Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-35680

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) support childminders in delivering the 1,140 hours of funded childcare and (b) address the reported decline in the number of childminders.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, and to encourage more childminders to deliver funded early learning and childcare. This includes trials of a mentoring scheme and ‘funded time off the floor’ designed to deliver more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during year 1 (2024-25), and 12 local authorities are currently participating in the retention pilots.

Question reference: S6W-35677

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent evaluation it has carried out of the impact of 1,140 hours of funded childcare on (a) children’s development and (b) parental employment.

Question reference: S6W-35713

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 27 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the impact of funded early learning and childcare on children's (a) development, (b) family wellbeing and (c) parental employment.

As outlined in the Scottish Government’s Evaluation Strategy, published in 2022, we have robust plans in place to evaluate the impact of the ELC expansion to 1140 hours on outcomes for children, parents and families. This includes an economic evaluation that will analyse parental employment outcomes.

We are ensuring that individual components of the evaluation are made available as they are ready and that the learning from these is used to inform policy development and delivery. In August 2024 the Scottish Government drew together existing findings to publish the ELC Expansion to 1140 hours: Interim Evaluation report.

The interim evaluation found promising signs that the expansion is delivering improvements for families across Scotland. For example, in 2022, 88% of parents with a 3 to 5 year old were satisfied with the flexibility they have been offered to use their funded hours in a way that meets their family’s needs.

We expect to publish the Final Evaluation Report on the 1140 ELC expansion in December 2025.

Question reference: S6O-04512

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent engagement it has had with the UK Government regarding how to ensure the protection of Scotch whisky.

Question reference: S6W-35674

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with the UK Government to ensure that reserved policy areas, such as social security and asylum, align with Scotland’s commitments under The Promise.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials regularly meet with counterparts in the UK Government to discuss reserved issues. Senior officials who lead on The Promise have recently engaged with their counterparts in both the UK and devolved governments regarding the Scottish Government’s work to keep the Promise.

I met with Angela Eagle, the UK Government Minister for Border Security and Asylum, on 11 December 2024 to discuss their shared interest in ensuring that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UAS children) are supported. Officials from the Scottish Government are in regular contact with UK Government officials on issues relating to UAS children, and are represented on the steering group of the UK Government’s UAS Children Task force.

While the Scottish Government has limited powers over Universal Credit, we have welcomed the UK Governments plans to carry out a complete review.

For too long Universal Credit has been failing those who need it most and the Scottish Government have repeatedly raised a number of issues which must be addressed, issues like the removal of the young parent penalty for example.

We have made it clear that we would welcome the opportunity to work with the UK Government to make these needed improvements and work towards creating a Social Security system which works for everyone, including our families and carers.

The Scottish Government continues to support access to, and understanding of the benefits provided by Social Security Scotland, and;

continue to support Kinship Care through the Best Start Grant Best Start Foods and Scottish Child Payment
provide continued mentoring, work experience and employment opportunities through the Social Security Corporate Parenting Plan
continue to work with people with care experience to design our services and support access to and understanding of the benefits provided by Social Security Scotland; provide mentoring, work experience and employment opportunities.

Question reference: S6W-35678

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any staffing shortages in the early years sector that may be impacting the delivery of 1,140 hours of funded childcare.

The single most important driver of quality in a child’s Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) experience and improved outcomes is a dedicated, highly skilled, and well-qualified workforce. The ELC profession is therefore critical to the successful delivery of our 1,140 hours offer. We will continue to support a sustainable, diverse and thriving workforce.

Although staffing of funded ELC services is the responsibility of local authorities and their funded partners, in order to support a sustainable ELC workforce, the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with an additional £9.7 million in 2025-26 to increase the pay of ELC workers in the private and third sectors delivering funded hours, so that they are paid at least the Real Living Wage from April. Building on last year’s recurring investment of £16 million, this funding for the further increase to at least £12.60 per hour demonstrates the Scottish Government’s commitment to the Fair Work agenda.

Joint Scottish Government and COSLA guidance, published on 20 February, confirms that the additional funding will be passed to all funded ELC providers (including childminders) in 2025-26 through a minimum 3.75% increase in sustainable rates. This means an average increase of over £1,000 per year in gross salary for the eligible staff who are working full time.

Beyond pay, the Scottish Government is taking forward a range of actions to support the ELC profession. These include investment in continuous professional learning (CPL) resources and a dedicated CPL portal for the childcare profession, providing funding to Skills Development Scotland to support Modern Apprenticeships in childcare, providing funding for 100 childcare professionals to study for Masters qualifications each year and working with Skills Development Scotland to pilot a new programme to improve staff access to paid time off the floor.

Question reference: S6W-36022

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6O-04484

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle long-term economic inactivity in Fife.

Question reference: S6W-35344

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 10 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people on remand and awaiting a court date have been held in prison due to a lack of safe and adequate housing provision in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held centrally. Decisions on whether or not to grant bail are for the independent courts based on the individual facts and circumstances of each case. As set out in the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, in any given case, bail may, subject to very limited exceptions, only be refused where the court determines there is good reason to do so having regard to a list of specific grounds and the wider public interest.

The bail reforms in Part 1 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 will be brought into force on 14 May 2025. This includes a new duty on the court to state the grounds on which it determines that there is good reason for refusing bail in accordance with the new bail test and have those grounds added to the record of proceedings. This will help improve understanding over time regarding the use of remand.

Local authorities are obliged by law to offer advice and assistance to people who are at risk or who are experiencing homelessness, and temporary accommodation if it is needed.

Question reference: S6W-34592

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people from each NHS board area have had a thrombectomy in each month since November 2020, broken down by thrombectomy hub.