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: S5W-23027

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the most recent Scottish Welfare Fund statistics update, which states that Community Care Grant applications from families facing exceptional pressure have increased by 12% since the same quarter last year.

Question reference: S5W-23008

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made on delivering the A90 upgrade between Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen, including the northern relief road for Dundee.

The recent completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route including the section from Balmedie to Tipperty has delivered a significant upgrade to the A90 trunk road network in the North East. In addition, the design work on improvements to the A90/A937 at Laurencekirk continues to move forward with the next stage, the publication of draft Orders, planned for later in 2019.

The Strategic Transport Review (STPR), published in 2008, recommended a programme of on-going route management for the A90. This included targeted improvements which would contribute towards the need to maintain and safely operate the trunk road network. These localised improvements continue to be delivered through Transport Scotland’s annual maintenance programme.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review is now well underway and this will allow us to reassess any previously recommended interventions that have not yet been progressed, such as the A90 at Dundee. This will ensure that they remain relevant to delivering the vision and outcomes of the new National Transport Strategy and continue to be the correct decisions for the public purse.

Question reference: S5O-03277

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people achieved vocational qualifications at stage 4 as part of the Skills Development Scotland Employability Fund for 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-22828

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made to establish a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) boundary in Dundee, and what information it has on what Dundee City Council’s LEZ Delivery Group’s next steps are.

Question reference: S5W-22822

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Energy Saving Trust grants have been awarded in each year since 2016, broken down by local authority area.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has provided loan schemes for energy efficiency measures through the Energy Saving Trust. Some of these loans included a `cash back' element worth up to 25% of the cost of selected energy efficiency measures.

Details of the number of applications for energy efficiency loan schemes available through the Home Energy Scotland service is published on the Energy Saving Trust website. https://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/grants-loans

This includes details of the number and value of cash back awards provided on eligible loans. This information is not currently published by EST at local authority level.

Details of the amounts of grant in kind for domestic energy efficiency measures provided since 2016 through Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes are published on the Scottish Government website.

Question reference: S5W-22823

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 9 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on offering energy efficiency discounts for residential properties on a longer-term basis.

Question reference: S5W-22825

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how its energy efficiency measures are impacting on fuel poverty.

The Scottish Government is providing energy efficiency measures to help those families living in or at risk of living in fuel poverty in Scotland through its Home Energy Efficiency Programme for Scotland (HEEPS).

Launched in April 2013 the HEEPS programme is made up of 3 separate schemes and provides an offer of support to all households in Scotland. The three schemes are;

HEEPS: Area Based Schemes (ABS ) are delivered by local authorities who target fuel poor areas and provide a range of insulation measures while focusing on harder to treat properties requiring more expensive measures such as solid wall insulation.

HEEPS: Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) is the national fuel poverty scheme providing fabric measures such as insulation as well as heating measures to improve the energy efficiency of the Scottish housing stock as well as to sustainably reduce fuel bills for those people who are deemed to be living in or at risk of living in fuel poverty.

HEEPS: Loans . Through Home Energy Scotland (HES) loans of up to £10,000 are available to all households (HES Loans) and registered social landlords (RSL Loans) to help them install energy efficiency measures in to their properties. The loans are interest free and applicants for HES Loans have also benefited from cashback. These loans are not limited to fuel poor households as anyone can apply for them.

Due to the nature of the factors that contribute to a household being in fuel poverty it is not possible to establish with any certainty the impact that these schemes have had on the levels of fuel poverty in Scotland. However, the Scottish Government has calculated the average annual savings on fuel for households benefitting from interventions under HEEPS. In the financial year 2017-18 the average annual fuel bill savings for each household receiving help under one of the HEEPS schemes were:

HEEPS: ABS £293.00
HEEPS: WHS £318.00
HES: HES Loans £195.00
HEEPS: RSL Loans £221.00

The 2017-18 HEEPS Delivery Report is due to be published in the next few weeks. The 2016-17 HEEPS Delivery Report can be found on the Scottish Government Website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/home-energy-efficiency-programmes-scotland-delivery-report-2016-17/ .

Question reference: S5O-03248

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in addressing the areas for improvement identified in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report, Review of Adult Mental Health Services in Tayside.

Question reference: S5W-22826

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 8 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in each local authority area are experiencing fuel poverty.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually in the Scottish House Condition Survey local authority tables. The most recent set of these tables covered the 3-year period from 2015-2017 and were published in February 2019. The following table shows the overall number and rate of fuel poor households in each local authority over the 2015-2017 period.

These estimates are based on the current definition of fuel poverty as set out in the 2002 Scottish Fuel Poverty Statement. There are proposed changes to this definition in the Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill , which is currently progressing through Parliament.

Published Local Authority estimates are available here: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/keyanalyses/LATables1517

Table: Number of fuel poor households in each local authority, 2015-2017

Local Authority	Number of fuel poor households (000’s)	% of households that are fuel poor
Aberdeen City	22	21%
Aberdeenshire	41	37%
Angus	18	33%
Argyll and Bute	18	44%
Clackmannanshire	7	31%
Dumfries and Galloway	26	36%
Dundee City	22	31%
East Ayrshire	17	32%
East Dunbartonshire	11	23%
East Lothian	11	25%
East Renfrewshire	8	21%
Edinburgh, City of	39	17%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	7	56%
Falkirk	16	22%
Fife	52	31%
Glasgow City	61	21%
Highland	53	49%
Inverclyde	11	31%
Midlothian	8	22%
Moray	18	42%
North Ayrshire	17	26%
North Lanarkshire	36	24%
Orkney Islands	6	57%
Perth and Kinross	21	30%
Renfrewshire	19	23%
Scottish Borders	17	31%
Shetland Islands	5	44%
South Ayrshire	15	29%
South Lanarkshire	33	23%
Stirling	10	26%
West Dunbartonshire	9	22%
West Lothian	16	21%
Scotland	670	27%

Source: Scottish House Condition Survey, 2015-2017.

Local Authority	Number of fuel poor households (000’s)	% of households in local authority that are fuel poor
Aberdeen City	22	21%
Aberdeenshire	41	37%
Angus	18	33%
Argyll and Bute	18	44%
Clackmannanshire	7	31%
Dumfries and Galloway	26	36%
Dundee City	22	31%
East Ayrshire	17	32%
East Dunbartonshire	11	23%
East Lothian	11	25%
East Renfrewshire	8	21%
Edinburgh, City of	39	17%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	7	56%
Falkirk	16	22%
Fife	52	31%
Glasgow City	61	21%
Highland	53	49%
Inverclyde	11	31%
Midlothian	8	22%
Moray	18	42%
North Ayrshire	17	26%
North Lanarkshire	36	24%
Orkney Islands	6	57%
Perth and Kinross	21	30%
Renfrewshire	19	23%
Scottish Borders	17	31%
Shetland Islands	5	44%
South Ayrshire	15	29%
South Lanarkshire	33	23%
Stirling	10	26%
West Dunbartonshire	9	22%
West Lothian	16	21%
Scotland	670	27%

Question reference: S5W-22819

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement in the Fraser of Allander Institute blog, Budget 2019-20: what next?, that “Local government was...a key tension within the budget. In the context of budget negotiations, such discussions tend to centre upon the level of funding provided to councils and whether or not the settlement is fair.”

The Scottish Government routinely engages with political parties across the Scottish Parliament as part of the Scottish Budget agreement process.

The 2019-20 Scottish Budget protects and invests in Scotland's public services, offering stability in the face of the chaos and confusion of the UK imposed Brexit.

Local Government funding represents a significant proportion of the Scottish Budget. In 2019-20, Scottish Ministers are providing councils with a real terms funding increase of £310 million or 2.9 per cent. The real terms increase in funding alongside the package of local tax reform measures, that will provide the most significant empowerment of local authorities since devolution, are evidence that the Scottish Government will continue to treat local government fairly.