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-23954

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will publish the responses to its consultation on proposed changes to the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

Question reference: S5W-23751

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the Public Sector Bidder Stakeholder Reference Group will next meet.

Question reference: S5F-03444

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2019

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's plans to sell Prestwick airport.

Question reference: S5W-23549

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress SEPA is making in widening access to flood risk data to inform house purchase transactions.

Question reference: S5W-23550

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 11 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to protect house buyers by ending the self-certification of flood risk in the property questionnaire in conveyancing transactions.

Question reference: S5T-01708

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the R100 project is expected to deliver its target of 100% superfast broadband coverage.

Question reference: S5W-22725

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the duration of the current Northern Isles Ferry Services tender process, and when it expects that process to be completed by.

Question reference: S5W-23190

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to local authorities to ensure that rural schools are sustainable.

The Scottish Government recognises that rural schools play a hugely important part in ensuring a vibrant and sustainable local community and economy in towns and villages across rural Scotland.

We are delivering a funding package of £11.2 billion for all local authorities in
‎ 2019-20, a real terms increase of £310 million or 2.9 per cent for essential public services in Scotland. The needs based formula used to allocate funding to individual local authorities includes a range of factors, including rurality and the percentage of pupils in small schools. This funding package was agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities.

We have also taken steps to support education in rural areas through the Regional Improvement Collaborative programme. Local authorities will be working together to address issues such as the educational impact of rural deprivation.

We have also put in place specific legislative protections for rural schools. These include a requirement on local authorities to demonstrate they have considered alternatives to closure, the likely impact on the community and on pupil’s journey times to school. Local authorities are also prohibited from repeating a school closure proposal for five years.

Question reference: S5W-23189

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools had a composite class that included pupils ranging from P1 to P7 in the same class in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18 and (c) 2018-19, also broken down by local authority.

Table 1: Number of schools 1 with a composite class with at least one pupil in P1 and at least one pupil in P7 2 , by local authority and year, 2016-2018

	School year 3
	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Aberdeen City	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	6	7	2
Angus	3	4	3
Argyll & Bute	12	6	10
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0
Dumfries & Galloway	9	7	8
Dundee City	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
East Lothian	2	1	1
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0
Na h-Eileanan Siar	3	3	2
Falkirk	0	0	0
Fife	2	1	3
Glasgow City	1	2	0
Highland	17	14	14
Inverclyde	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	2	0
Moray	1	2	1
North Ayrshire	2	2	2
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	2	1	1
Perth & Kinross	2	2	3
Renfrewshire	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	4	3	4
Shetland Islands	7	4	1
South Ayrshire	1	1	1
South Lanarkshire	1	2	3
Stirling	1	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	1	0
SCOTLAND	76	66	59
1. Schools may have more than one class fitting this criteria.
2. Regardless of the number of pupils in P2-P6.
3. As collected in the Pupil Census at the September at the beginning of the school year.
4. In 2016 10 schools, in 2017 5 schools, and in 2018 4 schools had two or more teachers in at least one of their P1-P7 composite classes.

Question reference: S5W-23188

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the national guidance on class size composition.

Any such review would be a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers. The Scottish Government has no plans to review the national guidance on class size composition.

In 2010, we legislated to reduce the maximum class size in Primary 1 to 25, its lowest ever level. Since then the number of primary one pupils in a class size of 26 or more has decreased by 93% from 6,896 in 2010 to 511 in 2018.

All local authorities are committed to maintaining the national agreement on teacher numbers at 13.7 as outlined in the Local Government Settlement letter, 12 December 2018. This is supported by continued Scottish Government funding of £88million to ensure every local authority can employ the number of teachers it requires.