Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-20653

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to exempt mid market rent properties from regulations in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022.

There are currently no plans to exempt mid-market rent (MMR) properties from the requirements in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022.

As MMR properties are delivered through Registered Social Landlord subsidiary companies and are therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the Scottish Housing Regulator, they require to be offered as a Private Residential Tenancy, meaning households benefit from all of the rights and protections flowing from that tenancy. This includes the current temporary rent cap measures, in place to support tenants during this time of economic uncertainty.

While the focus of the emergency measures is on protecting tenants, the Scottish Government fully recognise that the ongoing impacts of the cost crisis may also be impacting some private landlords. Therefore, MMR providers are able to apply to Rent Service Scotland to increase the rent for a property, by up to 6%, in order to partially take account of increases in certain prescribed property costs.

Earlier this year the emergency rent cap was expired in relation to the social sector, after discussions led by COSLA, in respect of local authorities, and SFHA and GWSF for Registered Social Landlords, reached an agreed position with their members that would see increases of 6.4% and 6.1% respectively, as an average across Scotland. This voluntary approach to rent setting is intended to equate to an approximate average rent increase of less than £5 per week. Due to rents in the private rented sector being approximately twice as high as in the social sector, a 3% increase in the average rent of a two-bedroom private rented property (the most common size) is broadly comparable in monetary value to the average increase in the social sector.

Question reference: S6W-20656

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes have been retrofitted through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund in each year since its creation, also broken down by local authority area.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund has awarded grant for the retrofit of 11,662 homes since its creation in August 2020 and March 31st 2023. The breakdown across financial years and by local authority can be found in the following table:

Local Authority Area	FY 20-21	FY 21-22	FY 22-23	Total
Local Authority Area	FY 20-21	FY 21-22	FY 22-23	Total
Aberdeenshire Council		143	306	449
Angus Council		26	212	238
Argyll and Bute			159	159
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	208		129	337
Dumfries and Galloway	101	397	326	824
Dundee			466	466
East Ayrshire			79	79
East Renfrewshire				0
Edinburgh		56	60	116
Falkirk Council	28		100	128
Fife Council				0
Glasgow City Council	322		7,260	7,582
Highland Council		2	59	61
Inverclyde			90	90
Midlothian			100	100
Moray and Aberdeenshire	61			61
Moray Council	254			254
North Lanarkshire Council		20	249	269
Orkney Islands Council				0
Perth and Kinross		0	111	111
Scottish Borders		36	141	177
Shetland Islands			8	8
Stirling Council	30			30
West Dunbartonshire		26	72	98
West Lothian			25	25
Grand Total	1,004	706	9,952	11,662

Question reference: S6W-20655

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent from the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund in each year since its creation.

Question reference: S6W-20614

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 12 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether adoptees records have been made available via the National Record of Scotland's ScotlandsPeople Centre, and what discussions it has had with adult adoptees regarding making records available via the National Record of Scotland's ScotlandsPeople Centre.

No adoption records have been made available via ScotlandsPeople Centre, nor the ScotlandsPeople website.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to provide further reassurance following the removal of index entries to the Adopted Children Register from the ScotlandsPeople website. Relevant entries were removed as a precautionary measure while NRS reviews the way this information was made available.

Question reference: S6F-02371

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2023

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to statistics reportedly showing that the number of complaints against Social Security Scotland has increased by 350% in one year.

Question reference: S6W-20657

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to roll out the Winter Heating Payment to households in 2023-24.

As part of our ongoing joint programme for delivery, following the launch of the Winter Heating Payment, Scottish Government officials have been working with counterparts at the Department of Work and Pensions to develop a revised timeframe that will allow payments to be issued earlier in Winter 2023-24 and subsequent years. I will provide a more detailed update to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on this work in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20571

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many households in Scotland have received support through boiler replacement schemes in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government operated a boiler scrappage scheme from May 2010 to March 2013. Details of the number of boilers replaced through this and other historic schemes funded by the Scottish Government are published on the Energy Saving Trust website .

Since 2013 the Scottish Government has provided help with the cost of replacement heating systems as part of our wider energy efficiency schemes. These include Area Based Schemes launched in 2013 and Warmer Homes Scotland which replaced the previous Energy Assistance Scheme in September 2015.

The Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback scheme was launched in 2016. Since December 2022, the Scottish Government only provides support towards the costs of replacement heating systems with low or zero direct emissions through the new Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme.

Table 1. Households receiving support with a replacement heating system through the Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback Scheme (now HES Grant and Loan)

Local Authority	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Aberdeen City	32	35	64	26	36	26
Aberdeenshire	34	33	35	42	83	69
Angus	19	22	12	12	28	26
Argyll & Bute	9	15	14	17	34	32
City of Edinburgh	101	94	73	43	87	113
Clackmannanshire	3	6	4	8	4	8
Dumfries & Galloway	14	22	22	22	41	29
Dundee City	35	37	17	8	21	13
East Ayrshire	11	15	13	8	19	26
East Dunbartonshire	11	15	4	7	25	24
East Lothian	21	16	20	12	33	30
East Renfrewshire	15	10	3	6	18	21
Falkirk	22	22	16	14	18	31
Fife	64	74	47	38	81	73
Glasgow City	44	53	36	20	35	42
Highland	59	39	36	48	109	105
Inverclyde	4	7	5	3	16	6
Midlothian	10	12	10	4	11	25
Moray	4	6	11	14	29	33
Na h-Eileanan Siar	4	8	3	3	8	11
North Ayrshire	15	28	11	13	21	13
North Lanarkshire	28	30	10	12	14	28
Orkney Islands	4	3	10	12	31	14
Perth & Kinross	18	28	21	27	50	70
Renfrewshire	14	23	14	6	26	23
Scottish Borders	17	27	22	26	47	42
Shetland Islands	8	6	5	10	20	7
South Ayrshire	16	17	7	13	22	25
South Lanarkshire	29	42	29	22	41	55
Stirling	14	27	19	16	28	37
West Dunbartonshire	3	5	4	2	6	5
West Lothian	20	23	22	13	15	50
Total	702	800	619	527	1057	1112

Replacement heating systems have also been installed through our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme which is targeted at those in or at risk of fuel poverty.

Table 2. Households receiving support with a heating system through Warmer Homes Scotland

Local authority	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23
Aberdeen City	39	121	93	100	64	71	109	130
Aberdeenshire	56	193	144	115	98	74	146	144
Angus	29	118	87	75	54	39	90	116
Argyll & Bute	24	127	91	85	74	49	92	73
City of Edinburgh	59	259	250	201	180	159	311	334
Clackmannanshire	14	47	30	29	29	20	34	60
Dumfries & Galloway	59	178	205	145	120	79	155	129
Dundee City	55	181	193	112	87	93	146	164
East Ayrshire	36	102	85	61	84	57	120	92
East Dunbartonshire	25	75	58	55	65	55	100	69
East Lothian	20	66	43	50	49	32	60	98
East Renfrewshire	24	61	69	60	49	43	72	62
Falkirk	34	92	96	71	89	74	116	112
Fife	104	329	315	228	216	196	333	408
Glasgow City	132	408	432	388	348	347	540	467
Highland	72	435	293	199	156	109	192	160
Inverclyde	26	218	145	110	125	66	134	114
Midlothian	20	67	59	56	54	41	73	87
Moray	17	81	66	47	52	40	69	73
Na h-Eileanan Siar	5	89	144	85	82	50	50	20
North Ayrshire	45	131	92	68	81	53	123	123
North Lanarkshire	84	320	254	222	242	235	353	339
Orkney Islands	6	27	29	24	21	10	16	9
Perth & Kinross	41	118	115	83	70	58	102	117
Renfrewshire	56	154	156	115	119	80	166	163
Scottish Borders	21	95	101	62	57	42	70	81
Shetl& Islands	1	6	44	28	34	17	32	29
South Ayrshire	29	132	108	64	76	48	104	108
South Lanarkshire	81	299	284	169	224	213	340	336
Stirling	25	56	56	32	43	24	45	55
West Dunbartonshire	18	67	52	55	51	46	78	56
West Lothian	33	122	111	103	82	68	147	169
Total	1,290	4,774	4,300	3,297	3,175	2,588	4,518	4,497

Information about the number and type of measures delivered by local councils since 2013 through Area Based Schemes is published on the Scottish Government website.

Details of the number of replacement heating systems funded as part of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme since 2013 are published by the UK Government .

Question reference: S6W-20570

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the threshold for paying Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S6W-20574

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with further education institutions regarding saving the digital skills academy, CodeClan.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise worked intensively with CodeClan to explore every possible option to secure a sustainable future, including commissioning the support of private sector consultants and considering options involving other public sector entities. In this case, the financial liabilities carried by the business were substantial, making those options unviable.

Codebase, the operator of Scotland's Techscaler network, has acquired CodeClan’s training materials and other assets. The Scottish Government has agreed to provide financial support to Codebase for the explicit purpose of allowing students who have paid for courses to complete their studies.

Question reference: S6W-20462

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, whether the National Acquisition Programme will be targeted at the City of Edinburgh to reduce the reported number of families and children living in temporary accommodation in the city.

Financial Year	Grant Awarded
2020-21	£8,490,676
2021-22	£5,355,747
2022-23	£38,341,879