Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many members of the public have contacted his Department on the implementation of the Pensions Act 1995, the Pension Act 2011 and the campaign to equalise state pensions for women in 2016; and what proportion of those people have received a response from his Department.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office has received 38 enquiries from members of the public this year in relation to the implementation of the Pensions Act 1995, the Pension Act 2011 and the campaign to equalise state pensions for women. My Department has directly responded to 6 of these, with the Department for Work and Pensions handling the remaining enquires.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether his Department has set a target time in which to respond to correspondence from members of the public; and what the average response time for such responses is.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office has a 15 working day target deadline to respond to correspondence from the public; 84% of correspondence from the public has received a response within 15 working days in fiscal year 2015/16.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, when he plans to give effect to the provisions of the Scotland Act 2016 not yet in force.
Answered by David Mundell
We have made significant progress since the Scotland Act 2016 reached Royal Assent in March 2016 and a large number of provisions of the Act are already in force, giving the Scottish Parliament responsibilities in new policy areas. Most recently, new welfare powers came into force on 5 September 2016 and the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare continues to meet to discuss the implementation of welfare powers, as well as the commencement and implementation of remaining welfare provisions.
Implementation dates for a number of the tax and fiscal responsibilities in the Scotland Act 2016 are set out in the Fiscal Framework for Scotland.
We are working constructively with the Scottish Government on the commencement of sections of the Scotland Act 2016 and I will meet regularly with Derek Mackay MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution in the Scottish Government, to discuss progress. I will ensure the UK Parliament is kept informed about this important work.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has visited a food bank in Scotland since February 2016.
Answered by David Mundell
I have not visited a food bank in my capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on advertising, marketing and external communications in 2015-16.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office spend on advertising, marketing and external communications in the financial year 2015-16 was £757.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on renovations and repairs to Dover House in 2015-16.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office spend on renovations, repairs and maintenance to Dover House in 2015-16 was £660,715.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many instant rewards of what value were given to officials of his Department in 2015-16.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office paid no instant rewards to officials in 2015-16.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on air, rail and taxi travel in 2015-16.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office spend on air, rail and taxi travel in 2015-16 is shown below.
Air | Rail | Taxi |
£209,037.45 | £63,698.82 | £23,244.64 |
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on (a) online advertising and promotion, (b) animation, (c) design and (d) in total on its recent #GetInOntheAct campaign.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office spend on (a) online advertising and promotion, (b) animation, (c) design and (d) in total on its recent #GetInOntheAct campaign is shown below.
online advertising and promotion | animation | design | ‘GetInOntheAct’ campaign |
£757 | £2,500 | £0 | £0 |
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent estimate he has made of the level of inward investment to Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Mundell
On 29 February 2016, UK Trade & Investment published the number of Foreign Direct Investment projects by UK Region for the period 2010/11 to 2014/15. These figures show that Scotland attracted 531 projects during this period. These projects led to 26,184 new jobs, which is equal to 8.6 per cent of the total job creation for the UK as a whole.