Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01646 on 23 August 2016. Since then the Fairer Scotland Action Plan was published on 5 October 2016, with 50 government actions for this parliamentary term and a call for everyone to get involved in delivering a fairer and more prosperous country. As well as responding to the Fairer Scotland discussions, the Plan sets out progress to date on meeting the recommendations of the report of Naomi Eisenstadt the Independent Adviser on Poverty and Inequality. 

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government promotes the benefits of Fair Work. While employment law remains reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is doing everything it can to promote good working practices with the powers available to us. This includes publishing Statutory Guidance Addressing Fair Work Practices. This guidance makes it clear that a positive approach to fair work practices can have an impact on the quality of services, goods and works.

Public bodies must now consider, before undertaking a procurement exercise, whether it can include a question on fair work practices, including the inappropriate use of zero hours contracts as part of the competition. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies whose powers are set out in statute. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day to day business and decision making processes.

The Financial Conduct Authority introduced a price cap on what high-cost short-term credit lenders can charge on 2 January 2015. While recent evidence relating to these changes suggests a reduction in payday lending activity, the Scottish Government remains committed to encouraging the provision of alternatives to high cost lending.

The Scottish Government is planning to remove the under-occupancy reduction through Universal Credit (UC), and as such implementation will be dependent on the roll-out of UC, which the UK Government expects to be completed by 2022. Officials are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to consider how best to implement these changes in Scotland and Discretionary Housing Payments will continue to be available for those affected until implementation is complete.

The Scottish Government wrote to the UK Government on 10 March 2016. This was to:

(i) update the UK Government on the work by the Regulatory Review Group and;

(ii) seek details of UK Government proposals to ensure that a consistent and proportionate regulatory response to the collaborative economy was developed across all respective regulatory vires within the UK.

The letter was copied to Tourism Ministers in other Devolved Administrations, the Conveners of the Cross Party Groups in the Scottish Parliament on Tourism and Recreational Boating and Marine Tourism, the relevant Enterprise Agencies and major tourism stakeholders within Scotland.

The Scottish Government received a reply from the UK Government on 27 April and will seek to discuss progress with the UK Government and other Tourism Ministers at a suitable date in the future.

Specifically on regulation, the independent Regulatory Review Group is also undertaking a review of the regulatory environment within Scotland for key sectors.

Under the Abellio franchise, ScotRail is required to maintain a very high level of service provision overall, including for delays, cancellations and other Key Performance Indicator (KPIs). If it does not succeed in maintaining the volume of service it is required to, then various sanctions are brought to bear, including a default of the whole franchise.

The Scottish Government has provided local government with an additional £70 million each year to fully mitigate the impact of the council tax freeze and fully fund it over the nine years it has been in place saving the average Band D household around £1,550 in total over the period 2008-17.

The number of social rented homes built to wheelchair accessibility standard over the current target period will depend on the priorities of local authorities as identified in their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA), Local Housing Strategies (LHS) and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs).

Local authorities are required by law to prepare an LHS, supported by an assessment of housing need and demand. Scottish Government guidance on LHS notes that the strategy has to clearly set out the current need for specialist provision (accommodation and care/support services) that will help to support people to live independently, the likely requirement for this provision over the next 5 years, how current needs are being met using a range of accommodation types, and what more is planned to meet future need.

Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) are produced every two years by local authorities. These are the key documents which identify the strategic housing projects to assist the achievement of the 50,000 target. SHIPs will be directly informed by the councils LHS and developed in consultation with key stakeholders. SHIP documents are due to be returned to the Scottish Government at the end of November.

In every year since 2007 we have maintained higher build rates than England and Wales and in 2015 had the highest all-sector build rate in the UK.

Our assistance for the private sector has included £0.5 billion investment in Help To Buy (Scotland) to support home buyers and the industry with access to lower deposit mortgages.

Alongside this the Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) schemes have helped over 22,000 households into home ownership since 2007 and in the Highlands area the two year £4million pilot Self Build Loan Fund is helping households design and build a home of their choice while supporting the SME house building industry.

Scottish Investment Bank have recently agreed to support funding for SME house builders to encourage them to increase supply and the £50million infrastructure fund in 2016-17 has been set up to remove blockages for both private and affordable housing on strategic sites.

Scottish Ministers welcomed the recommendations of the Independent Review of Planning in July 2016 and aim to produce a White Paper by the end of 2016 which will contain proposals to assist housing and infrastructure delivery amongst other issues.

The Rural Housing Fund was launched on 26 February 2016. To date, three organisations have had capital funding approved. None of these projects have completed so, at this stage, no houses have been built or upgraded using the fund.