- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 29 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the personal independence payment (PIP) criteria.
Answer
Our overriding commitment, agreed with social security clients and stakeholders, is to ensure the safe and secure transfer of clients to Adult Disability Payment. Significant changes are however being made to improve clients’ experience of accessing disability assistance, such as replacing assessments with person centred consultations. The reliability criteria, which requires a client to be able to carry out activities, safely, repeatedly, in an acceptable manner and in a reasonable time, will be more fully defined in legislation. This will ensure that decisions take full account of clients’ experiences relating to the daily living and mobility activities.
An independent review of Adult Disability Payment will commence in summer 2023. The review will enable all of the criteria to be considered and will ensure that those in receipt of Adult Disability Payment will be able to provide their valuable feedback and experiences of the process up to that point.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its consultation, Building standards (fire safety) - external wall systems, presents three options, with only option 3 introducing a ban on the use of combustible cladding and insulation on the external facades of certain 18m-plus residential and high-risk buildings.
Answer
The fire safety review panel considered a broad range of evidence on fire safety of cladding systems. Some of the evidence supported the retention of the large scale fire test, BS8414, as a means to demonstrate the safety of cladding systems with some combustible elements. Whilst other evidence supported a ban on combustible materials. A fourth option allows respondents to set out alternative views.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Scotland’s high-rise threshold being reduced from over 18m to over 11m in 2018, for what reason option 3 in its consultation, Building standards (fire safety) - external wall systems, considers introducing a ban on combustible cladding and insulation on the external façades of certain residential and high-risk buildings using the previous 18m-plus threshold.
Answer
England introduced a ban on combustible materials used in the construction of external walls for all new residential buildings over 18m in December 2018. The 11m threshold introduced from 1 October 2019 is contained in regulatory guidance, with the alternative route of a large scale fire test being retained on the advice of the fire safety review panel. Since that time a number of stakeholders have made clear their views that the Scottish regulations should align with those in the rest of the UK, and we have therefore sought to include this as an option within the consultation.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 29 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has only recently begun its consultation, Building standards (fire safety) - external wall systems, on the introduction of a ban on the use of combustible cladding and insulation on the external facades of certain residential high-rise buildings, in light of such a ban being introduced in England in 2018.
Answer
The 2018 Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review Panel set up following the Grenfell Tower fire did not support an outright ban on combustible cladding. A further review was intended to address concerns raised by some stakeholders since the fire safety standards were changed on 1 October 2019. The current consultation is being undertaken to consider a ban on the highest risk cladding materials through building regulations, and to review the role of the large scale fire test, BS 8414.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 29 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the remuneration levels of councillors.
Answer
Councillors' pay increased by 4.2% on 1 April 2021, taking the annual salary of ordinary councillors from £17,854 to £18,604. This reflects the arrangement introduced in 2017 which now ensures councillors’ pay is increased annually in line with the percentage increase in the median annual earnings of public sector workers in Scotland.
The Scottish Government currently has no plans in the near future to carry out its own review of councillor remuneration. However, we are aware that COSLA's Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group is considering this issue, and we are open to discussing and exploring the findings of their work with them, once it becomes available, and how we might support them to address this issue.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on the Edinburgh tram inquiry.
Answer
The amount spent on the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry to date is just over £12 million.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what role it will assign to the third sector to support its plans to increase the level of support services available to children and young people in community settings.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02964 on 28 September 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Denham on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact in Scotland of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (Claudia’s Law).
Answer
The Scottish Government has consulted on the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) report recommendations and draft Bill on Judicial factors. The provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (“2017 Act”) was raised in the consultation along with a question asking consultees whether any provisions of the 2017 Act could be usefully replicated in any Scottish Legislation.
The consultation responses suggest that some aspects of the 2017 Act could be considered: Judicial factors: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The issues brought to light in the consultation responses will be explored further when work to consider a programme of the implementation of SLC Reports during this Parliament - which includes Judicial Factors - is commenced.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms will be put in place in community settings as part of its commitment to increase support services for children and young people.
Answer
The commitment to investing at least £500m over the life of this Parliament to create a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is significant. This will enable transformational change through the building of universal, holistic support services available in communities across Scotland giving families access to help when and where they need it, and help Scotland keep the Promise.
We will work closely with The Promise Scotland and partners across local government, social justice, health, the third sector, and with children and families to design and deliver the Fund. Further details will be provided in due course.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ash Denham on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the issue of young people running away from home.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to work with partners to safeguard vulnerable people through the implementation of the National Missing Persons Framework for Scotland. Over the past three years we have developed return discussion training for professionals across Scotland to build understanding about the reasons a person went missing and reduce the risk of future missing episodes.
We have worked with young people who have experience of being missing and invested £40,000 to develop an education resource for young people, hosted on the Runaway Scotland website, to build understanding of risks and where support can be accessed. We have also provided £242,000 of funding since 2016 to Missing People charity to raise awareness of their Runaway helpline service (call 116 000 or visit www.runawayhelpline.org.uk ) for people who are thinking about running away, have already run away or have been away and want to come back. Ninety-nine percent of people who go missing in Scotland are returned safely.