Question reference: S5W-20617
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 13 December 2018
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Current status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 February 2019
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of 150 jobs being at risk at Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd in Shotts, what action (a) it and (b) its agencies will take to protect these, and whether it will carry out an urgent review of the (i) reasons for the business being in this position and (ii) impact on the business of actions by the UK Environment Agency and Cabinet Office, SEPA and other government agencies.
Answer
Scottish Government officials offered support for employees of Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd (HES) as early as November 2018 through our PACE initiative. This offer of support was not accepted by the company until 27 December 2018 when HES made employees redundant. HES then agreed to a PACE event being organised for those employees. We asked HES if they would assist us to contact their employees but received no response. PACE Partners attended events on 3 and 4 January 2019 in Shotts where they saw 125 employees. On 10 January 2019 support was also offered to Dundee based employees where PACE Partners saw 6 employees.
There are many significant issues faced by the company, including a possible criminal investigation instigated by the Environmental Agency. It would therefore not be appropriate to undertake any form of review at this time.