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-14277

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-01324 by Shona Robison on 7 September 2022, what evidence it used to substantiate the statement that “we expect the vast majority of buildings that will be assessed to be found to be safe” prior to any form of building assessment for combustible cladding materials.

Buildings within the scope of the Cladding Remediation Programme will be subject to a process of increasing assessment scrutiny.

A baseline assessment will identify those buildings which require a full assessment based on an evaluation of fire risk.

The proportion of buildings identified as requiring a full assessment is likely to be low when considering the total number of eligible buildings. This assessment is in line with a House of Commons analysis of the scale of the problems in England.

Single Building Assessments are demand-led and are free for all buildings with residential flatted properties regardless of tenure.

Question reference: S6W-14045

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how (a) the Scottish Government and (b) local authorities monitor the number of landlords with buy-to-let mortgages in arrears, and what steps it (i) has taken and (ii) will take to prevent tenants being evicted due to lender repossession.

The Scottish Government monitors statistics collected by UK Finance on the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears across the UK. The latest trends are reported by the Scottish Government in the Scottish Housing Market Review, which is published each quarter as a resource for housing market stakeholders, including local authorities.

The Scottish Government is providing all local authorities with an annual share of £30.5 million in 2023-24 for homelessness prevention and response measures. We recognise that support to tenants being evicted is important and PRS landlords are under a duty to inform the local authority if their tenant is being evicted and at risk of homelessness. Anyone experiencing homelessness should contact their local authority as they have a legal duty to offer a minimum of temporary accommodation, advice and assistance to anyone at risk of homelessness. Organisations such as Shelter Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland are also able to provide advice and guidance.

Question reference: S6W-14063

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) annual and (b) average rate of landlord registration has been since 2010, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-14013

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how NHS Scotland tracks the number of people presenting with respiratory conditions due to damp and cold homes.

Question reference: S6W-14014

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people currently have respiratory conditions due to the condition of their home.

Question reference: S6W-13911

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Fuel Insecurity Fund have (a) been received, (b) been rejected and (c) resulted in a grant being given in each year since it was established.

The Scottish Government does not hold the full level of information requested.

We regularly monitor the support provided by our delivery partners, together with scheduled engagements across the year. We always seek to avoid excessive demands for data gathering in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed with a level of partner discretion to target direct support to those most in need at the time.

In 2021-22 - SFHA awarded funding to 35 projects, comprising single organisation, partnership and consortium bids. In total, 41 organisations were direct recipients, with a further 24 accessing vouchers for their tenants through one of the main grantees. Successful applications were received from housing associations from across Scotland, supporting rural, island and urban communities. While overall success rate reported by ADS for their applications from the fund in 2021 stood at 96%, with a total of 1,208 successful. ADS grant payments were administered to a total of 58 different energy suppliers in Scotland.

On receipt of FIF delivery partners 2022-23 evaluation reports, officials will consider appropriate publication of such details for access on the SG website.

Question reference: S6W-13912

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average payment from the Fuel Insecurity Fund has been in each month of 2022-23 to date.

Question reference: S6W-13910

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in the (a) local authority, (b) registered social landlord, (c) private rented and (d) owner-occupier sector have received payments from the Fuel Insecurity Fund in each month of 2022-23 to date.

Households of all tenures are eligible to seek assistance from the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) if they are at risk of self-rationing their energy use or self-disconnecting entirely. Our trusted third sector delivery partners, namely Advice Direct Scotland (ADS), the Fuel Bank Foundation and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), are not required to monitor the housing tenure type of the individuals they support. In the case of the SFHA, though, all of the support they provide, £6.6m this financial year, is directed towards social housing tenants of member RSLs.

We regularly monitor the support provided by our delivery partners; however we seek to avoid excessive demands for data gathering in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed with a level of partner discretion to target direct support to those most in need at the time.

Question reference: S6W-13839

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Home Owners' Support Fund system was reportedly decommissioned in late 2021; what impact this has had on new and outstanding applications since it was decommissioned, and what the new system will cost.

The previous HOSF casework management system was built between 2008-2010 using legacy software that could no longer be supported.

The impact on existing and new applications to HOSF has been minimal as this was a stand-alone system that was not integrated into the application process.

In the interim period prior to the rollout of a new digital system, all cases have been moved to an alternative temporary solution. There is some additional work involved with the drafting of offer letters using the contingency process, however this is balanced with the improvements we have been able to make in other areas, such as better visibility of workflow and performance reporting. The new digital system is being designed to build on the process improvements already made.

Work on the new system is ongoing and the cost will depend on the final solution which will be chosen after the testing of prototypes.

Question reference: S6W-13913

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many payments from the Fuel Insecurity Fund have been made to support households that have damp and mould issues in each month of 2022-23 to date, and what the total value of payments for this purpose has been.