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: S5O-02490

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the estimates for social security spending in the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s May 2018 economic and fiscal forecasts.

Question reference: S5O-02454

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported warnings from nursery providers that its planned expansion of childcare to 1,140 hours by 2020 is "about to implode".

Question reference: S5O-02419

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how the planned increase of childcare provision to 1,140 hours is progressing.

Question reference: S5W-17240

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 27 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5T-01141 by Maree Todd on 12 June 2018 (Official Report, c. 4), and in light of the comment by Audit Scotland in its report, Early learning and childcare, which was published in February 2018, that it had "failed to set out clearly the improved outcomes for children and parents that the expansion to 600 hours was designed to achieve, and how it would assess the impact of the additional investment. It did not identify what measures would indicate success or ensure baseline data was available", whether it can confirm what action has been taken in response to these concerns, including putting in place a new baseline set of data.

The Scottish Government has drawn upon independent advice (published here: http://www.healthscotland.scot/publications/evaluability-assessment-of-the-expansion-of-early-learning-and-childcare ) to develop our long term monitoring and evaluation strategy. The first part of the evaluation was published in December 2017 ( http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/5250 ) and set out a number of baseline indicators on quality, flexibility, accessibility and affordability. We will continue to use and refine these indicators as the expansion programme progresses.

We have been working with a variety of experts from a range of organisations to advise on more detailed baseline measures and appropriate methodologies for capturing this information. This data collection will begin in the 2018-19 school year and will include measures of the child’s cognitive development as well as social, emotional and behavioural development. Parent outcomes will include parental health and wellbeing and uptake of work, training or study.

Question reference: S5W-17126

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 June 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met each local authority to discuss future funding for (a) nursery places and (b) child care provision.

The Scottish Government has met, and will continue to meet, regularly with local authorities to discuss the delivery of the Early Learning and Childcare entitlement. These meetings can be through a number of routes, including one-to-one meetings or through engagement and working groups whose membership includes Scottish Government and local authorities.

The Scottish Government’s Early Learning and Childcare Delivery Support Team has been in regular contact with all councils to discuss the development of their Early Learning and Childcare expansion plans. This includes discussions relating to the approach adopted, estimated costs and the allocation of both capital and revenue funding. Over the last year the Delivery Support team has had a number of collaborative workshops and 1-2-1 meetings both to inform the development of future models of delivery and associated cost estimates.

In confirming the multi-year funding agreement local authorities were also offered the on-going support of the ELC Delivery Team to support the refinement of their plans following this funding confirmation.

The Director for Early Learning and Childcare has also held individual meetings with the majority of local authorities over the last 18 months.

The dates of the most recent meetings with individual authorities are set out in Table 1.

Table 1 : Summary of Latest Meetings with Individual Local Authorities

Local Authority	Date
Aberdeen City Council	13-02-2018
Aberdeenshire	22-02-2018
Angus Council	22-02-2018
Argyll & Bute Council	26-02-2018
Clackmannanshire Council	21-02-2018
Dumfries & Galloway Council	12-02-2018
Dundee City Council	16-02-2018
East Ayrshire Council	09-02-2018
East Dunbartonshire Council	28-02-2018
East Lothian Council	22-02-2018
East Renfrewshire Council	26-02-2018
Edinburgh Council	14-02-2018
Eilean Siar	01-03-2018
Falkirk Council	27-02-2018
Fife Council	13-02-2018
Glasgow City Council	16-03-2018
Highland Council	21-02-2018
Inverclyde Council	12-02-2018
Midlothian Council	14-02-2018
Moray Council	20-02-2018
North Ayrshire Council	06-06-2018
North Lanarkshire Council	28-02-2018
Orkney Islands Council	28-02-2018
Perth & Kinross Council	27-02-2018
Renfrewshire Council	23-02-2018
Scottish Borders Council	21-02-2018
Shetland Islands Council	01-03-2018
South Ayrshire Council	16-02-2018
South Lanarkshire Council	16-05-2018
Stirling	28-02-2018
West Dunbartonshire Council	16-02-2018
West Lothian Council	26-02-2018

The Scottish Government also meets regularly with Local Authorities through involvement in a number of groups, in particular the ELC Leaders Forum, the ELC Finance Working Group and the ADES (Association of Directors of Education in Scotland) Early Years Network.

Table 2: Last Meetings of Early Learning and Childcare Groups

Group	Date of last meeting:
ELC Leaders Forum	31-05-2018
ELC Finance Working Group	13-06-2018
ADES Early Years Network	08-06-2018

Question reference: S5W-15482

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what impact it considers the suspension of lift bridges across canals in the Central Scotland region during summer 2018 will have on the area's tourist industry.

Question reference: S5W-15481

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent stagnant water gathering at the closed canals of Bonnybridge and Tewchar, in light of reported local concerns regarding the harmful effects of stagnant water on people and the local eco-system.

The Scottish Government is in regular communication with Scottish Canals on the actions which they are taking to address the temporary suspension of some services on the Forth and Clyde Canal. They note that the water management of the canal is not affected by the temporary suspension of Bonnybridge and Twechar lift bridges and therefore there will be no harmful effects to the water quality or the local ecosystem.

Question reference: S5W-15487

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that, as a result of stagnating water, boats are unable to sift the water due to the bridge closures at Bonnybridge and Twecher, what contingency plans there are for clearing and cleaning the canal waterway.

Question reference: S5W-15551

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the redevelopment work at Glasgow Queen Street station.

Question reference: S5W-15485

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason sub-contractor costs reportedly account for over 25% of Scottish Canals' total expenditure between April 2016 and March 2017, and what its position is on Scottish Canals using its own staff to carry out maintenance and repairs.