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-08050

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 29 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07503 by Michael Russell on 7 March 2017, what correspondence it has had with the (a) European Free Trade Association (EFTA), (b) Faroese Government and (c) Danish Government regarding (i) the possibility of and (ii) possible routes to Scotland joining the association.

Question reference: S5W-07946

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 24 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the study, Drivers and Barriers to uptake Early Learning and Childcare amongst 2 year olds, whether it will work with the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC to allow data on eligibility for free early learning and childcare to be shared with local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-07311

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02743 by Mark McDonald on 4 October 2016, whether it will provide an update on pilot schemes for childcare, including (a) how they will operate, (b) what the budget of each will be, (c) when they will run and (d) how many families will be involved.

Question reference: S5W-07945

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the study, Drivers and Barriers to uptake Early Learning and Childcare amongst 2 year olds, how it will improve the way in which uptake data is captured, and when this new data will be available.

Current uptake calculations are based on the number of registrations for funded early learning and childcare, as collected from settings and agreed with each local authority. We are aware that improvements are needed to the data collection for this sector, and are planning on moving to an individual child level census, using data held by local authorities. By changing to a more detailed data collection, we will be able to resolve issues such as the double counting of children with split placements and reporting of cross boundary placements as we will have the necessary detail to address this issues. Uptake figures based on this more comprehensive data should be available in summer 2019.

Question reference: S5W-07943

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on advertising free early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds in each of the last five years, broken down by spending on (a) research, insight-gathering and audience-testing, (b) creative development and production, (c) media buying, (d) website design, construction and management, (e) public relations, (f) field activity and partnerships and (g) evaluation.

The Scottish Government publishes annual total marketing spend, broken down by services provided by the Marketing Services Framework.

The spend on each of its advertising campaigns in each of the last five years, including campaigns to promote the extension to free Early Learning and Childcare entitlement, can be found via the following links:

2011-12: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2011-2012spend2012?refresh=0.3206473765435549

2012-13: http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/publicinfosocialadspend-2012-13

2013-14: http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2013-2014

2014-15: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2014-2015

2015-16: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016

Question reference: S5W-07992

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) modern, (b) foundation and (c) apprenticeship targets will be for (i) 2016-17, (ii) 2017-18, (iii) 2018-19, (iv) 2019-20 and (v) 2020-21.

The MA target for 2016-17 is outlined in the Skills Development Scotland Letter of Guidance 2016-17 as 26,000 starts https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/41986/letter-of-guidance-2016-17-final-web-publication-version.pdf .

The target for 2017-18 is 27,000 and includes higher level MAs at levels 4 and 5 and Graduate Level Apprenticeships.

The ambition is for the delivery of 30,000 apprentice starts including higher Graduate Level Apprenticeships, by 2020.

In August 2016, 351 young people had started a Foundation Apprenticeship and from August 2017 the number of places available will increase to 1,900. By the end of 2019, up to 5,000 Foundation Apprenticeship places will be available for young people.

Further Apprenticeships targets will be subject to Scottish Government annual spending reviews.

Question reference: S5W-07944

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on each of its advertising campaigns in each of the last five years, broken down by spending on (a) research, insight-gathering and audience-testing, (b) creative development and production, (c) media buying, (d) website design, construction and management, (e) public relations, (f) field activity and partnerships and (g) evaluation.

The Scottish Government publishes annual total marketing spend, broken down by services provided by the Marketing Services Framework.

The spend on each of its advertising campaigns in each of the last five years is found in the following links:

2011-12:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2011-2012spend2012?refresh=0.3206473765435549

2012-13:http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/publicinfosocialadspend-2012-13

2013-14:http://www.gov.scot/About/People/Directorates/Communications/advertising-marketing/spend/2013-2014

2014-15:https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2014-2015

2015-16:https://beta.gov.scot/publications/advertising-spend-2015-2016

Question reference: S5W-07994

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the number of apprenticeships are on course to meet the annual target of 26,000 for 2016-17.

Question reference: S5W-07993

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the modern apprenticeship target of 30,000 starts will be for 2019-20 or 2020-21.

Question reference: S5W-07307

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 17 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02741 by Mark McDonald on 30 September 2016, whether it will provide (a) a timetable of the steps being taken toward providing 1,140 hours of free childcare, and (b) an update of progress made.