http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The requested performance data under the of the SME Holding Fund is not yet published as it is subject to a verification process under the European Regional Development Fund Regulations.

A report for the European Commission on the implementation of the SME Holding Fund will be prepared during April, primarily for the Joint Programme Monitoring Committee (the body which provides advice to Scottish Government on the use of EU funding in Scotland).

The report will cover the period to 31 December 2017. It will cover, inter alia, total amount invested with a breakdown of funding sources (private and public), total amount invested by Delivery Agent (microfinance, debt, equity), total number of companies receiving investment support, private sector leverage, number of jobs created and give a LUPS, H&I spend breakdown.

A copy of the report will be provided to the Scottish Parliamentary Information Service and I would be happy to share it with the member at that time.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information broken down by department and it no longer holds data going back as far as 1999. It also does not analyse payments for goods and services to determine whether they have been paid to private companies or SMEs.

However, we have provided in the following table, payment performance data for those invoices that were paid on time, within 30 days of receipt, from April 2012 to date.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires a public body with significant procurement expenditure to prepare an annual procurement report as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of each financial year.

These reports will form the basis of an annual report on procurement activity in Scotland to be published by Scottish Ministers. Financial year 2017-2018 will be the first full year subject to annual procurement reports under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Public bodies need to be given sufficient time to prepare and publish their individual annual procurement reports before the Scottish Government carries out a high-level analysis of these reports in preparation for the Scottish Ministers annual report on procurement activity in Scotland.

The following table provides the number of suppliers and the number of SMEs who have supplied goods and services to core Scottish Government departments for Financial Years 2005-06 to 2016-17 based on data contained in the Scottish Procurement Information Hub. The Hub reports on spend by supplier and not by contract therefore cannot provide information relating to the number and total value of contracts as requested.

Data is provided for core Scottish Government departments only.

Data is taken from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub and is based on spend with core trade suppliers.

Core trade suppliers are suppliers with whom over £1,000 has been spent in a 12 month period, that have also been classed as a trading organisation or as a non-trade social care provider.

*Supplier size is based on number of employees where it is known.

**SMEs are defined as suppliers with less than 250 employees.

Data correct at February 2017.

27 March 2017.

In my response I indicated that the Scottish Government had received and considered a number of approaches from parties expressing an interest in purchasing or investing in the business. I also indicated that any interest is commercially sensitive and it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on these.

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.

The decision to cease our funding to Voluntary Action Scotland (VAS) at the end of their current grant period in September 2018 was informed by both the independent evaluation into VAS and the TSIs (published December 2016) and by a subsequent year of engagement during which we held extensive discussions with VAS, TSIs and wider third and public sector partners.

Our overall resource allocation to support TSIs and the network is not being reduced. We are retaining the resource currently supporting VAS for the TSI network, to create flexibility to respond to ambition and collaborative approaches, and to continue to support network support, knowledge and practice sharing.

Our priority is supporting TSIs to deliver against an ambitious vision that puts them at the heart of local decision making and ensures they can support and respond to the needs of local communities.

The following table provides the number of military flights by financial year to and from Glasgow Prestwick Airport since 2013-14. The figures provided include arriving and departing flights.

The following table details the funding from the Scottish Government’s core Third Sector budget provided to all 32 Third Sector Interfaces covering a period of 18 months from 1 April 2017 to 30 September 2018. Funding beyond 30 September 2018 will be confirmed following agreement of the draft Scottish budget.

Creative Scotland’s Board has reviewed decisions on the Regular Funding Network and announced on 6 February 2018 that a further 5 organisations will now receive regular funding, including the Dunedin Consort.