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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

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Question reference: S5W-27607

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to introduce a maximum class size in early learning and childcare settings to help ensure a quality service.

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a maximum class size in early learning and childcare (ELC) or to introduce a cap either on how many children can be registered with an ELC setting or how many children can be accommodated at the same time within the setting.

When assessing applications to register as an ELC setting or to varying an existing registration, the Care Inspectorate assess each application to ensure that the setting will support positive outcomes for children. This may result in limitations on the numbers of children in certain settings.

The Care Inspectorate also issues guidance on adult: child ratios in ELC. These can be found here .

In their regular inspections, the Care Inspectorate will consider how well the deployment of staff takes account of the skills mix of staff, the complexity of individual children’s needs, service routines and the activities of the day to ensure that children’s needs are fully met. The number of children attending a setting, along with other considerations, would influence these evaluations if it was having an impact on the overall quality of outcomes for children.

Our National Standard for ELC Providers, which comes into effect from August, requires settings that are delivering the funded hours to achieve Care Inspectorate evaluations of ‘good’ or better on all four quality themes, including the quality of the environment and the quality of care and support that children receive.

Question reference: S5W-27608

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring of early learning and childcare class sizes it currently conducts, and whether this information will be published.

The Scottish Government does not monitor class size in early learning and childcare (ELC) settings.

However, we do monitor the proportion of ELC settings achieving ‘good’ or better Care Inspectorate evaluations on all four inspection themes (which include the quality of the environment and the quality of care and support that children receive.)

This data is published annually in Early Learning and Childcare Statistics. The most recent data can be found here .

Question reference: S5W-27606

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many families will no longer receive the Scottish Child Payment once their child turns six.

The Scottish Government is serious about tackling child poverty. That is why we are introducing our “game-changing” new Scottish Child Payment two years ahead of the timetable outlined in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for children under 6 years old. These payments are being made in recognition that of all children living in poverty, almost 60% are in a household where the youngest child is under 6.

This is benefit delivery at an unprecedented speed and in order to allow us to deliver earlier than planned, we have had to work within certain technical parameters. We have been open with stakeholders throughout the development of the payment about the complexities involved.

We estimate that around 40,000 families will have children that will age out of eligibility for the payment, between early introduction and full roll-out in 2022. This is because we do not have the data for over 6s from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which would allow us to continue making payments. The DWP has confirmed that the required data will not be delivered in time for the launch of the Scottish Child Payment later this year, and we are waiting for confirmation of when this data will be made available.

Question reference: S5O-04249

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding its EU negotiations on aquaculture.

Question reference: S5T-02059

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 March 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether all aspects of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare will be available to all families in August 2020.

Question reference: S5W-27451

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 14 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £70.5 million funding for Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) set out in its 2020-21 draft Budget, and what the reasons are for the increase from the £45.9 million allocated in 2019-20.

The Scottish Government subsidises HIAL as none of the airports in the group generate sufficient commercial revenue to cover operating, maintenance and development costs. The £70.5 million funding for HIAL for 2020-21 is broken down as £24.2 million for revenue, £36.8 million for capital and £9.5 million for depreciation. HIAL’s budget allocation for capital has increased compared to the £16.1 million budget in 2019-20. This increase will ensure that HIAL can continue to maintain and improve its infrastructure in order to facilitate the safe and compliant operation of essential air services in the Highlands and Islands. This includes costs required to progress the Air Traffic Management 2030 Strategy Programme as well as a range of other infrastructure repairs and improvements across the HIAL estate.

Question reference: S5O-04223

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that transport services meet the needs of island communities.

Question reference: S5W-27181

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) early learning and (b) childcare centres there were in 2019, and for what reason this information was not provided in its December 2019 paper, Summary statistics for schools in Scotland.

Table 2.1 of the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No. 10, 2019 shows the number of settings who are delivering Early Learning and Childcare. Early Learning and Childcare is a service as defined in section 46 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Table 2.1 shows that 2,576 centres were providing early learning and childcare in September 2019. This figure includes local authority settings and settings in the private and third sector, who are delivering ELC through a partnership agreement.

It is not possible to split the number of centres into separate 'early learning' and 'childcare' categories as the data covers all centres providing funded ELC as defined in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Question reference: S5O-04159

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to develop the tourism industry in Shetland.

Question reference: S5W-27179

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 03 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 6 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in extending the current Northern Isles Ferry Services contract, and how long the extension will be.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27316 on 6 February 2020. 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 .

However, to assist the member, I repeat the answer here below:

C alMac Ferries withdrew its legal action on 31 January, with no financial payment due to either party. Additionally, Transport Scotland has completed its engagement with the European Commission in relation to outstanding State Aid issues, with the Commission having reaffirmed that they do not consider the public subsidy offered in support of the Northern Isles Ferry Service, under the proposed public service contract, constitutes State Aid.

Transport Scotland will now move to conclude the award of contract for the delivery of the ferry services to Serco NorthLink Ferries. We currently anticipate that the contract should be awarded by the end of March, allowing a three-month mobilisation period before the new contract takes effect from the end of June.

To ensure continuity of service during this timeline, the current contract has been extended and will run for a period of up to six months from 31 January.

Following the commencement of the new contract, a non-commercially sensitive copy will be published on Transport Scotland’s website.