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 1329 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-26534

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 9 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help bring woodlands back into favourable condition for biodiversity, including by reducing levels of invasive non-native species.

Action to bring woodlands into favourable condition for biodiversity is being taken on a number of fronts, in particular to address the key drivers of unfavourable condition which are inappropriate grazing and invasive species, principally Rhododendron .

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and Scottish Forestry (formerly Forestry Commission Scotland) have worked together for many years to improve the condition of primarily designated woodlands, principally through grants to land managers. In recent years the budgets available for these grants have been fully spent or oversubscribed.

A significant proportion of woodlands that have been assessed as favourable have deer fencing to limit the damage from herbivore impacts. In 2017, Scottish Forestry (SF) published the National Approach to Controlling Rhododendron. This focuses Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) grant support to tackling priority habitats that will benefit most from the long term control of rhododendron.

A number of grants are available from SF to support bringing woodlands into favourable condition, including livestock exclusion, controlling invasive non-native species and deer management. Between April 2015 and October 2019, SF has provided more than £27,950,000 in SRDP grant support for this work which includes grant support of £1,851,591 for rhododendron control projects between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2019. The majority of this is targeted at improving condition in designated woodlands.

Native woodlands within the national forest estate are directly managed by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) to maintain and improve their condition; SNH does the same on the small number of woodlands on SNH land. FLS has undertaken initial control to tackle rhododendron on over 51% of the gross area of the national forest estate where it has been recorded. Work will continue to monitor and apply follow-up treatments on the areas treated.

SNH has also offered funding through management agreements and it has coordinated voluntary action under the Deer Act to set up agreements with land managers to coordinate action to improve habitats, including woodland.

All of this is supported by advice and guidance for land managers provided in various forms by SF and SNH, as well as by the National Park Authorities and NGOs such as the Woodland Trust.

Question reference: S5O-03883

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing concerns that delays in redeveloping parts of the prison estate are presenting significant risks.

Question reference: S5O-03869

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action ScotRail is taking to prepare for the festive season.

Question reference: S5W-26323

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate have completed work on their single shared inspection model for early learning and childcare and, if not, when it will be completed.

Education Scotland, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government have agreed to defer further development of a single shared inspection model for early learning and childcare (ELC) until after the expansion of funded ELC has been fully implemented.

Until then, both the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland will continue to work together to strengthen working relationships and arrangements, including ensuring (wherever practicable) that settings receive one inspection during a cycle. They will also further strengthen their model for shared inspections by continuing to work closely together to ensure their shared planning approaches reduce any additional scrutiny on services.

Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate issued a joint statement to the ELC sector to this effect on 10 September 2019.

Question reference: S5W-26304

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many active child daycare centres have been built in each year since 2009, also broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on this prior to August 2017. Scottish Futures Trust has been collecting data on this since the aforementioned date and this information is provided in the answer to S5W-26303 on 21 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-26319

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional childcare staff and workers have been recruited in each local authority since March 2018.

The Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Delivery Progress Report published by the Improvement Service in September 2019 reported that 4,069 full time equivalent additional staff were in place in local authorities across Scotland as at August 2019. The full report is available at: http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/documents/ELC/elc-delivery-progress-report-september-2019.pdf .

The Scottish Government has no plans to release local authority level data. Local authorities provide this data in confidence, for the purposes of informing targeted support; programme assurance at a national level; and the routine publication of national level data.

Question reference: S5W-26303

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurseries in each local authority area have been (a) built, (b) expanded and (c) refurbished since August 2017, and how many will be (d) built, (e) expanded and (f) refurbished by the end of the current parliamentary session.

Scottish Futures Trust has been tracking progress since August 2017. The following table provides details of projects completed as of November 2019, in relation to how many nurseries and other early learning and childcare facilities have been built, expanded or refurbished. It is important to note that these figures only reflect projects that are being funded through the Early Learning and Childcare Expansion Programme. Local authorities may also be building nurseries outside of the funded Programme during the specified timeframes.

	Refurbishments Nov 2019 (Complete)	Extensions Nov 2019 (Complete)	New Builds Nov 2019 (Complete)
Aberdeen City	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	13	0	0
Angus	7	0	0
Argyll & Bute	11	1	0
Clackmannanshire	2	0	2
Dumfries & Galloway	5	1	0
Dundee	3	1	0
East Ayrshire	9	0	1
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	1
East Lothian	7	0	1
East Renfrewshire	1	1	1
Edinburgh	5	0	0
Eilean Siar	0	2	0
Falkirk	20	4	0
Fife	10	2	1
Glasgow	15	0	0
Highland	20	1	1
Inverclyde	4	0	1
Midlothian	11	0	1
Moray	1	0	0
North Ayrshire	9	4	0
North Lanarkshire	3	0	0
Orkney	7	0	0
Perth and Kinross	2	0	3
Renfrewshire	6	0	2
Scottish Borders	6	1	0
Shetland	7	2	0
South Ayrshire	4	1	1
South Lanarkshire	9	1	0
Stirling	15	2	0
West Dunbartonshire	10	0	0
West Lothian	9	1	1
Scotland	231	25	17

Nationally, there are 587 refurbishments, 132 extensions, and 163 new-builds projected to be completed to support the expansion. The Scottish Government has no plans to release local authority level capital projections. Local authorities provide this data in confidence, for the purposes of informing targeted support and programme assurance at a national level; and the routine publication of national level data.

Question reference: S5W-26218

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff in the last six months have worked in its (a) Brexit and (b) constitutional affairs policy area, broken down by how many were (i) transferred from its other policy fields, (ii) seconded from its agencies and national public bodies and (iii) hired from external sources.

Work on EU Exit permeates the majority of directorates across Scottish Government. Officials undertake this work as part of their normal duties. We collect snapshot information as part of our wider workforce planning processes but do not centrally record numbers for those moving on or off EU Exit related work. The last collection of management information showed that around 500 full time equivalent staff were engaged in EU exit-related work across Scottish Government in March 2019. This is the latest collated figure.

Within the Constitution and Cabinet Directorate, the Constitutional and UK Relations Division manages the development and implementation of policy on constitutional matters, including relations between the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the other devolved administrations, Scottish Government engagement with the British-Irish Council, the development of Common Frameworks and EU Exit legislation. Other parts of the Directorate are concerned with elections, the current Referendums Bill, co-ordination of the legislative programme, support for Cabinet and a range of other issues including Freedom of Information.

The data for the Constitutional and UK Relations Division is in the following table:

30 April Full time equivalent	External recruits	Moves from SG Agency	31 October Full time equivalent

17	5	2	22

*Note: we do not separately hold information on recruitment from public bodies. Any such movement would be included in the external recruitment figure above.

** Note: there is considerable and regular movement between all directorates of the Scottish Government, creating opportunities for officials to backfill roles vacated. The Constitutional and UK Relations Division has therefore seen movement both into and out with the unit over the last six months.

Question reference: S5W-26186

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what recent meetings Transport Scotland has had with Highways England to discuss signage to help improve cross-border tourism.

Question reference: S5W-26174

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with other parties wishing to commission vessels for construction at Ferguson Marine shipyard.