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: S5W-21808

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 5 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it collects and records regarding pupils who have been placed on part-time timetables.

Question reference: S5W-21780

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02899 by Michael Matheson on 21 February 2019, when he last met the bus operator, McGills, and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-21275

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes studying in Scotland to prospective students in China.

China continues to be by far the biggest international student market for Scotland's Higher Education sector, with figures published in January 2019 by the Higher Education Statistics Agency showing that China-domiciled student numbers rose again in 2017-18 to 9425 in total, an 11.2% increase on 2016-17 numbers.

The Scottish Government utilises its official online portal Scotland.cn to market Scotland to prospective international students, as well as other groups such as potential investors and tourists. This website is hosted and registered in mainland China, and operates in Mandarin. There are also two social media channels, Weibo and WeChat, that are branded to the major 'Scotland is Now' campaign, and which are operated by staff in the Beijing office, with support from Scottish Government, VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise.

In terms of what relevant content is carried on and via these channels, an example would be the current promotion of the Scotland's Saltire Scholarships to prospective international students currently in China, although to note content on the Scotland.cn website is currently being revised. Applications for this year's 50 scholarships opened in January 2019 and will close at the end of May 2019. These scholarships are worth £8000 towards one year's tuition fees, and are available to Masters level students from China, USA, Canada, India, Pakistan and Japan, who will be studying in Scotland for the first time. More information on the scholarships is available via the following link: https://www.scotland.org/study/saltire-scholarships .

A 2018 collaborative exercise funded by Scottish Government and in partnership with the Scottish university and college sector resulted in the creation of a specific Scotland is Now branded 'Study film', a version of which has been produced with Mandarin subtitles. This film is a free resource for all institutions to use in their own individual recruitment, outreach and marketing activity in China. It is supported by the overarching Scotland is Now film, available subtitled in Mandarin, and a short 'People film', also subtitled in Mandarin. You can find all these resources via the following link: https://assets.scotlandisnow.com/assets?tags=Study,Video .

The Scottish Government also contributes funding to the British Council's 'Generation UK China' and 'International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE)' programme, funding up to 30 internships in China and a futher 90 across the world including China. Scottish domiciled students who participate in these schemes are carefully selected, including on the basis that they are effectively acting as ambassadors for and promoters of Scotland, whilst they are working abroad.

Question reference: S5O-02899

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the transport secretary last met bus operators that serve Renfrewshire.

Question reference: S5W-21251

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 7 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that there is compliance with the recommendations made by the Council of Europe in April 2018 regarding the children of prisoners, and what steps it is taking to address non-compliance.

The Council of Europe's non-binding guidelines provide an important framework and context within which to support the well-being of children who have a parent in custody and the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to tackling any adversity that might impact on the healthy development and wellbeing of children and young people. The Scottish Government committed in its 2018-19 Programme for Government to enhance support for children affected by parental imprisonment as part of our work around tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences. Scottish Ministers also announced through the Programme for Government 2018-2019 their commitment to incorporating the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into domestic law. We plan to carry out a period of consultation and engagement on the best way to incorporate the principles, in 2019.

Question reference: S5F-03056

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 February 2019

To ask the First Minister, in light of it being Children’s Mental Health Week, what action the Scottish Government is taking to increase the provision of mental health support for young people.

Question reference: S5O-02851

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be of the college capital spending plans in the draft Budget.

Question reference: S5W-20952

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports outdoor learning in early years.

The expansion of funded hours for early learning and childcare (ELC) provides a unique opportunity to enrich the experience we offer children in their early years. The Scottish Government recognises the benefits of outdoor learning, exercise and play for young children in terms of their health, wellbeing and their physical and cognitive development. To this end, we have funded Inspiring Scotland £862,000 to support eight local authorities to develop and increase access to the outdoors as a focus for the expansion.

In December 2018 we published Out to Play providing practical guidance to ELC providers on how to access local outdoor space and how to set up an outdoor nursery experience.

Our National Standard for ELC providers, published in December 2018, requires that any provider delivering the funded ELC entitlement must provide daily access to outdoor play for children in their care and ensure that children regularly experience outdoor play in a natural environment as part of their funded ELC offer.

Question reference: S5W-20954

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the health and safety of (a) children and (b) staff taking part in outdoor learning in early years.

It is the responsibility of a provider to make the proper provision for the health and safety of both children and staff.

The Care Inspectorate supports care service providers taking a positive approach to risk in order to achieve the best outcomes for children, both indoors and outdoors. This means moving away from a traditional deficit model that takes a risk-averse approach, which can unnecessarily restrict children’s experiences attending registered services, to a more holistic risk-benefit model.

Question reference: S5W-20953

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has held with the (a) Scottish Social Services Council, (b) Care Inspectorate and (c) National Day Nurseries Association Scotland regarding the promotion of outdoor learning in early years.

Scottish Government has engaged with a wide range of organisations across the early learning and childcare sector in relation to promotion of outdoor learning. This has taken place in particular during our national learning events.

SSSC, Care Inspectorate and NDNA were all actively involved in developing our Early learning and Childcare Quality Action Plan which was published in October 2017 and highlighted the importance of outdoor learning, including an action to publish practical guidance on accessing the outdoors as part of the early learning and childcare expansion. The Care Inspectorate jointly published this guidance, Out to Play, alongside Scottish Government and Inspiring Scotland in December 2018.

All three organisations have committed to work together to embed playing and learning outdoors as an everyday activity and as a fundamental part of growing up in Scotland by becoming signatories to Scotland’s Outdoor Play & Learning Coalition Position Statement.