- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2018
Question to be taken in Chamber.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 31 May 2018
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the cost to each local authority of road repairs following the severe 2017-18 winter weather, and what assistance it has offered to each council.
Answer
Local authorities have a statutory obligation to repair and maintain local roads, therefore individual councils must determine the funding that should be allocated on the basis of local needs and priorities.
Despite continued UK Government real terms cuts to Scotland's resource budget, we have treated local government very fairly and the £10.7 billion local government finance settlement in 2018-19 provides a real terms boost in both revenue and capital funding. While local authority budget setting is the responsibility of individual authorities the total funding they have available will increase by almost £342 million in 2018-19
In addition, the Scottish Government has allocated £10 million to assist with the cost of winter maintenance and road repairs following the severe winter weather. The allocation for each local authority is as follows.
Local Authority | Allocation £m |
Aberdeen City | 0.267 |
Aberdeenshire | 0.820 |
Angus | 0.279 |
Argyll & Bute | 0.333 |
Clackmannanshire | 0.082 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 0.542 |
Dundee City | 0.155 |
East Ayrshire | 0.218 |
East Dunbartonshire | 0.157 |
East Lothian | 0.181 |
East Renfrewshire | 0.136 |
Edinburgh, City of | 0.480 |
Eilean Siar | 0.172 |
Falkirk | 0.244 |
Fife | 0.582 |
Glasgow City | 0.563 |
Highland | 0.940 |
Inverclyde | 0.096 |
Midlothian | 0.149 |
Moray | 0.231 |
North Ayrshire | 0.213 |
North Lanarkshire | 0.438 |
Orkney | 0.120 |
Perth & Kinross | 0.391 |
Renfrewshire | 0.312 |
Scottish Borders | 0.401 |
Shetland | 0.134 |
South Ayrshire | 0.214 |
South Lanarkshire | 0.509 |
Stirling | 0.247 |
West Dunbartonshire | 0.113 |
West Lothian | 0.280 |
Scotland | 10.000 |
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 21 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications it has (a) received and (b) approved from local authorities seeking funding through the Bellwin Scheme for road repairs following the severe 2017-18 winter weather; how much it (i) has provided and (ii) expects to provide, broken down by local authority, and whether the scheme remains open for claims to be made.
Answer
The Scottish Government activated the Bellwin Scheme on 2 March 2018 to provide councils with emergency financial assistance for any eligible costs resulting from the severe winter weather. While 18 local authorities formally notified the Scottish Government of a potential claim, none of the local authorities submitted a final claim.
As announced on 6 April, an additional £10 million funding was allocated to local authorities for winter maintenance and road repairs in lieu of the Bellwin Scheme. The additional funding was paid to local authorities on 15 May and removes the strict eligibility criteria and full audit process involved when submitting a Bellwin claim.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 May 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2018
Question to be taken in Chamber.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 17 May 2018
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the average length of time is to build a nursery.
Answer
As part of their expansion planning, local authorities will consider how to make full use of existing buildings and how they might enhance the use of partner provider assets prior to building new nurseries. Each new build project will have its own specific requirements but the average construction period for a new build nursery is likely to be in the region of 6 to 12 months.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of its paper, Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare Evaluation Report 2017, what progress it expects to achieve in increasing the number of settings that offer funded places (a) outwith school hours and (b) during the school holidays in each of the next three years.
Answer
Under our new Funding Follows the Child approach, which will be introduced in 2020 as part of the national roll-out of the expanded early learning and childcare (ELC) entitlement to 1140 hours, local authorities will retain statutory responsibility for ensuring that the funded ELC entitlement is available to all eligible children in their area. As part of this local authorities are required to consult with representative groups of parents and carers in their local area to seek their views on how they should make ELC available.
All local authorities have developed expansion plans, which set out how they propose to deliver the expansion to 1140 hours by 2020. These expansion plans include details of how they intend to increase flexibility, including increased operating hours and year round provision, whilst ensuring the provision remains of a high quality. As these plans are implemented we expect to see further increases in the number of ELC settings operating outwith school hours, and year round.
Some families have already benefitted from participation in Scottish Government expansion trials, which have included a focus on innovative and flexible models of delivery, as well as from the early phasing of the expanded entitlement in some authorities. This includes access to more flexible provision outwith school hours and in school holidays. We expect this trend to continue to increase over the next 3 years as authorities prepare for 2020.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many nursery schools in each local authority area are being constructed, also broken down by the stage of construction each is at, and how many additional nurseries will be (a) completed and (b) operational by May 2021.
Answer
We do not hold all the information requested centrally. Current local authority estimates are that 138 new builds will be needed. As set out in the answer to question S5W-16245 on 27 April 2018, the Scottish Government and COSLA Leaders reached agreement on a multi-year revenue and capital funding package for the expansion of early learning and childcare on 27 April. This agreement represents a shared understanding of the costs required to deliver the expansion – including all required additional capacity - in entitlement to funded early learning and childcare to 1140 hours from August 2020.
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 .
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement of 9 April 2018 regarding childcare expansion plans, how many of the (a) 650 additional practitioner level HNC courses and (b) 350 managerial level courses in early learning and childcare were not filled in 2017-18 and what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of the 2017-18 expansion.
Answer
a) The available data indicates that 44 HNC places were not filled for 2017-18. Following consultation with the sector we have taken the opportunity to ensure there is an appropriate pipeline for the higher level qualifications in the coming years, by reallocating some of the HNC credits to NCs. As noted in my answers to S5W-15849 on 8 May 2018, final audited data for 2017-18 will be available after the end of the academic year.
b) All of the additional managerial places were filled for this period.
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 .
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement on 25 February 2016 that at least 46 nurseries have been built or expanded by local authorities to help accommodate additional early learning and additional childcare hours, flexibility and children, how many nurseries in each local authority area have been (a) built, (b) expanded and (c) closed in each year since 2014-15.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. Each local authority will be able to provide the requested information for local authority run early learning and childcare settings in their respective areas.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 8 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its announcement of 9 April 2018 regarding childcare expansion plans, what baseline it used to set the target of (a) 1,813 additional new starts for HNC college and university courses to train at practitioner level and (b) 490 places at managerial level in early learning and childcare, and whether this figure includes the additional courses previously announced for 2017-18.
Answer
The additional further and higher education places for 2018-19 are informed by the following 2014-15 baseline data, set by the Scottish Funding Council:
a) 1,789 (HNC level)
b) 492 (managerial level)
The additional course places for 2018-19 do not include those additional places previously announced in 2017-18.*
* 2017-18 data is in-year data and final audited data will not be available until after the end of the academic year.
