,066,387

Question reference: S4W-26836

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much is being allocated to each area being supported by the Attainment Scotland Fund and what the focus is of each area's local improvement plan.

The following initial funding has been allocated to the seven local authorities identified as first to benefit from the Attainment Scotland Fund:

Glasgow – £3,030,000

North Lanarkshire – £2,241,000

Inverclyde – £592,000

Clackmannanshire – £718,109

West Dunbartonshire – £1,024,000

North Ayrshire – £1,965,000

Dundee – £2,145,000

These authorities have developed improvement plans to narrow the attainment gap, with a specific focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

Question reference: S4F-02895

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2015

To ask the First Minister what analysis the Scottish Government will make of the impact on foodbank usage as a result of Scotland’s share of the further £12 billion in welfare reductions announced by the UK Government.

Question reference: S4O-04491

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding the provision of free school meals.

Question reference: S4F-02843

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04419

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04378

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to assist the economy in the west of Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-04214

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the community safety aspects of the licensing of smartphone booking systems for transport services.

Question reference: S4W-24744

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 18 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many (a) drug-related and (b) other money laundering offences in each of the last five years were linked to (i) gambling machines and (ii) fixed-odds betting terminals.

Money laundering is recorded as the crime which relates to how the money was obtained, for example, fraud or drug crimes. As the data held centrally on recorded crime is based on an aggregate count of crime and offences recorded and cleared up by the police, it is not possible to separately identify the number of money laundering crimes, or those which related to gambling machines and fixed-odds betting terminals.

Question reference: S4O-04100

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact on devolved areas of responsibility of reported plans to replace the TV licence fee with a household tax.

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