- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the local authority funding settlement for 2016-17 will have on homelessness in Glasgow.
Answer
In 2016-17 Glasgow City Council is receiving its fair share of total funding which this year will amount to almost £1,344 million.
The vast majority of this funding is provided by way of a block grant and it is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, including any funding to combat homelessness, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how much support it has provided to Glasgow City Council in addition to the annual local government settlement in each of the last five years, and what information it has on how much of this the council subsequently allocated to (a) employment schemes, (b) welfare reform measures, (c) reducing poverty, (d) providing free school meals, (e) maintaining teacher numbers, (f) capital investment, (g) integrating health and social care and (h) other support.
Answer
The vast majority of the funding the Scottish Government provides to Glasgow City Council is through the annual local government settlement, including all of the funding for most of the services requested.
All of Scotland's 32 local authorities, including Glasgow City Council, make annual service level expenditure and income statistical returns to the Scottish Government and these are published on the Scottish Government's website and are available via the following link:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/PubScottishLGFStats
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 8 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how many households are in fuel poverty.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01389 on 27 July 2016. 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: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 8 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what impact fuel poverty has on children’s academic attainment and what action it is taking to address this.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on the impact of fuel poverty on children’s academic attainment.
This Government remains committed to tackling both fuel poverty and child poverty and ensuring that children from low income households live in high quality sustainable housing.
Our national fuel poverty scheme Warmer Homes Scotland recognises that children are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. Applicants can benefit from energy efficiency measures available under the scheme that will make the property warmer and more sustainable where a member of the household is pregnant, or has a child under the age of 16 years of age. This is subject to all other scheme qualify criteria being met.
We have also committed to extend the eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment to families with children in receipt of the highest care component of Disability Living Allowance.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Mark McDonald on 5 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been (a) placed in (i) foster and (ii) kinship care and (b) classified as homeless as a result of parental imprisonment in each of the last five years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect data on the sub-reasons for children becoming looked after, so it is not possible to provide specific data on the numbers of children being placed in kinship and foster care due to parental imprisonment.The annual totals of children becoming looked after in foster care and kinship care (some of whom may have entered the care system due to parental imprisonment) are presented here:
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2010-2011
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2011-2012
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2012-2013
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2013-2014
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2014-2015
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Starting to be looked after in kinship care
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842
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967
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960
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884
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890
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Starting to be looked after in foster care
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1,097
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1,404
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1,421
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1,443
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1,237
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All children starting to be looked after
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4,746
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4,811
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4,470
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4,295
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4,198
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The most relevant figures to homelessness available are in the following table, which details the number of children in households applying as homeless, where the main applicant had previously been in prison:
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2008-2009
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2009-2010
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2010-2011
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2011-2012
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2012-2013
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2013-2014
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2014-2015
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2015-2016
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Male Children
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69
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75
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88
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94
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64
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46
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30
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32
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Female Children
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69
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81
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72
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85
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73
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39
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30
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30
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All Children
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138
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156
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160
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179
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137
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85
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60
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62
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It should be noted that the applicant’s earlier imprisonment may only be one of a number of factors leading to a homelessness application.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the reasons for the delay of the electrification of the Glasgow to Edinburgh rail line.
Answer
At my instruction, Transport Scotland are undertaking an intensive review of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. This work is expected to conclude in September 2016. In my statement of 5 July 2016, I made clear my intention to bring the review findings and senior Network Rail officials before the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee to answer any questions and to set out clearly when they will deliver the promised improvements and how much they will cost.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether the current improvements to Glasgow Queen Street rail station will be completed to allow the station to reopen to the public in early August 2016.
Answer
Network Rail advise us that the work in Queen Street Tunnel is making good progress. The tunnel remains on schedule to re-open as planned on 8 August 2016.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 July 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 August 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether the delays to electrification of the Glasgow to Edinburgh rail line are a result of financial considerations.
Answer
Financial considerations are not the reason for the delays to the electrification of the Edinburgh Glasgow line now being reported by Network Rail. The reasons will be set out in full following the conclusion of the Transport Scotland led review.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 July 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how much the Homeowner Housing Panel has cost each year.
Answer
<>The Homeowner Housing Panel (HoHP) is an independent tribunal established under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 to deal with disputes between homeowners and property factors. The Act came into force on 1 October 2012.
Information on the cost of the HoHP for each year are included in its annual report which is laid before the Scottish Parliament. The reports are published at https://hohp.scotland.gov.uk/who-we-are-hohp/annual-reports.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2016
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 July 2016
To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors the effectiveness of property factor enforcement orders, and what action is taken against factors that do not satisfy the conditions of the order.
Answer
The Homeowner Housing Panel (HoHP) is an independent tribunal established under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the Act) to deal with disputes between homeowners and property factors. It is for the HoHP to decide whether to issue a legally-binding property factor enforcement order (PFEO) and determine whether a property factor has complied with the PFEO.
The HoHP must notify Scottish Ministers under section 23(2) of the Act where a property factor has failed to comply with any PFEO. Scottish Ministers have the power to remove a property factor from the register where it has failed to demonstrate compliance with the property factor code of conduct and any property factor enforcement order made by the HoHP. Since 1 October 2012, when the Act came into force, they have removed two factors from the register because of their non-compliance.