- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many commercial properties the large business rates supplement will apply to in 2017-18, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) business sector.
Answer
The Scottish Government's estimate of the numbers of properties liable for the large business supplement for 2017-18, broken down by local authority area and by Assessors’ property classification, is set out in the following tables.
|
Local authority
|
Estimated number of properties
|
|
Aberdeen City
|
2,068
|
|
Aberdeenshire
|
937
|
|
Angus
|
281
|
|
Argyll & Bute
|
274
|
|
Clackmannanshire
|
112
|
|
Dumfries & Galloway
|
391
|
|
Dundee City
|
687
|
|
East Ayrshire
|
279
|
|
East Dunbartonshire
|
201
|
|
East Lothian
|
257
|
|
East Renfrewshire
|
131
|
|
Edinburgh, City of
|
3,098
|
|
Eilean Siar
|
89
|
|
Falkirk
|
476
|
|
Fife
|
1,042
|
|
Glasgow City
|
3,390
|
|
Highland
|
1,058
|
|
Inverclyde
|
181
|
|
Midlothian
|
306
|
|
Moray
|
310
|
|
North Ayrshire
|
352
|
|
North Lanarkshire
|
1,055
|
|
Orkney Islands
|
70
|
|
Perth & Kinross
|
537
|
|
Renfrewshire
|
721
|
|
Scottish Borders
|
306
|
|
Shetland Islands
|
108
|
|
South Ayrshire
|
384
|
|
South Lanarkshire
|
1,039
|
|
Stirling
|
408
|
|
West Dunbartonshire
|
265
|
|
West Lothian
|
765
|
|
TOTAL
|
21,578
|
Ìý
|
Class
|
Estimated number of properties
|
|
Advertising
|
19
|
|
Care Facilities
|
802
|
|
Communications
|
78
|
|
Cultural
|
159
|
|
Education and Training
|
2,077
|
|
Garages and Petrol Stations
|
331
|
|
Health and Medical
|
579
|
|
Hotels
|
938
|
|
Industrial Subjects
|
4,552
|
|
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.
|
909
|
|
Offices
|
3,421
|
|
Other
|
314
|
|
Petrochemical
|
78
|
|
Public Houses
|
643
|
|
Public Service Subjects
|
1,043
|
|
Quarries, Mines, etc.
|
96
|
|
Religious
|
92
|
|
Shops
|
5,077
|
|
Sporting Subjects
|
32
|
|
Statutory Undertaking
|
338
|
|
Total
|
21,578
|
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how much tax revenue it expects will be generated by the large business rates supplement in 2017-18, broken down by local authority.
Answer
The Scottish Government's estimate of non-domestic rates income attributable to the large business supplement for 2017-18 by local authority area is set out in the following table.
|
Local authority
|
Estimated income
(£ million)
|
|
Aberdeen City
|
11.0
|
|
Aberdeenshire
|
4.4
|
|
Angus
|
1.1
|
|
Argyll & Bute
|
1.5
|
|
Clackmannanshire
|
0.7
|
|
Dumfries & Galloway
|
1.6
|
|
Dundee City
|
3.0
|
|
East Ayrshire
|
1.1
|
|
East Dunbartonshire
|
1.0
|
|
East Lothian
|
1.1
|
|
East Renfrewshire
|
0.5
|
|
Edinburgh, City of
|
16.3
|
|
Eilean Siar
|
0.3
|
|
Falkirk
|
3.0
|
|
Fife
|
7.1
|
|
Glasgow City
|
16.9
|
|
Highland
|
5.4
|
|
Inverclyde
|
0.8
|
|
Midlothian
|
1.3
|
|
Moray
|
1.7
|
|
North Ayrshire
|
1.6
|
|
North Lanarkshire
|
4.5
|
|
Orkney Islands
|
0.3
|
|
Perth & Kinross
|
2.2
|
|
Renfrewshire
|
5.9
|
|
Scottish Borders
|
1.2
|
|
Shetland Islands
|
0.9
|
|
South Ayrshire
|
1.7
|
|
South Lanarkshire
|
19.2
|
|
Stirling
|
1.8
|
|
West Dunbartonshire
|
3.6
|
|
West Lothian
|
3.3
|
|
TOTAL
|
126.0
|
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 13 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the introduction of the apprenticeship levy will have on the (a) total money available in the block grant for apprenticeships, (b) cost of paying the levy by the public sector and (c) the net impact on its resource DEL, in each of the next three years.
Answer
a) Funding allocated to the Scottish Government as a result of the introduction of the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy will form part of the Scottish block grant. Barnett consequentials accrued to the Scottish Government are added to or, if comparable UK budgets have been reduced rather than increased, are deducted from the total available funding available to Scottish Ministers. It is then for Scottish Ministers to decide how all the resources available to them should be allocated.
b) The cost to the Scottish public sector contribution to the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy is estimated at £73 million per annum.
c) Given the direct financial impact on public sector employers, between 2017-18 and 2019-20, we estimate that the Scottish Government’s net spending power will be £63 million lower than it would have been in the absence of the Levy.
Overall, the Scottish Government’s Spending Review discretionary resource DEL allocation, as amended in the March UK Budget and UK Autumn Statement, faces the equivalent of a real terms cut of 3.1% over the period relative to the 2016-17 budget.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2016
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2016
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to figures released by the Care Inspectorate that show that 70% of four-year-olds were recorded as receiving funded childcare.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 15 December 2016
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 12 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government which public bodies it estimates will pay the apprenticeship levy in Spring 2017 and how much it estimates each will pay.
Answer
The Scottish Government estimates that the majority of public bodies in Scotland will pay the UK Government's Apprenticeship Levy. Overall we estimate that Scottish public bodies will pay £73 million in 2016-17.
Exact details of each body’s contribution will not be known until the employers start to pay Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs when the UK Government's Levy comes in to force in April 2017.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what the total payroll cost is for each public body in 2016-17 and what estimate it has made of these costs for the next three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on total payroll costs centrally. This would be a matter for individual public bodies.
However, we do collect projected and actual paybill costs for those employees within public bodies covered by the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy for Staff Pay Remits. The total projected paybill (salary plus on-costs: National Insurance Contributions, pensions, allowances, etc.) for these employees is estimated to be £1.4 billion for 2016-17. This estimate excludes the paybill costs for senior appointments such as the Chief Executive, non-executive directors and all Senior Civil Service appointments because they are not covered by the Pay Policy for Staff Pay Remits.
A list of those public bodies covered by the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy is available at .
Estimates of these costs for future years are dependent upon the Pay Policy in place at the time; decisions taken on National Insurance Contributions and employers’ pension contributions by the UK Government; decisions on recruitment and workforce planning taken by individual public bodies; and decisions individual bodies take on their annual pay remits, following engagement with trade unions. The 2017-18 Public Sector Pay Policy will be announced alongside the draft budget statement on 15 December.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it uses to analyse how the literacy skills of Scotland’s school pupils compare with others internationally, and whether it will publish the most recent findings.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes international scrutiny of the education system, and the Scottish Government participates in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The programme runs every three years across all OECD members and a variety of partner countries. Scotland has participated in all six surveys since the first wave of testing in 2000. PISA aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students, with a particular focus on maths, reading and science.
The OECD published the results of the 2015 survey on 6 December 2016 and, on the same date, the Scottish Government published a report focussing on the Scottish results and how they compare internationally . The next survey will take place in 2018, with the results available in December 2019.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it uses to analyse how the performance of Scotland’s (a) primary and (b) S1 - S3 school pupils compares with others internationally, and whether it will publish the most recent findings.
Answer
The Scottish Government participates in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The programme runs every three years across all OECD members and a variety of partner countries, and aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students, with a particular focus on maths, reading and science. Scotland has participated in all six surveys since the first wave of testing in 2000.
The OECD published the results of the 2015 survey on 6 December 2016 and, on the same date, the Scottish Government published a report focussing on the Scottish results and how they compare internationally . The next survey will take place in 2018, with the results available in December 2019.
We do not carry out an international comparison of the performance of primary school pupils. We took the decision in 2010 to limit our participation in international surveys to PISA in order to reduce the bureaucratic burden on teachers and pupils, and because we felt PISA provides an effective indicator of how the whole Scottish education system is performing relative to other countries.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
-
Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it uses to analyse how the performance of Scotland’s school pupils in mathematics compares with others internationally, and whether it will publish the most recent findings.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes international scrutiny of the education system, and participates in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The programme runs every three years across all OECD members and a variety of partner countries, and aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students, with a particular focus on maths, reading and science. Scotland has participated in all six surveys since the first wave of testing in 2000.
The OECD published the results of the 2015 survey on 6 December 2016 and, on the same date, the Scottish Government published a report focussing on the Scottish results and how they compare internationally . The next survey will take place in 2018, with the results available in December 2019.
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Futures Trust regarding school rebuilding in Edinburgh.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2016
