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-21572

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many construction courses have been oversubscribed in each year since 1999, broken down by college.

Question reference: S6W-21340

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made in improving information gathering for psychological therapies waiting times, as set out on page 2 of its report, Psychological Therapies Waiting Times in NHS Scotland, which was published on 6 June 2023.

The Scottish Government published a new national Specification for Psychological Therapies (PT) and Interventions on 29 September 2023. This follows a two-year period of development working closely with partners, including the workforce, and other key stakeholders.

We have worked in collaboration with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to revise the waiting reporting guidance for PT and PHS have re-issued the Waiting Times data definitions guidance document which will help to improve accuracy of reporting against the PT waiting times standard. This applies to the delivery of PT as set out in the new Specification. The updated guidance document will be fully operational by 1 April 2024.

Scottish Government officials and Professional Advisors will continue to support NHS Boards to improve reporting of PT waiting times through the established engagement processes. We will work with data analysts and PHS to ensure improved information reporting is carried out consistently across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-21573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 28 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been paid in developer contributions to each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6O-02606

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what additional resources are being allocated to help support Edinburgh City Council to address housing shortages, including the number of families in temporary accommodation, in light of figures showing that over a quarter of all children in temporary accommodation are in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S6W-21176

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its target is for the number of affordable homes to be built in each local authority by 2040.

Question reference: S6W-21172

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 27 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many children and young people are currently attending independent schools in each local authority area, also given as a percentage of all school-age children in each local authority area.

Local Authority	Number of children in independent schools	Number of children in publicly funded schools	Total number of children in school	Proportion of children in school that are in independent school
Aberdeen City	1,522	24,260	25,782	6%
Aberdeenshire	271	36,647	36,918	1%
Angus	30	15,143	15,173	0%
Argyll & Bute	838	10,068	10,906	8%
City of Edinburgh	12,328	52,564	64,892	19%
Clackmannanshire	1,550	6,731	8,281	19%
Dumfries & Galloway	27	18,705	18,732	0%
Dundee City	957	18,377	19,334	5%
East Ayrshire	12	16,241	16,253	0%
East Dunbartonshire	19	17,390	17,409	0%
East Lothian	115	15,030	15,145	1%
East Renfrewshire	205	17,539	17,744	1%
Falkirk	0	21,771	21,771	0%
Fife	643	50,245	50,888	1%
Glasgow City	5,246	70,805	76,051	7%
Highland	0	30,843	30,843	0%
Inverclyde	686	9,805	10,491	7%
Midlothian	0	13,830	13,830	0%
Moray	603	12,217	12,820	5%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	9	3,293	3,302	0%
North Ayrshire	56	17,887	17,943	0%
North Lanarkshire	44	49,001	49,045	0%
Orkney Islands	0	2,795	2,795	0%
Perth & Kinross	1,976	18,139	20,115	10%
Renfrewshire	233	23,917	24,150	1%
Scottish Borders	134	14,477	14,611	1%
Shetland Islands	0	3,325	3,325	0%
South Ayrshire	434	14,326	14,760	3%
South Lanarkshire	588	45,394	45,982	1%
Stirling	292	12,785	13,077	2%
West Dunbartonshire	0	12,433	12,433	0%
West Lothian	16	27,571	27,587	0%
All local authorities	28,834	703,554	732,388	4%
Grant aided	0	1,169	1,169	0%
Scotland	28,834	704,723	733,557	4%

Number of children in independent schools from the 2021 independent school census.

Number of children in publicly funded schools from the 2021 pupil census.

Some children, especially in independent schools, attend school in a different local authority to their local authority of residence.

Question reference: S6W-21269

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that commissioners of the Poverty and Inequality Commission have resigned from the body over a loss of confidence in the Commission’s chair.

The reasons for the Commissioners’ resignations are a matter of public record as set out in letters to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

I am grateful to the Chair and Commissioners for their contributions to the Commission and thank them for their service.

As the Commission is an independent public body any issues relating to internal relationships are for the Commission to manage .

Question reference: S6W-21267

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that children do not remain in temporary accommodation for long time periods.

Part of the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group’s remit was to consider ways to reduce the high number of children in temporary accommodation, some of whom are in temporary accommodation for long periods. In our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, we said that we will support local authorities’ efforts to ensure households with children who have been living in temporary accommodation for a number of years are supported into suitable permanent housing.

Our national acquisition plan is one way to help boost the supply of available affordable housing, including settled family homes. We will invest at least £60m from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in 2023-24 to enable local authorities and registered social landlords to acquire properties of the right types and in the right places for use as high quality, affordable, permanent homes.

The Scottish Government is making £3.5 billion available in this parliamentary term towards the delivery of more affordable and social homes. Scotland has led the UK in providing affordable housing, delivering 122,201 affordable homes between April 2007 to the end of March 2023. Since 2007, Scotland has seen over 40% more affordable homes delivered per head of population than in England, and over 70% more than in Wales.

In addition to increasing housing supply, we will maximise the use of existing homes. This includes providing funding for councils and social landlords to bring empty homes back into use, asking social landlords to increase allocations to homeless households, and supporting councils to develop targeted plans to reduce temporary accommodation pressures. Meetings with the local authorities with the greatest temporary accommodation pressures are taking place to better understand the specific issues they are facing and what work could be undertaken in partnership to reduce the number of households, including those with children, in temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S6W-21175

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what inspection programme is in place to review the quality of temporary accommodation.

As the legal duty to accommodate homeless households lies with local authorities, the responsibility for ensuring that the temporary accommodation provided meets the temporary accommodation standards framework rests with local authorities. These standards relate to all types of temporary accommodation to ensure that the quality of all temporary accommodation is of good standard and meets all of the needs of the household. The standards framework covers four main areas: physical, location, service and management.

Social housing landlords must ensure that they meet all of their legal duties and responsibilities and that they adhere to the relevant guidance and requirements of other regulators. Social landlords, including local authorities, must submit a mandatory Annual Assurance Statement to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) to provide assurance that their organisation complies with the relevant requirements of chapter 3 of the Regulatory Framework .

The SHR monitors, assesses and reports on all landlords’ compliance with regulatory requirements and performance of housing activities. All 32 local authorities are included in their annual risk assessment. An indicator used by the SHR to assess risk in relation to performance in delivering services is the percentage of tenants satisfied with the quality of their home.

Where the SHR requires further information and assurance from a local authority, an engagement plan will be published setting out what the social landlord needs to do and what the SHR will do.

Question reference: S6W-21171

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the report by Shelter Scotland, Minoritised ethnic access to social housing in Scotland at key transition points.

We welcome the report by Shelter Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to including ongoing consideration of what more can be done to improve outcomes for BAME people within social housing.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy continues to provide the frame for our work to advance equality of outcomes in housing, with our vision for what we want homes and communities to look and feel like for the people of Scotland. In this we have recognised and committed to address the housing challenges faced by minority ethnic communities and highlighted that we must act on what we already know, as well as taking steps to improve our evidence base.