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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-21361

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much Transport Scotland has spent on private consultants to advise on the (a) design, (b) specification, (c) procurement and (d) tendering of public ferry contracts in Scotland, in each year from 2006 to date.

Question reference: S6W-21358

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland’s £4 million contract with Turner and Townsend for project and programme management support for the CHFS3 project requires the consultant to consider (a) temporary and (b) permanent direct award of the next contract for Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services to CalMac.

Question reference: S6W-21394

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a list of the total payments made from the public purse to Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP for consultancy work on the (a) design and (b) tender of the (i) Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) 1 and (ii) CHFS2 contract.

Question reference: S6W-21379

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether its Local Authority Digital Office has provided, or plans to provide, expertise and support to the development of a replacement student teacher placement system.

Question reference: S6W-21377

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with local authorities, since 2021, regarding promotion and support to improve uptake of its early learning and childcare offer to eligible children, and what steps have been taken by (a) it and (b) individual local authorities to target support.

The Scottish Government has been working with the Improvement Service and Scottish Futures Trust since 2017 to support local authorities with the delivery of the 1140 expansion programme. Prior to the statutory entitlement of ELC provision increasing to 1140 hours in August 2021, support was focused on ensuring that local authorities had the necessary staffing and infrastructure in place to meet the increased entitlement. More information on this delivery support function can be found here: ELC Delivery Progress Reports | Improvement Service

Since August 2021, Scottish Government has refocused the support we provide to local authorities via the Improvement Service, to embed the intended benefits of the expansion and to strengthen, enable and assure the delivery of ELC services to all eligible children.

Improvement Service supports local authorities to identify and share good practice examples and to understand and implement service improvements. This includes supporting local authorities to understand processes involved in maximising two-year-old uptake, including how to make best use of the new data being shared with local authorities on the eligible population in their area.

Scottish Government does not collect information on work local authorities do within their local areas. Local authorities are able to share their experiences on the Knowledge Hub.

Question reference: S6W-21393

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a list of the total payments made from the public purse to Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP for consultancy work on the (a) design and (b) tender of the (i) Northern Isles Ferry Service passenger specifications, (ii) Northern Isles Ferry Services freight specifications and (iii) Gourock to Dunoon contracts.

Question reference: S6W-20910

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, according to the latest data, how many children (a) in Aberdeen and (b) throughout Scotland are in receipt of 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare.

Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland provides census data on numbers of registrations for funded early learning and childcare (ELC) at the local authority level as of September 2022. These figures are shown in the following table. The census does not currently record the number of hours being accessed by each child.

Local Authority	Number of funded registrations
Aberdeen City	3,740
Aberdeenshire	4,765
Angus	1,806
Argyll and Bute	1,290
City of Edinburgh	7,765
Clackmannanshire	897
Dumfries and Galloway	2,244
Dundee City	2,546
East Ayrshire	2,346
East Dunbartonshire	2,024
East Lothian	2,073
East Renfrewshire	1,897
Falkirk	2,699
Fife	6,452
Glasgow City	10,403
Highland	3,946
Inverclyde	1,255
Midlothian	2,196
Moray	1,521
Na h-Eileanan Siar	406
North Ayrshire	1,952
North Lanarkshire	5,855
Orkney Islands	382
Perth and Kinross	2,398
Renfrewshire	3,427
Scottish Borders	1,704
Shetland Islands	441
South Ayrshire	1,794
South Lanarkshire	5,939
Stirling	1,506
West Dunbartonshire	1,583
West Lothian	3,363
Scotland	92,615

Separately, the latest management information collected from local authorities, and published by the Improvement Service in June 2023, reported that there were 119,108 children accessing funded ELC at the end of April 2023. Of that number, 100,506 children (84.4%) were accessing 1,140 hours and 116,625 (97.9%) children were accessing more than 600 hours. The Improvement Service does not publish this management information at local authority level.

Question reference: S6W-20895

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on rejoining international surveys on literacy and numeracy, and in what year it will be possible to make comparisons between Scotland and other European countries.

Officials have met with the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement, who direct PIRLS and TIMSS, to begin the process of rejoining the studies.

The next cycles of PIRLS and TIMSS will be in 2026 and 2027 respectively. Results for PIRLS 2026 are expected in December 2027 and results for TIMSS 2027 are expected in December 2028. At this point, comparisons can be made with participating countries from across Europe and beyond.

Question reference: S6W-21626

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the total volume, in kilograms, was of below Minimum Conservation Reference Size (a) cod, (b) haddock, (c) herring, (d) whiting, (e) sole, (f) plaice and (g) saithe that was discarded by Scottish boats in 2022, in ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) areas (i) 4 and (ii) 6a.

The total quantity of discards below Minimum Conservation Reference Size from Scottish vessels is not currently estimated. The Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government estimates the total weight of bycatch (catch that was not considered suitable for commercial sales) below Minimum Conservation Reference Size for demersal trawlers and seine netters for each year, using data collected by scientific observers on-board fishing vessels. Fishing trips by vessels using other gears are not surveyed. The estimates for 2022 are given in the table below. These estimates are for fishing trips by UK vessels landing into Scotland and Scottish vessels landing abroad, however the estimates for solely Scottish vessels are likely to be of similar magnitude.

Estimates of the total weight of bycatch (kg) below Minimum Conservation Reference Size, rounded to the nearest tonne, caught in 2022 in ICES subarea 4 and division 6a by UK vessels landing into Scotland and Scottish vessels landing abroad, fishing with demersal trawls or seines.

Species	ICES region
Species	(i) 4	(ii) 6a
(a) Cod	316,000	6,000
(b) Haddock	6167,000	630,000
(c) Herring	1,000	0
(d) Whiting	380,000	58,000
(e) Sole	0	0
(f) Plaice	139,000	1,000
(g) Saithe	12,000	0

Question reference: S6W-20915

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many new schools have been built (a) in Aberdeen and (b) throughout Scotland since the start of the Scottish National Party administration in 2007.