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-12528

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to introduce a nationally-set rate for day nursery provision.

Under the new Funding Follows the Child model, to be implemented from 2020, local authorities will continue to negotiate and agree rates locally with providers in the private and third sectors who want to deliver the funded entitlement and who meet the national standard. Funding rates will have to reflect national policy priorities, including payment of the Living Wage, and ensure financially sustainable provision across all sectors.

Question reference: S5W-12522

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many nursery places it expects there to be in each local authority by 2021.

Under our new Funding Follows the Child approach, local authorities will retain the statutory responsibility for ensuring that funded early learning and childcare entitlement is available to all eligible children in their areas. We are working closely with authorities to ensure that there are sufficient places available, across settings in all sectors, to deliver entitlement to 1140 hours of early learning and childcare from August 2020.

Question reference: S5W-12526

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of capital spending on new nursery provision in each of the last five years went to (a) private and (b) voluntary organisations.

In September 2016, the Scottish Government published “The Financial Review of early learning and childcare in Scotland: the current landscape” (http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00506148.pdf ). This shows (page 53) that over the financial years 2014-15 to 2016-17 the Scottish Government has provided £170 million capital funding to local authorities to support implementation of the early learning and childcare elements of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 expenditure. A further £30 million of capital funding was provided to local authorities in 2017-18. It is for each local authority to decide how it will utilise these funds.

Question reference: S5W-12523

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of where it expects the 11,000 additional early learning and childcare workers will be required.

The distribution of these additional workers across local authorities will reflect local plans for implementing the expanded entitlement. Local authorities have recently submitted ELC Expansion Plans, which provide initial estimates of the workforce required in each area. The Scottish Government’s multi-disciplinary delivery support team, co-designed with local authorities, is currently discussing these plans with local authorities. Those discussions, identifying good practice as well as areas for improvement, will inform individual feedback to authorities as well as a national learning report, to be published later in the year.

Question reference: S5W-12525

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of capital spending on nursery provision in each of the last five years.

Information on local authority pre-primary education capital expenditure is provided to Scottish Government by local authorities. This includes, but is not limited to, nursery provision. The most up to date data is for 2015-16 and is shown in the following table.

Local authority capital expenditure: Pre-primary Education, £ million

2011-12	£5.7
2012-13	£4.9
2013-14	£3.9
2014-15	£16.9
2015-16	£75.8

Source: Local Authority Capital Returns CR Final

Question reference: S5W-12536

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many teachers undertook General Teaching Council for Scotland-accredited into headship training in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

The information is given in the following table. It shows by local authority the number of teachers who started the Into Headship programme for aspiring headteachers. Cohorts start in May/June each year. The qualification is aimed at those teachers whose next post will be that of a head teacher, likely to be within two to three years.

Local Authority	Cohort 1 2015	Cohort 2 2016	Cohort 3 2017
Aberdeen City	7	4	3
Aberdeenshire	5	9	9
Angus	6	10	3
Argyll & Bute	6	13	8
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0	2	2
Clackmannanshire	1	1	1
Dumfries and Galloway	2	4	9
Dundee	4	6	5
East Ayrshire	4	3	6
East Dunbartonshire	7	5	2
Edinburgh	11	6	9
East Lothian	3	4	3
East Renfrewshire	4	5	2
Falkirk	3	5	8
Fife	7	7	12
Glasgow	12	7	16
Highland	10	6	4
Inverclyde	2	2	2
Midlothian	2	3	3
Moray	4	3	7
North Ayrshire	1	4	2
North Lanarkshire	5	7	8
Orkney	3	5	1
Perth & Kinross	5	6	5
Renfrewshire	3	5	8
Scottish Borders	1	10	8
Shetland Islands	4	4	2
South Ayrshire	2	6	2
South Lanarkshire	7	5	13
Stirling	1	7	2
West Dunbartonshire	4	7	1
West Lothian	5	7	10
INDEPENDENT	1	5	3
Total	142	183	179

Question reference: S5W-12543

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many individual cases regarding inadequate broadband provision has it been made aware of.

All correspondence received by the Scottish Government, addressed to Ministers, is processed via the Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence System (MACCS). MACCS records the type of response required, and directs responses to the relevant team within SG to answer. MACCS has limited functionality as a management information tool; therefore we are unable to provide detailed information on subjects raised by correspondents.

Question reference: S5W-12546

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to further simplifying planning processes for additional residential properties as part of existing rural settlements.

As part of the Planning Review, we established a pilot programme of Simplified Planning Zones, funding 3 housing pilot projects which will support innovative housing delivery, including self and custom build. The pilots include projects on an island context, and in rural locations, including looking at how a plot passport approach can simplify planning for those wanting to build a new home in rural areas.

Question reference: S5W-12538

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which ministers have met Dumfries and Galloway Council in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S5W-12456

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consultation was carried out before spending funds in Dumfries and Galloway on dual language logos for police vehicles.