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: S5O-00174

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what impact changes to the structure of NHS boards will have on the recruitment of GPs.

Question reference: S5W-02153

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings in the Audit Scotland report, Scotland's colleges 2016, whether it will conduct an assessment of the impact that its college reform policies have had on women and over-25s who have been mostly affected by these.

Learners over 25 years old are well represented in our colleges. In 2014-15, 27% of all learning hours were delivered to such learners, representing an investment of £104 million. Moreover, full-time students aged 25 and over at colleges have increased by 31% since 2006-07.

The Audit Scotland report highlights that gender balance is broadly equal, with women accounting for the majority of the college population – 52% in 2014-15. The Scottish Funding Council continues to monitor gender imbalance on college courses as part of its Gender Action Plan published on 12 August 2016.

Question reference: S5W-02152

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings in the Audit Scotland report, Scotland's colleges 2016, whether it will conduct an assessment into college reform impacts on student populations to take account of the 48% reduction in the number of part-time students at colleges.

Over the last Parliament, we maintained 116,000 Full-time Equivalent college places. We shall continue this commitment, focused on purposeful, job-focused learning. We shall also continue to support a range of part-time and full-time provision: short courses leading to progression remain available, and the number of part-time college enrolments in Higher Education and further education has remained stable since 2012-13.

Question reference: S5W-01992

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on what date Scottish agriculture producers will receive a communication detailing their final 2015 Basic Payment Scheme details including eligible field parcels, and whether there will be an appeal mechanism available to producers on the contents of this letter and the length of that appeal period.

The Scottish Government issued letters to all Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claimants in Scotland detailing their initial allocation of BPS entitlements. All claimants can view their definitive BPS entitlements by Payment Region on the Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID), Rural Payments and Services website. For those who are not registered with the Rural Payments and Services online, arrangements can be made to book an appointment at the local Area office to assist with the registration and login process.

All Scottish BPS claimants will be sent a letter with the details of the BPS payment they have received. BPS claimants who have incurred penalties will also receive a reductions and exclusions letter detailing the ineligible areas they claimed and the penalty calculation. Any penalty that has been incurred can be appealed under RPID’s EU Rural Payments Appeals procedure. To do this the claimant must submit a written request to RPID which must be received by them within 60 days from the date of the reductions and exclusions letter.

Question reference: S5W-02345

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase funding to the Scottish Funding Council.

Question reference: S5W-02348

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with universities to widen access to higher education for those in the bottom 40% of the Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation.

Ministers and officials engage regularly with the university sector on widening access to higher education for students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the summer we have had a number of positive discussions with both principals and Universities Scotland regarding implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access. We look forward to continuing this dialogue as we appoint a Commissioner for Fair Access and work together to develop detailed implementation plans.

Question reference: S5W-02347

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to implement the recommendations in the final report of the Commission on Widening Access.

We immediately accepted the Commission’s proposed targets and are working closely with the Scottish Funding Council on how wider progress can be driven through outcome agreements with higher education institutions. Officials are also liaising with SAAS on the system changes necessary to ensure those with a care experience can access full bursaries from 2017-18 onwards.

Responsibility for implementing the Commission's 34 recommendations is distributed across a number of sectors and organisations. Over the summer officials have engaged closely with key partners to ensure that work on implementation is progressing and that plans are being coordinated across the system.

Our current priority is the appointment of a new Commissioner for Fair Access who will scrutinise progress and provide strategic leadership, ensuring that implementation is coherent and systemic. We expect that detailed implementation plans will be finalised once all delivery partners have had an opportunity to discuss these with the new Commissioner.

Question reference: S5W-02357

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation by Audit Scotland in its report Scotland's colleges 2016, whether it and the Scottish Funding Council will publish information on the (a) costs that were incurred and (b) savings achieved through the college merger process.

Question reference: S5W-02356

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation by Audit Scotland in its report Scotland's colleges 2016, whether it and the Scottish Funding Council will announce how they will measure and publicly report progress in delivering all of the benefits that were expected from college regionalisation and mergers.

The Scottish Funding Council’s overarching report ‘Impact & Success of Programme of College Mergers in Scotland’ was published on 22 August 2016. It evaluates the impact of mergers and their success in delivering intended benefits and outcomes. It further concluded that the strategic outcomes of mergers, and the key benefits for students and stakeholders have been, or are in the process of being, achieved.

Question reference: S5W-01978

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 13 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that its current approach to funding and support to local authorities is sufficient to maintain its commitment to improving and increasing high quality, flexible early learning and childcare for free and has no negative impact on this pledge.

Recent engagement with local authorities indicates that the majority have already increased flexibility, including full days and year round provision. There is a therefore a significant shift in the range of choice and flexible models that parents now have access to.

The Scottish Government is fully funding this expansion to 600 hours of early learning and childcare. We have already provided an additional £500 million in revenue and capital funding since 2014 and revenue funding is set to increase year on year until 2019-20 to support increasing flexibility of provision. We have also committed to fully funding the expansion to 1140 hours by the end of this parliament.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a financial review to better understand early learning and childcare finance and expenditure, which will inform our estimates of the costs of delivering this expansion. The review will be published in September.