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-11386

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of its Budget has been allocated to local government spending in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Local Government annually through the Local Government settlement. This is made up of a combination of the general revenue grant, general capital grant, income from non-domestic rates as well as specific revenue and capital grants.

Included in the table (BIB 63725) is the Local Government budget following the annual Spring Budget Revision ('SBR') as a proportion of both the Scottish Governments total fiscal budget excluding FTs (i.e. its discretionary spending limit) as well as its Total Managed expenditure. Note that the SBR budget figure does not include amounts provided by other portfolios via grant funding to local government.

Given the changes in the Scottish Governments devolved powers since devolution it is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the funding levels since 1999. To illustrate this point we would note that in 2013-14 funding of over £1bn in respect of Police and Fire was removed from Local Government.

Question reference: S6O-01530

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what actions are being taken to end the practice of children living in temporary accommodation, in light of recent homelessness statistics.

Question reference: S6W-11814

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been helped through the Help to Buy scheme in each year since its introduction.

Question reference: S6W-11817

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a Help to Buy scheme for veterans, to support veterans and their families when buying a home.

Question reference: S6W-11394

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with industry to inform the development of its new cancer strategy.

We held a public consultation for the new cancer strategy from 12th April – 7th June. Anyone who wished to submit a response was welcome to through Citizens Space, this includes members of the public, professionals working with cancer services, and organisations. The results of the consultation will be published shortly and will feed into the development of the next cancer strategy.

Early insights from the initial consultation report show that organisations in the cancer sector welcome a long-term strategy with broad overarching aims to help achieve structural changes in the delivery of cancer care.

Question reference: S6W-11545

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of people trafficking have been recorded in each year since 1999.

The National Referral Mechanism is the UK-wide framework for identifying victims of human trafficking and exploitation and ensuring they receive appropriate support. The NRM is operated by the Single Competent Authority and Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority within the Home Office.

NRM data can be accessed via the Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism statisticswhich contains records back to 2013.

In addition to this, police recorded crime statistics include several types of crime in relation to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 as detailed below

Slavery or forced labour (under sections 1 and 4 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
Human organ crimes (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
Breach of Trafficking & Exploitation Order crime (under section 32 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and
Immoral traffic (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995)

This act came into effect on 31 May 2016, with the first recorded crimes falling in the 2016-17 recording year (see Table One).

Prior to the implementation of the 2015 act, data is only available on Immoral traffic crimes recorded in Scotland (under section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995). These are shown in table 2.

Table 1 – Recorded crimes under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2021-22

Crime name	2016-17¹	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Slavery or Forced Labour	23	68	144	244	92	103
Human Organ Offences	0	0	2	0	0	0
Immoral traffic²	26	21	31	23	23	25
Breach of Trafficking & Exploitation Order	1	0	2	0	1	2

Notes:

1. As the act came into effect on 31 May 2016 this is not a full recording year.

2. Although this crime pre-dates the act, some charges under the act were assigned to this crime beginning with the 2016-17 recording year.

Table 2 – Recorded crimes of Immoral traffic, Scotland, 1999-00 to 2015-16

Crime name	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Immoral traffic	5	11	12	24	14	47	27	17	16

Crime name	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Immoral traffic	21	36	33	26	14	32	13	7

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-11442

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding new tenancy agreements whereby the tenant remains the same person, whether this is within the scope of the provisions set out in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill for the purposes of a rent cap, or whether an actual gap in time between the tenancies is required.

Provisions within Part 1 of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, introduce a temporary cap on in-tenancy rent increases. The cap is set at 0% until at least 31 March 2023.

This means that a landlord is able to set the rent for any new tenancy and is allowed to put the rent up between one tenant moving out and the next tenant moving in.

Where a tenant remains the same person, but is required, in line with statutory processes, to be issued with a new tenancy agreement, the rent cap provisions within the Act do not apply.

Question reference: S6W-11393

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how its next cancer strategy and earlier diagnosis vision will address any health inequalities and promote equitable access to cancer services.

As set out in our public consultation we are considering how to address health inequalities and promote equitable access to cancer services. We have outlined ‘reducing inequalities’ as one of our main aims in the consultation. With over 250 responses received we have now commissioned independent analysis of the responses and anticipate the results to be published shortly. The results will inform the cancer strategy.

In addition, we held a series of workshops with patients and key stakeholders in September 2022 to help us gain further insight into the consultation responses and hear directly about peoples’ experiences of cancer and inform the development of the cancer strategy.

Question reference: S6W-11444

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding tenancies that have indexed or fixed rent increases as part of their contractual agreements, whether the provisions set out in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill overwrite these contracts and lease arrangements, and, in instances where rent was previously set to increase after a certain date according to a contract, whether this will still happen, or whether it is now frozen.

Provisions within Part 1 of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, introduce a temporary cap on in-tenancy rent increases, which is set at 0% until at least 31 March 2023.

The following tenancies are not covered by the rent cap:

some assured tenancies where rent increases are controlled by the contract - if a tenant has an assured tenancy where the way their rent will increase is set out in their contract - and the emergency legislation is still legally in force - then rent will be able to increase in the way agreed in the contract;
regulated tenancies under the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 - these tenancies already have strong protections in place, and rents for these tenancies can only increase once every three years;
common law tenancies - this includes arrangements like agricultural tenancies and lodger agreements (where a tenant lives with a landlord in their home), with the exception of student tenancy agreements; and new tenancies.

Question reference: S6W-11396

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its plan is for stopping the use of National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group recommended medicines that are not Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved, and therefore not considered cost effective, when there are SMC approved and cost-effective alternatives available to the NHS boards.

The National Cancer Medicines Advisory Group (NCMAG) provides advice on the off-label uses of certain cancer medicines, which are out with the remit of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCMAG provided rapid national decisions regarding the use of cancer medicines (sometimes out with the licensed indication for the medicine) to help meet the overall aim of reducing patient risk of COVID-19 infection and to mitigate the potential burden on cancer services.

Cancer services remain under considerable pressure, and cancer patients continue to be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. As a result, it was agreed that existing COVID-19 NCMAG advice would remain in place until the end of March 2023, after which it will be withdrawn. More generally, extant Scottish Government guidance states that unless there is a specific clinical reason, clinicians should not continue to use an unlicensed medicine or a medicine off-label where there is an available licensed medicine, which has been accepted for routine use by the SMC.