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: S4W-25440

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 20 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it will help parents who are subject to unfair childcare retainer fees.

Most afterschool care services are either small parent committee led voluntary sector services or small private businesses. The use of retainer fees in after school care services, private nurseries and sometimes by childminders, is fairly common practice in Scotland, and we are not aware that providers are acting illegally by charging such fees.

Retainer fees could be used to hold a childcare place over the summer or as a form of insurance for the provider as they need to pay rent and staff wages, no matter what a parents chooses to do (e.g. if a parent cancels a child's place at short notice).

The use of retainer fees by private business, are a matter for individual businesses, and the Scottish Government cannot comment on or intervene in such decisions.

Question reference: S4W-25441

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 18 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on funding less than a quarter of places in a partnership nursery where all children are eligible for free childcare.

Question reference: S4W-25438

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 18 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review childcare regulations in relation to the use of retainer fees.

The use of retainer fees by private childcare services are a matter for individual businesses. There are no specific childcare regulations on the purchasing of childcare from private and independent providers. The issue of any charging in relation to funded partnership providers will be considered for inclusion in the revised Early Learning and Childcare Statutory Guidance, due for updating by August 2015.

Question reference: S4W-25442

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 18 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what further choice it can make available to parents in the provision of childcare places.

The Scottish Government has placed flexibility on a statutory footing for the first time, through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. Local authorities now have a duty to consult at least once every two years with representative groups of local parents on patterns of hours which will best meet their needs. This will allow local authorities to plan how they reconfigure services to better meet the needs of working parents; and, introduce a greater level of flexibility and choice in to the system.

Flexibility means moving away from what has been the default model of provision of 2.5 hours a day to providing models of provision that support a wider range of needs of parents including supporting parents who are employed, training or studying. However, the Scottish Government recognises that this is best achieved through year on year incremental change. The estimated budget up to 2019 increased annually to meet an incremental increase in choice.

Local authorities are consulting and increasing their flexibility, including offering further models of provision from August 2016

Question reference: S4W-25399

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the levels of support for living costs available to Scottish domiciled students who study elsewhere in the UK.

Question reference: S4W-25398

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 12 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether support for living costs available to Scottish domiciled students studying at a university in London are lower than that available to English domiciled students and, if so, for what reason.

We introduced a new support package for all Scottish domiciled students in academic year 2013-14. Every eligible Scottish domiciled student, whether they choose to study for free at a Scottish institution, or elsewhere in the UK, has the same eligibility for help with living costs.

While we have simplified the system so that it provides an annual minimum income of £7,500 for all students with a family income of less than £17,000, it no longer features weighted living cost payments linked to the location of study. Accordingly, total living-cost support available to eligible Scottish domiciled students studying at university in London would be lower than that available to English domiciled students. However, as Mr Macintosh may well be aware, there are other university locations where there are issues with living costs.

Mr Macintosh has raised an important issue and I intend to consider it more fully, including the numbers of Scottish domiciled students affected, the costs involved and am happy to bring the issue back to the Chamber or to Mr Macintosh in due course.

Question reference: S4W-25288

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to the organisation, Tell Mama, which records anti-Muslim bigotry and aims to tackle online hate speech and intolerance, and what its position is on promoting the Tell Mama hotline.

The Scottish Government does not provide support to Tell Mama. There are currently over three hundred organisations in Scotland registered as third party reporting centres with Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government encourages all victims and witnesses to report incidents of hate crime, either directly to Police Scotland or to a third party reporting centre. Details of third party reporting centres are available on Police Scotland’s website at: http://www.scotland.police.uk/contact-us/hate-crime-third-party-reporting/.

Question reference: S4W-25290

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to help tackle online hate speech, intolerance and anti-Muslim bigotry.

The Scottish Government is clear that there is no excuse for any form of hate crime. In February 2014, we launched the ‘Speak Up against Hate Crime’ awareness campaign to help victims of and witnesses to hate crime to report all incidents to Police Scotland or to a third party reporting centre.

The Scottish Government is investing over £3.1 million in 2015-16 to organisations working to tackle racist and religious intolerance, as well as improve the lives of minority ethnic and religious communities in Scotland. This includes £25,000 for Islam Information Scotland to promote a wider understanding of Islam and Scotland’s Muslim communities.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Muslim Council of Scotland to ensure Scottish Muslims are able to achieve their potential in Scotland and also supports the annual Islam Awareness Week.

Our courts have long-standing powers to tackle hate crime through common law powers to take into account aggravating factors when sentencing. This is covered by the provisions of Section 6 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012, which criminalises the communication of threats of serious violence and threats intended to incite religious hatred, whether sent through the post or posted on the internet.

Question reference: S4O-04289

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Creative Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-25251

Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assessed whether clinicians specialising in treating patients with Parkinson’s disease are given enough time and support to carry out further research.

The Scottish Government, through its Chief Scientist Office, provides funding to support clinicians working within NHS Scotland to carry out research. The funding provided through this researcher support scheme was £12.7 million for 2014-15.

The Chief Scientist Office funds the NHS Research Scotland Fellowship Scheme. This scheme provides clinicians working in the NHS with a three year fellowship, during which two sessions per week are reserved for research purposes. To date over 70 fellows have been appointed. £1.6 million has been allocated to the scheme for 2015-16.

While neither of the above funding streams are specific to any one clinical speciality, clinicians working in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are open to applications for such.

The Scottish Government provides funding of approximately £475,000 per annum for the Scottish Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Network. The core remit of the network is to support research specifically into dementia and neurodegenerative diseases (including Parkinson’s disease) in the NHS.