Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, on how many occasions (a) he and (b) the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland visited a (i) Government Hub and (ii) ministerial office outside London in (A) 2022 and (B) 2023.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The information requested is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU on trends in the level of Scottish (a) imports and (b) exports.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ regional trade statistics show that in the year ending March 2023, the overall value of UK trade in goods increased by 18% for exports and by 24% for imports, compared with the previous year.
Compared with the year ending March 2022, Scotland’s goods exports to EU countries were worth £22bn (up £4.3bn, or 24%) in March 2023, whilst Scotland’s goods imports from EU countries were worth £12bn (up £3.3bn, or 38%) in March 2023, resulting in a surplus of £10bn.
Since the fourth quarter of 2020, the value of EU exports from Scotland has consistently exceeded the value of non-EU exports.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within their Department's estate.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Survey work is underway.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what has been the average time taken to respond to public inquiries by his Department in each of the last five years; and whether he plans to introduce measures to improve this.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Scotland Office has not held policy responsibility for any public inquiries for the past 5 years.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet.
This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available.
You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
The Scotland Office make every effort to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within original deadlines by ensuring strict internal deadlines are in place, regular guidance is issued to all staff and monthly corporate reporting.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet.
This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available.
You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
The Scotland Office make every effort to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within original deadlines by ensuring strict internal deadlines are in place, regular guidance is issued to all staff and monthly corporate reporting.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what information their Department holds on the level of staff retention; and what steps they are taking to improve staff retention.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Scotland Office utilises a number of workforce management metrics including those relating to staff retention/turnover. Many of these can be found in our Annual Report and Accounts.
The Scotland Office has a strong People Offer which aims to attract, train, develop, retain, promote and progress our people to fulfil their potential, meet our objectives and benefit the Civil Service.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps his Department is taking to (a) enhance cybersecurity and (b) protect personal data.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
In accordance with the Government Cyber Security Strategy we are working to ensure that our critical functions will be significantly hardened to cyber-attack by 2025, with all government organisations across the whole public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods no later than 2030.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the average response time to subject access requests was by their Department in the latest period for which data is available; and if they will make an assessment of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
During the past two years, the Scotland Office answered 100% of subject access requests received within the 30-day deadline set by the ICO. The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its performance.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
During the 2022-23 financial year, the Scotland Office answered 99% of Freedom of Information requests received within the statutory 20 working day deadline.
Further information on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found on www.gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.