COUNCIL chiefs have come under fire for failing to respond to a Holyrood committee on a £140 million underspend.

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's education committee have taken the unusual step of writing to council umbrella body Cosla over the issue.

The letter follows an appearance at Holyrood in early October by Stephanie Primrose, Cosla's education spokeswoman, when she was questioned about the underspend on nursery education.

Ms Primrose said Cosla disputed the figures and said alternative statistics would be provided, but the committee has still not received additional evidence.

In a letter to James Dornan, the committee convener, said: "I am writing on behalf of the committee to express concern and frustration at the delay in the provision of supplementary information from Cosla on funded childcare.

"The committee is concerned the information which you suggested in evidence on 5th October would substantiate your comments, is in fact still being collated by Cosla."

Mr went on to highlight some particularly significant underspends with North Lanarkshire Council having a £4.6m underspend of the funding allocated - some 93 per cent.

"I reiterate my comments to you from October that parents looking for funded childcare places who see a considerable underspend from their local authority in the financial review have the right to an explanation and it is incumbent on either the local authority or Cosla to respond. I would therefore encourage you to respond to the committee as a matter of high priority."

A spokesman for Cosla said: "We are finalising our response at the moment and will be writing to the committee on a few of the issues they raise next week."

Between 2014/15 to 2016/17 the Scottish Government provided councils with £329m of additional cash to fund the increase in the amount of free childcare youngsters are entitled to.

But over the same period local authorities spent or plan to spend an extra £189m according to the Government's financial review of early learning and childcare.

Childcare and Early Years Minister Mark McDonald said the figures showed the Scottish Government had fully funded its flagship childcare policy, but local government body Cosla claimed parts of the report "paint a very misleading picture".