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: 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-07419

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 support it offers to voluntary playgroups to assist in recruiting specialised and experienced staff.

Question reference: S5W-07420

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 role voluntary playgroups will play in meeting its commitment to expand the early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours per year by 2020 and for this to apply to all three- and four-year-olds.

Playgroups are one of a range of settings which support the delivery of the current 600 hours provision and we expect will continue to do so in the expansion to 1140 hours. Local authorities can and do use playgroups as part of delivery of the entitled hours.

It is for local authorities to determine how the entitlement is delivered in their local area, and to agree arrangements with partner providers, including playgroups, if they so choose.

Our consultation on policy options to deliver our vision for early learning and childcare closed on 9th January, with a significant number of responses representing a diverse range of views, which we published on 6 February. We will set out our response in the Spring.

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-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-07460

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 support it offers to voluntary playgroups that rely on fundraising or donations.

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

Question reference: S5W-07119

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Assessors Association has proposed merging the seven main categories for the valuation of hotels in 2010 to three in 2017, and what its position is on concerns that AA ratings are becoming less significant in this process.

Question reference: S5W-07126

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what legal recourse is available to cyclists who have been involved in accidents with motor vehicles that do not lead to injury.

Under Scots law where a person’s property is damaged as a result of the wrongful (e.g. negligent) actions of another person or organisation he or she can, if relevant criteria are satisfied, raise an action in the civil courts for damages to compensate for loss suffered.

Damages are a matter for the courts to decide and it would be for individuals to seek their own legal advice on whether they had a case or not under the current law.

Question reference: S5W-07125

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by James Wolffe QC on 7 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on it being considered not in the public interest to prosecute motorists who are involved in accidents with cyclists that do not lead to injury.

Police Scotland will consider in the first instance whether there is sufficient evidence that the accident amounted to a criminal offence, such as careless or dangerous driving, requiring a report to the Crown Office & Prosecution Service (COPFS).

COPFS is Scotland’s independent public prosecution service. If a criminal offence is reported to COPFS by Police Scotland, then the particular facts and circumstances of the case will be considered carefully by prosecutors. Prosecutors will decide firstly, whether there is a sufficiency of evidence. Prosecutors will then decide whether it is in the public interest to prosecute. Each case will be considered on its own particular circumstances.