The House of Commons research paper demonstrates the strengths of the Scottish economy. Scotland’s employment rate is higher than the other three countries of the UK, and even when North Sea revenue is excluded, Scotland’s output per head is close to the UK average and ranks third of the 12 UK regions behind only London and the South East. Furthermore, Scotland has generated more tax per head than the UK as a whole in each of the last 34 years.

All parties have signed up to the continuation of the Barnett formula as part of The Smith Commission agreement. The Scottish Government has no control over the operation or design of the Barnett formula but with the current structure of the formula, Scotland has already seen real terms cuts to its fiscal DEL budget of 9 per cent over the five years to 2015-16 and faces the risk of further cuts being announced in the emergency UK budget next month.

I refer the member to the question S4F-02821 answered on 28 May 2015 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/13595.aspx

Scottish Ministers and Scottish Government officials have on-going engagement with the North Sea oil and gas industry to discuss the outlook for the sector and the key challenges and opportunities.

The Scottish Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing has also carried out between 150 and 200 meetings in Aberdeen since he became minister, and on June 10 2015 he will be attending a meeting of the government and industry forum PILOT to discuss the outlook for the sector.

Police Scotland has undertaken an open and transparent consultation which commenced at the earliest stage of its considerations in December 2014. This process has incorporated engagement with local communities, including local scrutiny committees, to ensure all views are reflected and considered thoroughly.

The Scottish Police Authority has maintained ongoing dialogue with Police Scotland throughout and will have formal oversight ahead of any decision.

It would be inappropriate to publish consultation responses before this formal decision-making process is complete. Police Scotland has, however, confirmed consultation responses will be published in due course, subject to the standard data protection requirements for consultations.

The Scottish Government forecasts that Land and Buildings Transaction Tax will generate revenue of £381 million in 2015-16, comprising £235 million from residential transactions and £146 million from non-residential transactions. These forecasts were endorsed as reasonable by the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission. They do not include the effects of forestalling, for which the UK Government has agreed to compensate us.

<>I will be publishing more information shortly on the business development bank. I also refer the member to the answer to questions S4W-24736 on 11 March 2015 and S4W-24853 on 20 March 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Scotland’s Economic Strategy sets out an overarching framework for all Scottish Government policy and our delivery partners. It brings focus on increasing competitiveness and tackling inequality as two mutually supporting goals.

Since its publication, policy frameworks have been launched on Internationalisation and Scotland’s Business Pledge. As outlined in the strategy, Scotland's Trade and Investment Strategy, Scotland's Oil and Gas Strategy, Fair Work Strategy, and Social Justice Strategy, will also be published in due course.

Live updates are available at: http://gov.scot/economicstrategy.

I will be publishing more information shortly on the business development bank.

The Scottish Government intends to publish them in the near future.

<>The information requested for April 2015 was published by Revenue Scotland on 21 May 2015 and is available at: https://www.revenue.scot/who-we-are/publications/statistics

Revenue Scotland will publish Land and Buildings Transaction Tax monthly statistics for May 2015 in June 2015.