Kate Forbes has warned that a lack of childcare in the Scottish Parliament will lead to MSPs with children standing down at the next election. 

Currently, the Holyrood creche can only look after the children of MSPs and staff for a maximum of four hours a week.

The Care Inspectorate has said they are unable to grant a license to run a full on-site nursery because of a lack of ready access to safe outdoor space.

READ MORE: Lack of Holyrood childcare 'absolutely intolerable'

Ms Forbes raised the lack of childcare on Thursday during questions to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, the cross-party group in charge of the running of Holyrood.

Responding on behalf of the SPCB, Labour MSP Claire Baker said the parliament was now looking at creating a new outdoor space.

She said: “We are working hard to try and find a solution here.

“The main reason for the current four hours per week restriction is lack of access to an adequate outdoor space.

“The facilities management office met with the care inspectorate and our care provider on Tuesday 7 November to look at options for creating a new outdoor space that would allow the current restrictions to be eased.

“An initial feasibility report has been drafted by our property services consultant, and outline design work is now underway.

“Once the design work has been completed further work will take place in relation to timescales, budget and liaison with the Care Inspectorate.”

Ms Forbes pointed out that the facility had not changed “only the limits imposed on it.”

She added: “Last term at least four MSPs who are also mothers stepped down from Parliament, some citing the impossibility of balancing child care and political office.

“That figure is guaranteed to increase unless the ridiculous and unnecessary limit of four hours per week per child is resolved.

“That would ultimately mean less representation in Parliament of working parents in Scotland.

“Does the SPCB understand the urgency of the matter? And will it work tirelessly to try and resolve it?“

Ms Baker said she did appreciate how challenging combining the role of an MSP and caring responsibilities can be.

“I was a user of the creche myself and my daughter was one when I was first elected. So I recognise how important it is for MSPs to get that level of support.

“We are working hard to try and find a solution in the first instance to get us up back to the four hours-a-day provision that we had before.

“But to be clear, it is the Care Commission who are putting these restrictions on us in terms of longer-term ambition.

“We are having some discussions with the Scottish Government that may enable us to use their nursery. And as I say, we have set up a design consultancy process and we'll be looking at all options that can be available to us.”

READ MORE: Robison: SNP ministers 'aim' to tell truth as Matheson to face probe

There have been a number of complaints about the lack of childcare in recent months.

SNP minister Angus Robertson told Scotland on Sunday it was "intolerable."

He said: "Westminster has full nursery availability for parliamentarians and staff, and by contrast in the Scottish Parliament we are being offered four hours of creche availability. It's just not serious.

"The Scottish Parliament was set up and billed as a family-friendly Parliament, which is an aspiration that anybody in any democracy should aspire to, because any parents involved in politics or working in a Parliament should be able to do their job, and be able to be good parents, and it is not possible in the Scottish Parliament."

Tory MSP Meghan Gallacher told the Holyrood Sources podcast she did not know any MSP with young children "who has been able to find the right balance between home life and being in the Scottish Parliament".

“I think that’s perhaps a wider discussion on how we try and make Holyrood a bit more family friendly – it’s definitely not achieved that yet,” she said.