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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.

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Question reference: S5W-08423

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 25 October 2016, Review of student support, whether it will give a breakdown of the full remit of the review.

I announced last year that an independent review of further and higher education student support would be chaired by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money. The Review is underway and has a remit to thoroughly review the system of student support to ensure that it is fair and effective. In particular, it will explore the most effective support for the poorest and most vulnerable students. The Review is scheduled to report to Ministers by Autumn 2017.

Question reference: S5W-08544

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reported statements by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that Healthcare Improvement Scotland is auditing its own performance and conducting its own surveys.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report which was published in February 2016, highlighted the need for a responsive and flexible approach to health system governance, which balances national and local roles.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is a non departmental public body which operates independently of ministers and the health service. The performance of HIS is scrutinised at regular public Board meetings by Non-Executive Directors and, in accordance with the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000, external auditors appointed by the Auditor General for Scotland review performance and governance annually.

It provides improvement support, which can be tailored to partners’ circumstances; evidence for improvement, including clinical guidelines and advice on best practice; and public assurance on the quality of services that are provided. This approach recognises that inspection alone will not drive improvement and having improvement, evidence and assurance, along with the public voice, in one organisation provides a simple and effective organisational structure for improving the quality of care in Scotland.

HIS has a wide range of powers at its disposal including the ability to direct an NHS board to close a ward to new admissions on the grounds of safety.

Question reference: S5W-08134

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 27 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many public access defibrillators there are in each local authority area, and what action it can take to promote the locations of these, including providing details online.

One aim in the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy for Scotland is “to put in place effective arrangements to ensure that Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) are mapped, maintained and accessible to the public”. The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is progressing this work to improve the effectiveness of the use of PADs, including mapping them onto their call handling system so they can rapidly deploy them by directing callers, where appropriate, to a nearby PAD, in the case of an OHCA. A critical element in this is for members of the public, communities, businesses and other partners responsible for PADs to register the details. This can be done through a dedicated section of the SAS website at the following link; http://www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/pad.aspx.

Further information can be found here: OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00474154.pdf and OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland Review; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00510496.pdf.

Question reference: S5O-00851

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what help it provides to nurseries in the North East Scotland region.

Question reference: S5W-07798

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06742 by Keith Brown on 28 February 2017, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding whether the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) contractor is responsible for contractual penalties or liquidated damages in the event of a failure to complete the project on time and, if so, whether sums recovered by the Scottish Government will be reinvested in the local area.

Question reference: S5W-07376

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop new windfarms in the Huntly area.

Question reference: S5O-00768

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to ensure that social prescribing enables GP practices to refer obese patients and people with type 2 diabetes, and other medical conditions, to third sector support services.

Question reference: S5W-07416

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-05882 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 January 2017, for what reason the SAAS loan bands are no longer based on a parental income sliding scale and what support it gives to families whose income is just above the threshold, resulting in them not being eligible for the higher loan rate to pay for more than one child at college or university.

New household income brackets were introduced as part of the overall simplification of the higher education student support system in 2013-2014.

Simplification made it clear what every student is individually eligible to apply for, according to the income of the household in which they reside. When the new system was introduced, the minimum loan that all students, regardless of their household income, were eligible to claim, was increased from £910 to £4,500.

In addition to the support provided by SAAS through loans, every higher education institution has a discretionary fund that students experiencing financial difficulty can apply to for help with study related costs such as accommodation and travel. These funds are allocated by Scottish Ministers and administered by individual colleges and universities.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that student funding is fair and equitable, which is why we have enabled an independent review of the further and higher education student support system. The review is chaired by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money and is scheduled to report to Ministers by autumn 2017.

Question reference: S5W-07417

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that inexperienced volunteers and parents are permitted to run childcare businesses and that they can be held accountable for the quality of the (a) care and (b) education provided.

The Scottish Government is not aware of reports of inexperienced volunteers and parents being permitted to run childcare businesses. Any concerns regarding the standard of early learning and childcare in Scotland should be raised with the Care Inspectorate.

All care services classed as day care of children (including nurseries, children’s centres, crèches, childminders and playgroups) must be registered with the Care Inspectorate if they provide services for over two hours a day and for six days or more each year. The Care Inspectorate has a statutory responsibility to inspect and regulate all registered providers of day care against the ‘National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16’.

Question reference: S5W-07418

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 8 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the remit of Early Years Scotland and council teams to oversee playgroups, what its response is to reports that they might not be held accountable for the quality of the (a) care and (b) education provided, and what the level of accountability is of (i) Early Years Scotland development workers and (ii) principle teachers.

As outlined in response to S5W-07417 on 8 March 2017, the Care Inspectorate has a statutory responsibility to inspect and regulate all registered providers of day care, including playgroups, against the ‘National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16’. However, each setting is ultimately responsible for ensuring they meet the requirements set out in the various guidance and legislation governing early learning and childcare.

Early Years Scotland provides support to early learning and childcare settings to ensure the highest quality provision for children. There are a number of strands to their work, including supporting their members, working in partnership with local authorities (including Aberdeenshire) and delivering services direct to children and families. All of their staff are fully qualified early years professionals. Early Years Scotland provides a wide variety of information and guidance and template policies that settings can use as a basis for developing their own specific, local policies. Early Years Scotland ‘Development Support Officers’ work across Scotland, working directly both with members and, where they are working in partnership with a local authority, non-members.

We are not aware of Principal Teachers being deployed in voluntary settings such as playgroups. However, anyone who is managing/providing an Early Learning and Childcare setting, is ultimately accountable for the care and education of the children in that setting.

There is a requirement for all childcare registered with the Care Inspectorate (including playgroups) to have an early years manager/lead practitioner. This manager can be shared with other services if the Care Inspectorate agrees to a peripatetic management arrangement.

It is a requirement of the SSSC that every manager/lead practitioner of a daycare of children service must be either:

Hold, or be working towards, a relevant degree level Childhood Practice award
Hold a qualification that allows registration with the General Teaching Council (Scotland) or other regulatory body.

Local authorities can secure delivery of the funded entitlement to early learning and childcare through other partner providers including playgroups. In this context, local authorities have a responsibility for securing improvement in the quality of school education which includes the early learning and childcare entitlement delivered through partner providers.

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