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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 136 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-25285

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) three and (b) four-year-olds eligible for the 600 hours of free early education and childcare attend nurseries that are (i) in partnership with the local authority but have no funded places available and (ii) not in partnership with the local authority.

(i) The Scottish Government does not collate or hold data on the amount of eligible three and four-year-old children who attend nurseries that are in partnership with the local authority but have no funded places available.

(ii) The latest published figures as of December 2013 show there were 3,310 eligible three and four-year-olds nationally, who attended nurseries that were not in partnership with the council. However this does not necessarily equate to 3,310 not taking up their funded entitlement. For example this data will not take in to account split placements, whereby children will attend a local authority nursery or a partnership nursery for their funded hours, whilst attending a non-partnership nursery for wraparound hours.

Number of children aged three and four-years-old registered with a nursery in Scotland December 2013; by partnership type:

	Local Authority run services	Private or Voluntary sector services in partnership with a Local Authority	Private or Voluntary sector services not in partnership	Total
Age 3 years	29,580	13,730	1,910	45,220
Age 4 years	41,780	11,990	1,400	55,170
Total	71,360	25,720	3,310	100,390

Please note:

Information relates to services which specified that their main type of service is 'Nursery' in the 2013 Care Inspectorate Annual Return Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10

Source: Care Inspectorate service lists and annual return data

Question reference: S4W-25392

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it plans to invest in broadband each year in Fife.

The Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Programme is a £409 million investment to rollout fibre technology throughout the country. The programme is split between two projects, one covering the Highland area, the second covering the rest of Scotland, of which Fife is included.

The rest of Scotland project is valued at £264 million with:

£157 million from public sources (Scottish Government, European regional development fund, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and all 27 local authorities that form part of the rest of Scotland project area – the European funding will be used to specifically benefit small to medium size enterprises) and £106.7 million from BT.

This money will be spent throughout the whole of the rest of Scotland area. Further to this, Fife Council have chosen to contribute an additional £2.8 million to maximise the rollout in the Fife local authority area increasing coverage from 69% of premises, to over 98%.

Our contract with BT does not specify which technologies or costs will be deployed in particular areas. Instead, it focuses on overall national coverage delivered. We remain on track to have extended fibre broadband access to 85% of premises across Scotland by the end of 2015 and 95% by end of 2017.

Question reference: S4W-25368

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how often it receives updates from the lead contractor regarding progress with the Forth Replacement Crossing project; when the last update was provided, and whether this indicated that there might be (a) a delay in the opening of the crossing and (b) an increase in the cost of the project.

As part of the overall monitoring and management of the Forth Replacement Crossing project and in line with contract requirements, the lead contractor, Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors, provides progress reports to Transport Scotland on a monthly basis. The latest update was provided at the end of March 2015.

The programme continues to show the Queensferry Crossing opening to traffic by the end of 2016, as planned with no increase in project cost from the current range of £1.35 to £1.40 billion.

Question reference: S4W-25190

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect hospitality apprenticeships from the impact of the reduction in Skills Development Scotland’s budget.

Government funding for modern apprenticeships (MA) is a contribution towards the cost of training the apprentice with employers retaining liability for the apprentice’s wages as well as any balance of training costs. Having co-invested in the development of their employees, it is in employers’ best interests to retain apprentices on completion of their training in order to recoup on that investment.

The changes to MA contribution rates are not as a result of any reduction in Skills Development Scotland’s (SDS) budget, but so that contribution rates offered will be fair and reflective of the complexity of the MA framework and the input from the learning provider.

SDS intend to implement revised contribution rates across all MA frameworks, however in recognition of the impact that this would have on the market for training provision, a phased implementation has been developed over a five year period.

Question reference: S4O-04208

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how successful it has been in implementing the extension of 600 hours of free early education to eligible two-year-olds.

Question reference: S4O-04151

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce cancer treatment referral waiting times for NHS Fife patients.

Question reference: S4W-24421

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many consensual stop and searches have been carried out in the Dunfermline area each month, broken down by the (a) age of the person searched, (b) number of times a person has been searched more than once and (c) outcome, including (i) how many subsequent (A) prosecutions and (B) convictions there were and (ii) details of what further action took place.

Question reference: S4W-24205

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 10 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on each of the key findings reported in the second survey of Children in Scotland's Parent Participation Project.

The Scottish Government welcomes the survey undertaken and will consider its findings carefully. We take a human rights based approach in the development of The Getting It Right for Every Child framework that is designed to improve the delivery by all services and agencies working with disabled children and their families of the wellbeing support that they need. We recognise that some disabled children and young people continue to face health and social inequalities and we have developed a number of strategies that call on localities to promote equality and actively involve people in developing the local services that affect them. Besides the participation work we fund that is described in answers to S4W-24201 and 24202 on 10 February 2015, the national strategies the Keys to Life and the Scottish Autism Strategy have strands of work for children and families, for example, the Parent Participation Project, and local work providing sensory/autism play opportunities and family support. National disabilities organisations are also funded to provide information to parent carers and provide signposting to relevant information.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-24202

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 10 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the suggestion in the second survey of Children in Scotland's Parent Participation Project's that disabled children should be asked about their views of the services that support and engage with them.

The Children and Young People’s (Scotland) Act 2014 puts into Scottish law the requirement under the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to seek the views of children in services planning. The Children's Rights and Services Planning Working Group, which includes members from local authorities, NHS boards and the third sector, has a remit to oversee and advise on the national support for the implementation of Part 1 (sections 2 and 3) public authorities duties to report on the UNCRC, and Part 3, children’s services planning duties on behalf of Scottish Ministers. This includes the development of statutory guidance and regulations, and ensuring that appropriate and effective participation and engagement takes place in the preparation for the new duties.

The remit will also include how statutory guidance will reflect the need for children’s services plans to provide for children’s services both universal and targeted (including for disabled children), as well as reflecting Part 3 requirements to provide services in a local area which support wellbeing, prevention and early intervention, are integrated and make the best use of resources.

Question reference: S4W-24204

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 10 February 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a child rights impact assessment should be included in all legislation.

Consistent with ministers’ responsibilities within Part 1 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, once commenced, child impact assessment screening will be undertaken in relation to all proposed new Government legislation and policies. Full child impact assessments will be completed where initial screening indicates any relevant impact on the rights and wellbeing of children in Scotland. A template and supporting guidance, for such assessments is being prepared currently.