Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-14749

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 6 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14023 by Derek Mackay on 6 February 2018, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding what its position is on introducing measures to ensure that all public sector procurers operate a so-called yellow/red card system to ensure that, if the lead contractors do not pay their supply chain within 30 days, they will be barred from bidding for public sector works for at least two years.

The Government is committed to improving the current level of performance in public sector construction contracts. This includes ensuring prompt payment practices at all levels in the supply chain. A red/yellow card system, along the lines described, is potentially one way in which this might be achieved; however, there are other possible approaches. Therefore, I want to be satisfied that whatever approach we adopt is the most appropriate for public construction contracts in Scotland and is also consistent with our underpinning public contract legislation. The Government will publish its conclusions following a full consideration of all the issues.

Question reference: S5O-01857

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average school clothing grant payment was in 2017.

Question reference: S5W-14634

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide that bidders for Carillion rail contracts in Scotland will undergo proper due diligence to ensure that they are suitable to manage contracts, including the employment of workers on direct employment contracts.

Question reference: S5W-14762

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to mark the 100th anniversary of the Education (Scotland) 1918 Act.

2018 marks 100 years of Catholic state education in Scotland, and the First Minister and I will be involved in a number of events which will mark this significant anniversary.

The First Minister will give the Cardinal Winning lecture at the University of Glasgow on 3 March, and I will attend the Caritas Awards Ceremony in June. I also look forward to hosting a reception to celebrate the contribution that Catholic schools make to Scottish education later in the year. These events will be part of a programme of wider events taking place to mark this occasion.

Question reference: S5W-14752

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 27 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14025 by Derek Mackay on 6 February 2018, what its position is on whether the threshold of £2 million in Wales and Northern Ireland is the prevailing practice.

Question reference: S5W-14751

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 27 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14025 by Derek Mackay on 6 February 2018, when the review of the thresholds of public sector project bank accounts will take place.

It is important that a review of PBA thresholds is only taken in the light of experience of their operation. As noted in my answer to S5W-14390 on 21 February 2018 , the first contracts containing a PBA will be awarded over the next 16 months. Therefore, a review of thresholds is not expected until 2019 at the earliest.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-14389

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 27 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-12919 by Derek Mackay on 6 December 2017, how many of the invoices that it has received in each year since 1999 have not been paid within 30 days of receipt at all stages of the (a) prime- and (b) sub-contract chain, broken down by the total value of the contracts.

The Scottish Government no longer holds data going back as far as 1999 and does not have this information at all stages of the prime and sub-contract chain. We have provided in the following table, payment performance for those invoices that were not paid within 30 days of receipt, from April 2012 to date.

Financial Year	Percentage number of invoices not paid within 30 days
2012-13	1.1%
2013-14	0.5%
2014-15	0.6%
2015-16	0.3%
2016-17	0.2%
2017-18 (April-January)	0.3%

Question reference: S5W-14237

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons there has been a reported decrease of (a) 5% in overall satisfaction in ScotRail, (b) 6%, down to 71%, in levels of satisfaction with the level of crowding on trains and (c) 3%, down to 51%, in levels of satisfaction with how well the company deals with delays, since the last survey in Spring 2017.

With a very small sample size of respondents who take part in the survey, it is difficult to determine the precise reasons for the satisfaction scores. However, for a more accurate year on year comparator, it is considered more relevant to compare the scores to the Autumn 2016 results where –

(a) overall satisfaction in Autumn 2017 increased 2% from Autumn 2016

(b) there is no comparison for level of overcrowding as this question only introduced in Spring 2017

(c) how well the company deals with delays in Autumn 2017 increased 13% from Autumn 2016

I completely understand the frustration that poor performance can have on the customer experience. Unfortunately ScotRail has faced a number of challenges in recent months, not least due to the impact of seasonal weather, which affects most UK operators, and as a consequence performance has fallen below the standards required by the Scottish Government and demanded by passengers.

As a result, ScotRail has appointed a railway industry expert to undertake an independent review of train service performance and propose steps for improvement. The review is underway and the findings will be used to develop actions to inform a Performance Improvement Plan, focussed and targeted towards delivering improved performance in key areas where there has been significant issues across the core business function – infrastructure, fleet, operations and customer experience.

Transport Scotland welcomes this review and expects the recent downward trend to be addressed so that passengers can enjoy the level of service that they desire and deserve.

Question reference: S5W-14409

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many subcontractors have requested to join each project bank account, including for tier (a) 2 and (b) 3; how many requests were refused, and how many did not request to join, broken down by reason for doing so.

Question reference: S5W-14430

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of how its strategic supplier risk-management policy operates.

The Scottish Government has developed the Procurement Journey, a web-based collection of tools/processes to support it and the public sector community in Scotland including central government, local authorities, National Health bodies, Universities and Colleges. This includes a dedicated section on contract and supplier management. This can be found at: https://www.procurementjourney.scot/route-3/route-3-contract-supplier-management-managing-improving-performance

In addition the Scottish Government works with United Kingdom Cabinet Office to support the strategic management of key suppliers who operate across the UK.

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