Wednesday 24 July 2019

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Economy

Donald Cameron (Highlands and Islands) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to meet emergency work at fishing harbours since September 2018. (S5W-24361) Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government has paid £1.3m since September 2018 towards the costs of emergency fisheries harbour works.

Education, Communities and Justice

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West ) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to public sector bodies for cyber resilience. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24032) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Health and Social Care

Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the Cancer Patient Experience Survey, what steps it is taking to increase the number of cancer patients who are given a care plan. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24021) Jeane Freeman: A holding answer was provided.

Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the Cancer Patient Experience Survey, how it will ensure that all cancer patients who want it are offered financial or benefits support. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24022) Jeane Freeman: A holding answer was provided.

Organisational Development and Operations Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support public sector bodies to work collaboratively on digital governance. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24023) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes information sharing between public sector bodies on digital governance. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24024) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on staff training for digital skills in each of the last three years. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24025) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how much public money is being invested across the public sector to achieve the aims set out in its digital strategy. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24026) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to public sector bodies to develop common digital system designs. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24027) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to public sector bodies to improve technology standards. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24028) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided to improve digital skills within businesses. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24030) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to public sector bodies for software and web development. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24033) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what investment is required to deliver its digital strategy across the public sector. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24034) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors progress on delivering its digital strategy. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24035) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors any benefits within the public sector resulting from the actions in its digital strategy. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24037) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided. Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote the use of cloud technologies. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24038) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how many projects the Digital Transformation Service is currently supporting. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24039) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided for the use of cloud technologies (a) across the Scottish Government and (b) by public bodies. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24041) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Finlay Carson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes its Digital Directorate's support service to central government bodies to highlight what services are available. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24042) Kate Forbes: A holding answer was provided.

Shona Robison (Dundee City East) (): To ask the Scottish Government how many children in each local authority area will receive support from the Scottish Child Payment. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24058) Shirley-Anne Somerville: A holding answer was provided.

Transport Scotland Elaine Smith (Central Scotland) (): To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) change in yield and (b) operator return has been in each year of the contract with Serco for Northern Isles Ferry Services. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24047) Paul Wheelhouse: A holding answer was provided.

Elaine Smith (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish Serco NorthLink Ferries’ base case for each year of the contact for Northern Isles Ferry Services. Holding answer issued: 24 July 2019 (S5W-24049) Paul Wheelhouse: A holding answer was provided.

Liam McArthur (Orkney Islands) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government what (a) improvements have been made to, (b) progress has been made with the purchase of new vessels for and (c) planning it has carried out for the future provision of internal ferry services in Orkney since September 2018, and what action it has taken over this period to ensure that the Parliament has been informed of this. (S5W-24051) Paul Wheelhouse: Orkney Islands Council (OIC) are, and remain, wholly responsible for the inter-island ferry services which they provide. Consequently, OIC remain wholly responsible for the vessels and their maintenance.

However, the Scottish Government understands the significant financial challenges that can fall on individual local authorities. This government has made clear its commitment to Orkney internal ferry services with the provision of additional funding to OIC totalling £10.8m in the last two years, comprised of £5.5m in 2018-19 and £5.3m in 2019-20.

Transport Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, will continue to discuss long term solutions with both OIC and Shetland Islands Council (SIC) through the existing Working Group. The remit of this Group includes the preparation of Outline Business Cases (OBC) being prepared by both councils. I have received presentations of the emerging findings and the final OBCs are all expected to be completed by the end of this summer.

As the Minister with responsibility for the Islands, I have, along with other Ministers, held numerous meetings with OIC Council Leader James Stockan to discuss these issues, with the most recent meeting being held on 20 June 2019. In setting Scottish Budgets the inclusion of funding for OIC (and SIC) for their internal ferry services has been made clear. This matter has also been debated in the .

As is normal practice, Transport Scotland Press Releases were issued which contained full details of the additional support that the Scottish Government has been able to find for both Councils over the past two years, despite the very real fiscal challenges flowing from the UK Government settlement.

Scottish Ministers will take a view on future revenue and capital funding requests from OIC going forward as part of the Scottish Budget setting for 2020-21.