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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

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Question reference: S5F-00955

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that sports funding is set for a 20% reduction over the next three years, which has been described by sportscotland as "heartbreaking".

Question reference: S5W-07079

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what provision there is in the attainment fund for outdoor learning, particularly for schools in inner city areas, in light of reports that school trips to National Parks and outdoor areas are becoming less frequent and increasingly only accessible by children from a middle-class background.

The Scottish Government wants to see all children and young people have positive outdoor learning experiences in a variety of settings.

A number of schools and local authorities are already using Attainment Scotland Funding for outdoor learning to help close the poverty related attainment gap for young people - including those within inner city areas. Pupil Equity Funding will provide £120m in 2017-18 to 95% of all schools in Scotland and gives headteachers flexibility to target resources at interventions they know will help close the attainment gap, including outdoor learning activities.

Question reference: S5O-00679

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure the safe restoration of opencast coal mine sites in East Ayrshire and the south of Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-06418

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers sport an important tool in tackling health inequality, and how it will ensure that sport is accessible to all irrespective of background or personal circumstance.

Sport and physical activity are key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and so contribute to tackling health inequality. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing rates of physical activity. The Active Scotland Outcomes Framework sets out our ambitions for a more active Scotland, and is underpinned by a commitment to equality, so that people of all ages and from all communities across Scotland have the opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity.

Reducing health inequalities is one of the biggest challenges we face. To tackle this we recognise that the root of health inequalities can be found in income inequalities – inequalities which are exacerbated by the UK Government’s policies of austerity and welfare reform.

Question reference: S5O-00612

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to ensure that charities and third sector organisations that support communities are appropriately resourced.

Question reference: S5O-00536

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages access to art, drama and music by all children, irrespective of background.

Through the Youth Music Initiative, Cashback for Creativity programme and Sistema Scotland we are ensuring that no young person’s background is a barrier to taking part in the arts.

Creative Scotland continue to work with a range of partners to ensure young people have the opportunity to engage in cultural activity. Scotland's five National Performing Companies too are committed to creating and performing their work across the whole of Scotland and make a significant contribution to cultural life both in Scotland and internationally. Their performances and outreach programmes continue to be of the highest quality with the Theatre for Schools Scotland initiative, which I helped launch in June, aiming to ensure every child in Scotland receives a minimum of one performing arts production, per year, as part of their education.

Question reference: S5F-00718

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the recent BBC report suggesting that 90% of performance athletes supported by sportscotland come from a middle class background.

Question reference: S5W-05451

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 21 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the proposal by the StepChange Debt Charity and others to extend the Debt Arrangement Scheme to help people who have undergone an income shock.

I recognise the extreme difficulty and distress that an income shock can cause individuals and their families. The Scottish Government has fought to provide a supportive framework to help individuals to address their indebtedness and reassure a positive path in terms of their personal finances.

Scotland has lead the way in implementing a moratorium, being the only part of the UK which has a moratorium in place at this time. The current 6 week moratorium period was extended to cover all our statutory debt management and debt relief products as part of the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act 2014, and will be reviewed when we look at the impact of all the changes introduced in that legislation during the coming year.

The Scottish Government, through Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), is currently carrying out a policy review of DAS legislation. This includes analysing the effectiveness of payment breaks which provide flexibility to those who suffer a short term income shock while they are in a DAS Debt Payment Programme. A consultation was carried out as part of this review and will help to inform our future policy. AiB is currently finalising its response to this consultation.

Question reference: S5W-05453

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, which was published on 22 October 2013, what it can do to assist SMEs with retention payments, and whether the model used under the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 can be used as an alternative to cash retentions.

As part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, we are developing guidance for contracting authorities. This will help them make the right decisions regarding the appropriate use of project assurance, including retention and the alternatives to it. We will review the feasibility of a scheme similar to the model used for Tenancy Deposit Schemes.

The baseline position of the guidance will be that, whatever project assurance tool is used, it must be appropriate, proportionate and not overly onerous for contractors and their supply chain. This guidance will be published in the Scottish Construction Procurement Manual.

Question reference: S5W-05454

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, which was published on 22 October 2013, (a) what the timeline is for completion of the review's recommendations, (b) how any payment schemes will be policed and reported on and (c) how much retention money in total is being held by public authorities and, of this total, how much in sterling is over 12 months old.

In answer to the three parts of the question:

(a) Implementation of the majority of recommendations is expected to be completed by mid-2017.

(b) The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires that Contracting Authorities prepare a procurement strategy. Within this, they must set out how they intend to ensure the following payments are made, no later than 30 days after the invoice (or similar claim), relating to the payment is presented:

(i) Payments due by the authority to a contractor,

(ii) Payments due by a contractor to a sub-contractor,

(iii) Payments due by a sub-contractor to a sub-contractor,

Contracting Authorities are required, under Section 18 of the Act, to prepare an annual procurement report on their regulated procurement activities, which must include a review of whether those procurements complied with the authority's procurement strategy. If any regulated procurements did not comply, the authority must produce a statement of how they will ensure that future regulated procurements will comply.

(c) Information regarding how much retention money is being by held public authorities is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

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