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: S6O-03735

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to deliver better outcomes for children and young people with learning disabilities, autism and neurodiversity, in light of its decision not to include the introduction of its proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill in the Programme for Government 2024-25.

Question reference: S6W-29225

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its ministers have had with local authorities regarding the wearing of safety helmets by delivery drivers.

No discussions have taken place between ministers and Local Authorities regarding the wearing of safety helmets by delivery drivers.

As outlined in the Highway Code (a matter reserved to the UK Government), riders are recommended to wear a correctly fitted cycle helmet. However, this is not a legal requirement and remains a matter of personal choice.

However, the Scottish Government takes road safety seriously. Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 (RSF2030) was published in February 2021, with the goal of Scotland having the best road safety performance in the world. It adopts the ‘Safe System’ approach to road safety which is recognised internationally as best practice in road safety delivery. It sets challenging targets for the years ahead, with a 50 per cent reduction in fatal and serious injuries and a 60 per cent reduction in child fatal and serious injuries by 2030.

Question reference: S6W-28856

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) research it has carried out and (b) discussions it has had regarding pay weighting for public sector workers working in Edinburgh.

Research has focused on the wider challenges and opportunities associated with rapid localised population growth where it is occurring in parts of Scotland. This was discussed at the October 2023 meeting of the Population Taskforce and is a priority within the Population Balance strand of delivery of the Population Strategy. The minutes of the October meeting are published on the Scottish Government webpages: https://www.gov.scot/publications/population-taskforce-minutes-october-2023/

Our approach to public sector pay has provided support to public sector workers during COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis, balancing fairness, affordability and fiscal sustainability within an extremely difficult fiscal context. We have protected the lowest paid and encourage employers to take a progressive approach to pay. As a result, public sector salaries in Scotland after taxes are 6% higher on average than the rest of the UK, with median full-time pay around £1,500 higher, up from around £430 prior to the pandemic.

A short briefing note will be prepared on how the London weighting allowance is calculated and applied, which can be shared with Mr Briggs in due course.

Question reference: S6W-29000

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making towards the introduction of a building safety levy, and by what date this will be introduced.

Following the general election, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray MP, requesting renewal of the agreement to the devolution of the necessary powers for a Building Safety Levy in Scotland that was in place with the previous UK Government.

An affirmative response to this letter was received on 27 August 2024 and arrangements are now being made for the necessary legislative procedures to take place in the Scottish and UK Parliaments to progress the devolution.

The Scottish Government’s 2024-25 Programme for Government announced that, subject to the devolution of powers, the Scottish Government proposes to bring forward a Bill to establish a Building Safety Levy in Scotland.

A consultation will be launched later this month to inform policy development for the proposed Bill. The levy is not expected to come into effect until April 2026 at the earliest.

Question reference: S6W-29001

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the legislative process is for transferring the powers to the Scottish Parliament that are required to establish a building safety levy.

The Scotland Act 2012 introduced provisions for the UK Parliament to devolve further tax powers to the Scottish Parliament (now section 80B of the Scotland Act 1998, “Power to add new devolved taxes”).

This followed a recommendation from the Calman Commission, which stated that “we see no reason why the Scottish Parliament should not be able to legislate to create new taxes that affect the whole of Scotland uniformly and not just via local taxation, if it does so with the agreement of the whole UK Parliament”.

The specific legislative mechanism is an Order in Council which must be approved by both Houses of the UK Parliament and by the Scottish Parliament. Once approved, the Order in Council would add any new tax to the existing list of devolved taxes in the Scotland Act 1998.

Primary and secondary legislation would then be required in the Scottish Parliament for a new devolved tax to come into effect.

Question reference: S6O-03703

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the Ministerial Taskforce on Population has made of the reported population increase in Edinburgh and the south east, including any proposals that it has made to address this, since it was established in June 2019.

Question reference: S6W-29227

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many developments have been approved in the first phase of its review of permitted development rights, broken down by local authority area.

In most cases, permitted development rights (PDR) allow certain developments to be carried out without reference to the planning authority – provided the relevant PDR conditions are complied with. Therefore, such developments do not require an application for planning permission to be submitted to and approved by a planning authority and, accordingly, data is not available on those developments carried out under PDR.

However, a small number of PDR are subject to a process known as “prior notification/prior approval”. The planning authority’s determination is limited to the particular matters specified in the relevant PDR class – for example, siting, design or appearance. Although there is no statutory requirement to do so, planning authorities should keep records of prior notification/prior approval cases.

Data on prior notification/approvals form part of the statistics that are submitted by planning authorities and form the basis of the Scottish Government’s Official Statistics available on https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/. Most recent figures are available https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-applications-statistics-2022-23-annual-quarterly-october-2022-march-2023/documents/

The information is broken down into certain development types. However, the figures are not broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-28997

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the single building assessment for housing developments will operate in relation to fire safety.

Single Building Assessment (SBA) is defined by section 32 of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024, with SBAs to be carried out in accordance with the standards to be specified by Scottish Ministers. The SBA Technical Specification was published on 21 June 2024 and is expected to form the core of these standards.

The SBA is a risk assessment process rather than a change to existing fire safety. An SBA will culminate in a report on any risk to human life that is (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the building’s external wall cladding system, and what work (if any) is needed to eliminate or mitigate any risk of that kind which is identified.

Question reference: S6W-29006

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government since 5 July 2024 regarding delivering more homes across all housing tenures in Scotland, including the potential for increased funding for increasing unit output.

The First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, via a Microsoft Teams call, on Wednesday 17 July 2024. Discussion highlighted that the forecast reduction in Capital and Financial Transactions (FTs) funding is causing significant challenges for the Scottish Government’s investment in affordable housing.

The First Minister met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, via a Microsoft Teams call, on Wednesday 31 July 2024. The First Minister raised his close interest in the UK Government’s housing agenda, and reiterated the impact of the reductions to our capital and FTs.

The First Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister met in person at Bute House on Thursday 15 August 2024. The First Minister again raised the issue of reductions to financial transactions funding in relation to affordable housing. The First Minister also restated his commitment to building a constructive and collaborative relationship with the UK Government that delivers for the people of Scotland.

On 28 August, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government met the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Glasgow and reiterated the concern of the Scottish Government over the damage that has been done to housing investment by the real terms reductions in the overall Capital Budget and the budget for Financial Transactions. The First Minister encouraged the Chancellor to rectify this in her Budget Statement on 30 October.

Question reference: S6W-28854

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been in local authority housing budget reserves in each year since 1999.