Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-13338

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties will be subject to the higher property rate poundage in 2023-24, broken down by (a) industry sector and (b) local authority area.

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Higher Property Rate (HPR) in 2023-24 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the below tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by local authority. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and figures are therefore subject to change.

Figures in these tables are rounded to the nearest 10, with values greater than zero but lower than five displayed as ‘[low]’.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for HPR in 2023-24 by property class

Property class	Properties with a gross HPR liability
Shops	2,390
Public Houses	180
Offices	1,760
Hotels	580
Industrial Subjects	2,520
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.	510
Garages and Petrol Stations	150
Cultural	90
Sporting Subjects	20
Education and Training	1,390
Public Service Subjects	500
Communications	90
Quarries, Mines, etc.	40
Petrochemical	70
Religious	40
Health and Medical	280
Other	240
Care Facilities	350
Advertising	10
Statutory Undertaking	370
Not in use	0
All	11,570

Table 2: Number of properties liable for HPR in 2023-24 by local authority

Local authority	Properties with a gross HPR liability
Aberdeen City	1,040
Aberdeenshire	530
Angus	140
Argyll & Bute	150
Clackmannanshire	50
Dumfries & Galloway	200
Dundee City	350
East Ayrshire	140
East Dunbartonshire	110
East Lothian	140
East Renfrewshire	80
City of Edinburgh	1,720
Na h-Eileanan Siar	50
Falkirk	290
Fife	510
Glasgow City	1,830
Highland	600
Inverclyde	110
Midlothian	170
Moray	200
North Ayrshire	170
North Lanarkshire	570
Orkney Islands	30
Perth & Kinross	280
Renfrewshire	380
Scottish Borders	170
Shetland Islands	60
South Ayrshire	200
South Lanarkshire	540
Stirling	210
West Dunbartonshire	130
West Lothian	420
Scotland	11,570

Question reference: S6W-13344

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much revenue raised by the business rates incentivisation scheme is expected to be retained by each local authority in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.

Question reference: S6O-01689

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its public consultation regarding the Scottish Aggregates Levy.

Question reference: S6W-12227

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on tobacco control overall in each year since 2017-18.

Local Authorities undertake tobacco control through tobacco sales enforcement and tobacco and electronic cigarette control.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on tobacco control, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

Question reference: S6W-12228

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on smoking cessation promotional campaigns via (a) media and (b) social media each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual report on marketing spend in each financial year, which can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ .

The Scottish Government ran a smoking cessation campaign in 2017-2018. The costs for this campaign totalled £370,978.50. The total media spend for this campaign was £253,352.78 across TV, radio, digital and outdoor advertising. The digital advertising included £23,252 on Facebook advertising in support of the campaign. No other social media advertising was used as part of the campaign.

Question reference: S6W-12229

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided specifically for smoking cessation services, in each NHS board in each year since 2017-18.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services. The funding is provided as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is then up to Health Boards to decide on the amount spent on each of those outcomes.

The following table sets out estimated funding for smoking cessation and prevention which is calculated on the basis of smoking rates and deprivation, however as above it is for Health Boards to determine final spend on this outcome.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Outcomes Framework Board allocations for smoking cessation and prevention	9,814	9,814	9,324	8,879	9,145

It is not possible to provide a breakdown by Health Board.

Question reference: S6O-01628

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take to address any issues of damp and mould in social housing.

Question reference: S6W-11578

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the (a) consumer benefits, (b) eligibility criteria and (c) longevity of delivery of the Warmer Homes Scotland programme, and how this compares in each respect to the UK Government's Home Upgrade Grant (i) Phase One and (ii) Phase Two.

(a) Warmer Homes Scotland Customers save £230 on average on their annual fuel bills. In the period from April – September 2022, Warmer Homes Scotland Customers saw an average SAP increase of 6.7, with 5402 heating and energy efficiency measures installed in 2503 households.

(b) Warmer Homes Scotland is a national scheme which primarily targets support at owner occupied households. A range of proxies which indicate that a household are in or likely to be in fuel poverty are used as eligibility criteria to target support at those who need it the most. The eligibility criteria has recently been widened to allow a further 100,000 more households to become eligible.

(c) The current contract for Warmer Homes Scotland ends on 30th June 2023, and the procurement process is currently underway for a successor scheme which is due to begin on 3rd July 2023. The successor scheme will run for a minimum of 5 years, the contract includes the option to extend a further 2 years which would see the programme run until July 2030.

(a) (i) The consumer benefits for Phase One of the Home Upgrade Grant have not yet been published. However in the period from March – August 2022, 155 heating and energy efficiency measures were installed in 121 households. This data can be found here . (ii) The consumer benefits for Phase Two of HUG have not yet been released.

(b) (i)/(ii) The Home Upgrade Grant is delivered by Local Authorities who will set out their own individual eligibility criteria within parameters.

(c) (i) The Home Upgrade Grant Phase One has ended, (ii) Phase Two is due to end in March 2025.

Question reference: S6O-01585

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it is investing in rural broadband.

Question reference: S6W-11587

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its response to the FOI request FOI/202200278002, in which it stated that it had not ruled out establishing dedicated Long COVID clinics across the country, whether it can provide an update on any developments on the matter across the country, including in each NHS board.

All NHS Scotland Boards are providing assessment and support for people with long COVID. This is being delivered across the full range of services delivered by our NHS and includes local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for further investigation delivered in secondary care settings where clinically appropriate.

It is for each NHS Board to develop and deliver the best models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms, tailored to the needs of their local population. This will involve strengthening the co-ordination of existing services, or establishing dedicated services where appropriate.

To support this, we have made available an initial £3 million from our long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to provide NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to respond to the needs of people with long COVID in their areas. While none of the services being delivered by NHS Scotland Boards are termed ‘long COVID clinics’, initiatives being supported by the funding include key elements of care that are also offered by post COVID assessment clinics elsewhere in the UK; such as the introduction of care co-ordinator roles to provide a single point of contact for people with long COVID and their families and the introduction of a multi-disciplinary assessment service to provide a person-centred assessment of people’s needs.

We have also established a National Strategic Network for long COVID to ensure the continued development of our national approach is informed by evidence and expertise.

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