Chamber and committees

The station proposal is a developer led proposal with planning permission in principle granted by the Planning Authority, in this case West Lothian Council. It is for Winchburgh Developments Limited to progress the above items.

Transport Scotland, utilising its considerable experience of rail infrastructure construction, is currently supporting West Lothian Council and Winchburgh Developments Limited as they look towards identifying a lead promoter, or promoters, and the development of both the station design and business case process.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the Orkney Ferry Replacement Task Force, which is supporting the Council address its fleet replacement challenges.

Scotland is the only part of the UK that already offers 30 hours per week, in term time, of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds regardless of whether their parents are working or not. We also make 1140 hours available to around a quarter of 2 year olds and to all children whose entry to primary school is deferred.

It is far from clear that a universal system of government funded childcare would deliver either value for money for the Scottish taxpayer or the best outcomes for our children and young people.

Before turning to the detail, I think it is important to recognise the financial context that the Scottish Government is currently having to work within. As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance outlined in the fiscal statement on 3 September, we cannot shy away from the fact that Scotland continues to face one of the most difficult public spending environments that this devolved Parliament has ever seen.

That is why we have committed in this year’s Programme for Government to work with local authorities to maximise uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds, with a particular focus on families most at risk of poverty and areas with some of the lowest uptake rates.

Over the next two years we are also investing £16 million within six early adopter communities to continue our work to understand what it takes to design and deliver local childcare systems that support those families most at risk of living in poverty.

The engagement and targeted delivery that takes place for younger children in our six EACs will be a key element of our developing evidence base to inform future delivery.

We are continuing to support the ‘Extra Time’ Programme, investing £4 million in a partnership with the Scottish Football Association to deliver before, after school and breakfast clubs, providing 3,000 targeted free places each week for children and their families. We have also invested close to £1 million to deliver free or subsidised school age childcare services through our Access to Childcare projects. These projects consider specific challenges for families, including remote and rural childcare provision, and specialist provision for children with disabilities or complex additional support needs.

We remain committed to expanding funded ELC to reach more young children and to building a system of School Age Childcare, and we are going as far and as fast as budgets allow to deliver that.

There are no Scottish Government vehicles purchased through loan or credit agreements.

The Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland series now includes attendance on an annual basis. Headline statistics on school attendance for the 2023-24 school year will be published in December 2024. Detailed statistics on school attendance, including a measure of pupils with an absence rate of 50% or more, will be published in March 2025.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-03714 on 12 September 2024. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website Meeting of the Parliament: 12/09/2024 | Scottish Parliament Website.

The two schemes are not related.

The decision by the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity to progress the Levenmouth Rail Link was based on the findings of the Levenmouth Sustainable Transport Study.

The study was undertaken in line with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and provided robust evidence of a Strategic Business Case (SBC) for the Rail Link. The SBC provided the initial stage of the business case for the Rail Link in accordance with Transport Scotland's guidance on the development of business cases, which then progressed through the subsequent stages of the business case process.

The Winchburgh station proposal is developer led. It is for Winchburgh Developments Limited to progress the required business case.

Allowing sufficient time to support the meaningful engagement and participation of those the Strategy will affect, including robust analysis of their views, and ensuring that it can be published alongside a range of accessible formats to meet the needs of those it aims to support has remained of central importance to the Scottish Government throughout the Strategy’s development.

This was reiterated during a recent meeting of the External Strategic Working Group who reviewed the aim of publishing the Strategy by the end of 2024 and concluded that publication in Spring 2025 presents a more favourable timeline to achieving this.

Deployment of vessels is an operational matter for CalMac, who are looking again at options for the Winter timetabling light of current challenges with the ferry fleet.

Our updated Vessels and Ports Plan, published 1 February 2024, confirms that a “resilience vessel” will be retained in the CalMac major vessel fleet to cover planned and unplanned outages.