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-02595

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on (a) how many and (b) what percentage of homes in each local authority have had interlinked fire alarms fitted.

It is not possible to determine exactly how many owner occupied homes have alarms of the prescribed type installed as this information is not currently collected as part of the Scottish House Condition Survey. In the future, when the regulations on the new fire alarm standard have come into effect, it will be possible to collect more precise data because compliance with the tolerable standard is included in the Survey. This will allow us to monitor progress in bringing Scotland’s homes up to the new standard.

Drawing on the latest 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey data we estimate that of the approximately 1,550,000 owner occupied properties in Scotland, 7% (or around 100,000) of homes did not have any smoke alarm at all, and around a quarter (or 400,000) had only one alarm. This indicates that around 500,000 owner-occupied properties are likely to fall below the proposed standard. It is possible that a proportion of the remaining 1,005,000 properties with more than one alarm would also not comply with the standard, although it is not possible to determine this from the currently available data.

Question reference: S6W-02607

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what support it plans to provide to help social enterprises.

The Scottish Government’s Social Enterprise Strategy was launched in 2016 and sets out a wide-ranging, ambitious and long-term programme to develop the potential of Scotland's social enterprise sector.

The latest Social Enterprise Action Plan was published on 24 March 2021 and covers the period 2021-24 and is available at: Social enterprise: action plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

To deliver the plan, we will spend over £5 million this financial year supporting Social Enterprises across the country. Some of the projects we have committed to support over the next three years include:

Doubling our funding for Social Enterprise in Schools to almost £2m to ensure that by 2024 every school child will have the opportunity to engage with a social enterprise project in their school career, introducing the benefits of the social enterprise model to young people across Scotland.
Investing an additional £1.5m to build on the successful programme of support offered through Adapt and Thrive which helps community organisations wanting to diversify their income streams.
Investing £1.5 million to create a clear pipeline for social enterprises from conception to the international market, with a focus on ethical opportunities in emerging markets such as Africa and South East Asia.

Question reference: S6W-02600

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have been the subject of a payment of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) in each year since its introduction, also broken down by local authority area.

Revenue Scotland, in its role as Scotland’s fully devolved tax collection and management authority, regularly publishes data on its website regarding the number of property conveyances and non-residential leases subject to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT). These are available at https://revenue.scot/news-publications/publications/statistics .

Revenue Scotland’s Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2019-20 provides an overview of LBTT returns related to conveyances, leases and lease reviews received from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2020. This includes estimates for residential and non-residential conveyances at a sub-Scotland level.

In particular, Figure 16 of this publication includes an estimate of the number of residential conveyance returns received, by local authority area and year, while Figure 21 gives an estimate of the number of non-residential conveyances received by Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2 area and year. Local authority level estimates of non-residential conveyances are not provided to minimise the risk of disclosing protected taxpayer information.

In addition, Revenue Scotland’s monthly LBTT publication provides Scotland-level information on the number of residential and non-residential LBTT returns, including leases, received by month of submission.

Question reference: S6W-02596

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry will publish its report.

Question reference: S6W-02594

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to assist NHS boards to support patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Question reference: S6W-02601

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many empty homes officers have been employed by each local authority in each year since 1999.

There are currently 27 empty homes officers working across 25 local authority areas. We can advise that the following local authorities do not have an empty homes officer post:

Clackmannanshire

East Dunbartonshire

East Lothian

East Renfrewshire

Midlothian

The Shetland Islands

West Lothian

Data on the number of empty homes officers is collected by the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership therefore we do not hold any information prior to the Partnerships inception in 2010. This information is reported each year in the annual reports. Copies of the reports are published on their website at: https://emptyhomespartnership.scot/about-us/ .

Question reference: S6W-02597

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what the average number of long-term empty homes in each local authority has been in each year since 1999.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01075 on 22 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

The answer as provided in S6W-01075 sets out the available information published on the number of long term empty homes through Scottish Government annual statistics on long term empty properties and unoccupied exemptions, most recently published at Housing statistics quarterly update: December 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Detailed Excel tables are also available at Housing statistics: Empty properties and second homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , which provide local authority level figures on the number of long term empty properties from 2005 to 2020, and on the number of unoccupied exemptions from 1996 to 2020.

The figures are sourced from the Council Tax Base data return, and are based on an annual snapshot of properties on the Council Tax Valuation List as at the first Monday in September each year. Data on long term empty properties have been separately identified in the Council Tax Base data return from 2005 onwards, and so no information is held centrally for the earlier years 1999 to 2004.

Question reference: S6W-02286

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park can limit the number of jet ski licences it issues.

Question reference: S6W-02281

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many jet ski owners have had enforcement action taken against them in each year since the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park was established, broken down by the nature of the enforcement.

Question reference: S6T-00151

Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 September 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is in discussions with the UK Government regarding its decision to terminate its supply agreement with Valneva for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001.