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As I explained in response to the same question at the budget session of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee you attended in December, the European Strategy line has this year been separated out to establish a new Brussels Office line. The Brussels Office line of £1.139 million added together with the European Strategy line combine to make a total of £2.049 million which is focussed on Europe and our broader engagement activity. This total includes an additional £245,000 which we have added to the European Strategy line this year in recognition of the importance of Europe and in line with our key objective of influencing the world around us on the issues that matter most in helping Scotland flourish. This combined total is therefore 23% higher than the discrete European Strategy line for 2016-17.

In October 2016, I announced an independent Review of Further and Higher Education Student Support. The review will consider all relevant data and assess the effectiveness of the current system, making recommendations for beneficial change to ensure all students have access to a fair and effective package of appropriate support.

Professor Scott, the newly appointed Commissioner for Fair Access to Higher Education in Scotland, will be consulted as part of the review process.

Our first priority is to complete the devolution of management of the Crown Estate to the Scottish Parliament and ensure a smooth transition. In parallel, we are currently undertaking a public consultation on the long-term arrangements for management of Crown Estate assets in Scotland. The responses received will help inform the way forward on further devolution of management of assets, based on the Smith Commission’s principles.

We have not had recent discussions regarding a passenger ferry service with continental Europe. While Scottish Government encourages ferry operators to keep the option of introducing a passenger service under review, there are no firm commitments regarding a service as yet. Any service would have to operate on a commercially viable basis and this would be a matter for any prospective ferry operator to consider.

The specific information sought is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government’s 1+2 languages policy is supporting increased provision in both primary and secondary contexts, all pupils will learn two languages in addition to their own during the Broad General Education. Information provided by local authorities in 2015 indicated that, by June 2016, 21 of 32 authorities would be providing language learning to all Primary one children. We expect this trend to continue and provision to grow throughout primary and into secondary as schools move to full implementation of the Scottish Government’s 1+2 languages policy by 2021.

Within the senior phase, National Qualifications are just one of the many ways in which courses in modern languages are being offered to pupils.

We expect to see a continued trend of secondary schools providing diverse opportunities for language learning both in broad general education and in the senior phase. Flexible and innovative ways of learning are increasing, including non-certificated courses, clubs and master classes as well as participation in courses which lead to national qualifications.

The Scottish Government was one of the bodies who participated in the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) scoping study ‘Exploring the concept of a centre of innovation excellence for Scottish aquaculture’. Since the publication of the report in December 2016, the Scottish Government has not had any discussions with stakeholders on the proposed centre of excellence for aquaculture, understanding that SAIC intends to offer the study as advisory input to the newly formed Aquaculture Industry Leadership Group on which the Scottish Government is represented.

The Scottish Government does not hold the minutes of these meetings.

In late 2016 we set out our programme of ELC expansion trials, which will test a variety of different delivery models across Scotland.

The programme covers 14 different trials, with ten of these located in deprived areas (the trials in Aberdeen, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Edinburgh, Eilean Siar, Midlothian, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire). The trials form part of the Scottish Government’s wider drive to increase the quality and flexibility of provision as work towards delivery of 1140 hours of early learning and childcare by 2020 continues.

We are committed to ensuring that nurseries in the most deprived areas will have an additional teacher or graduate from 2018 and we will set out more details as to how this commitment will be delivered later in January.

We have also sought views on a wide range of policy areas as part of our consultation on the expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland, A Blueprint for 2020. The consultation closed on 9 January 2017 and the Scottish Government will set out its response in the Spring.

We do not hold information on the average number of children in nurseries over the course of a year. We do however have data on the number of registrations for funded Early Learning and Childcare as collected through the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census in September each year. Given that this data is collected in term one and registrations increase throughout the year as more children become eligible for funded provision, then we would expect the average number to be higher than the figures presented below. Although these figures are based on the number of registrations not the number of children, and children registered at more than one centre may be double counted, the amount of double counting will be less than the number of additional children that register after September.

The Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census does not separate out nurseries from other settings providing the funded ELC entitlement that are covered by the census. However information is separated into local authority and partnership provider settings, and for 2015 and 2016 partnership settings can be separated into private partnerships and other partnerships. Local authority and partnership providers will include a range of settings such as nurseries, playgroups, and family centres. Data is not currently collected on funded provision with childminders.

For 2015 and 2016 registration data split by local authority and partnership settings are publicly available in the supplementary tables released alongside the ‘Summary statistics for schools in Scotland’ publication which includes data from the ELC census. Registrations data by local authority or partnership centre for 2010 to 2014 is available from the ELC census, but this breakdown was not published for these years. Breakdowns for all years have been collated and are provided in tables (a) and (b). A further breakdown into private and other partnerships is not published, but is available for 2015 and 2016 as outlined in table (c).

Table (a) – Number of registrations for funded ELC in local authority centres

1. In 2011 there were 395 registrations with local authority centres that could not be assigned to a local authority.

2. In 2012 there were 671 registrations that could not be assigned to a centre type so they do not appear in the figures for local authority or for partnership centres.

Table (b) – Number of registrations for funded ELC in partnership provider centres

1. In 2011 there were 209 registrations at partnership centres that could not be assigned to a local authority.

2. In 2012 there were 671 registrations that could not be assigned to a centre type so they do not appear in the figures for local authority or for partnership centres.

Table (c) – Number of registrations for funded ELC in partnership setting, split by private and other partnerships, 2015 and 2016

1. This breakdown is only available for 2015 and 2016.

The Care Inspectorate also publish data on childcare (both funded and non-funded) but not an average.

The Scottish Government has supported all bird keepers by providing information and guidance (including Frequently Asked Questions) about the requirements of the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone on its website, within emails to stakeholders, societies and their members, and shared via social media.

As laid out by the declaration of declarations of 6 December 2016 and 6 January 2017, all poultry and captive bird keepers in Scotland are required to keep their birds indoors or take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds and apply heightened biosecurity measures. Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are also available to offer further advice and support if bird keepers have any specific questions about complying.