Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-26382

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 2 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Justice Committee’s inquiry in 2013 and the Scottish Government’s response to it, for what reason it has not yet published the voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

The Scottish Government is preparing a Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

I acknowledge that there has been a considerable time elapsed since the decision to bring forward a voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

Unfortunately, due to other pressures, work has not progressed on the voluntary code of practice as anticipated.

Question reference: S6W-26387

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the specification that it is considering for single building assessments, in relation to cladding remediation, is limited to external cladding systems on buildings, or whether it is giving consideration to internal systems and fixtures being within scope.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.

Question reference: S6W-26384

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on agreeing the specification for single building assessments in relation to cladding remediation.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.

Question reference: S6W-26385

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to finalise the specification for single building assessments in relation to cladding remediation before the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill is debated at stage 3.

Question reference: S6O-03233

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of an accredited qualification and registration programme for Additional Support Needs assistants.

Question reference: S6O-03207

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with North Lanarkshire Council to improve the school estate.

Question reference: S6W-25661

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many Empowering Communities Programme grant awards for 2023-24 were paid to organisations in each month since April 2023, also broken down by the (a) recipient organisation and (b) amount of each grant award, and what the total value was of these awards.

The Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) comprises two community funding programmes - the Investing in Communities Fund and Strengthening Communities Programme – as well as grants to strategic delivery partners. In 2023-24 222 organisations within the ECP have been offered grants with a total value of £13,855,118.50.

As grant claims are invited on a quarterly basis in arrears we do not collate information on grant claims paid on a monthly basis at an organisational level and are therefore unable to provide this information in the format requested. Data on the amount of grant paid is currently available from the 1 April 2023 up to the period ending 31 January 2024. The total amount of grant paid for the ECP for this period is £9,030,517.

A table including the list of grant awards made for each organisation within the ECP has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64909)

Question reference: S6W-25663

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many recipient organisations of an Empowering Communities Programme grant award were dissolved before their grant was paid, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-25715

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the competing work priorities are that have resulted in the planned publication of the Scottish Housing Market Review in January 2024 being suspended.

The Scottish Housing Market Review, a quarterly publication which collates a range of previously published statistics, was suspended in January 2024 due to a number of competing work priorities, which included analytical work related to the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act as well as other legislative commitments.

The next edition of the Review is due to be published in April 2024, and will include analysis of data released in both Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.

Question reference: S6W-25660

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the latest year for which data is available, what the cost was of administering the Empowering Communities Programme, and what the (a) headcount, (b) FTE staff count, (c) total number of staffing hours and (d) total cost of staff salaries was.

We are unable to provide all the information in the form requested. This is because members of staff involved in the administration of the Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) undertake a variety of duties relating to the delivery of Scottish Government business including supporting Ministers. We do not routinely record the time spent or staff costs incurred related to the different elements of our work.

However we can advise that 5 members of staff, with an FTE of 4.6, spend the majority of their time supporting the delivery of the ECP, which includes the administration.

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