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: S5W-03114

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the average age of Scotland's (a) roads, (b) pavements, (c) hospitals, (d) schools and (e) colleges was in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-03115

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in infrastructure in each year since 2007, also given as a percentage of GDP.

Question reference: S5W-03113

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it makes of the age of publicly owned infrastructure.

Question reference: S5W-03111

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government which European governments it has met since the decision by the UK to leave the EU; when the meetings were held, and what was discussed.

On 28 June 2016 the Scottish Government received a clear mandate from Parliament to pursue all options to protect Scotland’s relationship with the EU and to engage with EU Member States to explain Scotland’s position, the work it is taking forward to protect its EU relationship and understand their concerns. EU Member State engagement on this basis has been progressing well. Since the referendum, Scottish Government Ministers have met with the Governments of the following fifteen EU Member States:-

Austria

Belgium

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Ireland

Italy

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Poland

Slovakia

Sweden

The Scottish Government is committed to regularly reporting progress on its EU engagement to Parliament including through regular engagement with relevant Committees.

Question reference: S5W-02743

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 4 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how the pilot deposit guarantee scheme for childcare costs referred to in the Programme for Government will operate; how much it will cost to introduce; what the budget will be; on what date it will be introduced, and how many people will be able to access it.

The pilots will allow us to explore approaches to reducing the burden of upfront childcare costs for parents in low income households. There is a concern that these costs may present a real barrier to some parents starting or returning to work, or increasing their hours, after a period caring for young children.

We will work with delivery partners to identify potential approaches for delivering the pilots, and will announce more details as to how they will be taken forward in early 2017.

Question reference: S5W-02741

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 30 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the timetable is over the next five years for the delivery of the 1,140 hours of free early learning and childcare for three- and four-year-olds referred to in the Programme for Government.

We are committed to ensuring that the necessary infrastructure, workforce and delivery models are in place to meet our commitment to expand early learning and childcare entitlement to 1140 hours per year by 2020. As I announced to Parliamentary on 29 September 2016, we will shortly be publishing a Policy Blueprint consultation document which will seek views on the Scottish Government’s vision and principles for the expansion, and will set out a timetable for key next steps.

Question reference: S5W-02371

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many STEM subject (a) pupils aged 14 to 18 and (b) teachers there have been in each year since 2011, broken down by (i) gender and (ii) subject.

The number of entries into SQA qualifications in STEM subjects, broken down by gender since academic year 2010-11 are shown in table one. The number of teachers whose main subject is STEM, broken down by gender, over the same time period, is shown in table two. Please note the caveats presented in the footnotes for each table when interpreting figures.

Table 1: SQA entries into STEM¹ subjects² by gender, 2010-11 – 2015-16, all candidates³, all centers.


Female
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	31,308	31,509	31,766	30,187	29,149	26,602
Human Biology	2,894	2,995	3,006	2,879	3,281	4,216
Chemistry	20,289	20,471	20,388	19,581	18,687	17,949
Physics	8,939	9,235	9,303	8,804	8,202	7,795
Computing Science	6,768	6,508	5,614	3,940	3,182	2,871
Mathematics	54,676	55,051	53,442	47,632	44,793	44,494
Science	1,084	937	974	284	316	303
Male
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	17,108	17,947	18,032	16,543	15,924	14,223
Human Biology	1,372	1,415	1,267	1,277	1,444	1,775
Chemistry	20,649	20,971	21,049	19,984	18,886	17,841
Physics	24,695	24,874	24,863	24,610	24,359	23,475
Computing Science	15,347	15,402	14,423	13,507	13,293	13,221
Mathematics	57,940	58,639	56,489	50,613	46,719	45,789
Science	1,285	1,149	1,151	403	499	424
All
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	48,416	49,456	49,798	46,730	45,073	40,825
Human Biology	4,266	4,410	4,273	4,156	4,725	5,991
Chemistry	40,938	41,442	41,437	39,565	37,573	35,790
Physics	33,634	34,109	34,166	33,414	32,561	31,270
Computing Science	22,115	21,910	20,037	17,447	16,475	16,092
Mathematics	112,616	113,690	109,931	98,245	91,512	90,283
Science	2,369	2,086	2,125	687	815	727

1. STEM comprises biology, human biology, chemistry, physics, computing science and mathematics. Other subjects may be considered STEM but the ones chosen here give the best continuity across time

2. Subjects are across SCQF levels 3 to 7 and include Standard Grades, Access 3, National 3, Intermediate 1, National 4, Intermediate 2, National 5, Previous Higher, Higher, Previous Advanced Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.

3. The data include entries by third, fourth, fifth and sixth year school candidates, Other School candidates (which includes first year, second year and adults attending school), Further Education Colleges, and Other (which covers candidates outwith school or college, for example workplace candidates).

Table 2: Secondary school teachers¹ - STEM subjects - Main subject taught² - FTE – 2010-11-2015-16.


Female
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	820	823	832	865	854	854
Chemistry	521	538	557	568	584	587
Physics	244	244	239	240	246	247
Computing	300	304	291	290	276	265
Mathematics	1,451	1,390	1,389	1,359	1,347	1,326
Science (general)	88	90	85	66	64	67

Male
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	342	334	337	325	325	311
Chemistry	415	390	378	367	353	345
Physics	624	605	598	582	576	560
Computing	398	371	369	359	359	336
Mathematics	1,193	1,143	1,115	1,082	1,055	1,024
Science (general)	55	52	58	50	65	61

All
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Biology	1,162	1,157	1,169	1,190	1,179	1,165
Chemistry	936	928	935	935	937	932
Physics	868	850	837	822	823	807
Computing	699	675	660	649	636	601
Mathematics	2,644	2,533	2,504	2,441	2,403	2,350
Science (general)	143	141	143	116	129	128

1. Excludes head teachers and depute head teachers.

2. Note that some teachers also teach an 'other subject', but this split is not collected by FTE. This data assumes that each teacher spends all of their time teaching their main subject.

Question reference: S5W-02775

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it will provide for the targeted marketing campaign to recruit additional Early Learning and Childcare workers referred to in the 2016-17 Programme for Government, when it will begin and what form it will take.

Ahead of any recruitment campaign, the Scottish Government is currently working with delivery partners to explore all existing routes to recruit a high quality and diverse early learning and childcare workforce. A Skills Investment Plan is being developed and research is currently being conducted with target audiences. This work will inform the cost and scope of the recruitment campaign. We will start to target our marketing activity from spring 2017.

Question reference: S5W-02747

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much it will provide in (a) real and (b) cash terms each year toward the pledge in the Programme for Government that "by 2018, nurseries in our most deprived areas will benefit from an additional qualified teacher or childcare graduate".

Question reference: S5W-02742

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 28 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) three- and (b) four-year-olds are on waiting lists for access to early learning and childcare, broken down by local authority.

Information on waiting lists to early learning and childcare is not held centrally. Local Authorities are under a duty to provide early learning and childcare places to all three and four year olds from set times following their 3^rd birthday under the Provision of Early Learning and Childcare (Specified Children) (Scotland) Order 2014. It is for local authorities to manage their own registration and admission policies.