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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-27007

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many short-term let licences have been granted in each local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-27008

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 30 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for a short-term let licence have been rejected in each local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-26819

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 29 April 2024

To ask to the Scottish Government for what reason social landlords reportedly have access to grants and additional time to support Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) compliance, in light of reports that many private landlords, who are struggling with rising mortgage costs and subject to rent control measures, limiting the ability to recoup any associated costs, do not have access to the same level of support.

Private rented homes have a poorer standard of energy efficiency and the tenants who live there are usually unable to make improvements. That’s why our consultation on proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill asked for views on private rented homes reaching a good standard of energy efficiency before the end of 2028.

Our Private Rented Sector (PRS) Landlord Loan Scheme – launched in April 2020 – offers landlords interest free or low interest loan funding to support the installation of energy efficiency, clean heating and renewable systems. The scheme offers funding of up to £38,500 per property, including £15,000 for energy efficiency measures, £17,500 for the installation of clean heating and renewable systems, and up to £6,000 for the installation of energy storage systems.

The main aim of our Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) when introduced ten years ago was to remove poor energy efficiency as a driver for fuel poverty. The sector also has a role in achieving our climate change targets which require net zero heat in buildings by 2045. This is why we have recently consulted on proposals to establish a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard.

We are making £200 million available up to 2026 to support the installation of zero direct emissions heating systems and energy efficiency measures across the social housing stock.

Question reference: S6W-26624

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an indicative timeline for when (a) it will respond to the proposed consultation on fire safety, following the work of the Building and Fire Safety Expert Working Group, and (b) it will look to implement any recommendations resulting from such a consultation.

Question reference: S6W-26622

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has done any work with the hospitality sector to look at the economic and social impacts of fires affecting hotels.

Question reference: S6W-26623

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consult on fire safety in autumn 2024, based on the work of the Building and Fire Safety Expert Working Group, and, if so, whether any such consultation will cover all of the objectives that the working group is reviewing.

Question reference: S6W-26621

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of BS 8414 testing still being allowed as a route to compliance for combustible façade materials to be used on certain buildings, such as hotels, over 11 metres in height.

Hotels are not listed as ‘relevant buildings’ within the meaning of the Building Scotland (Amendment) Regulations 2022. All new and converted hotels having a storey, or creating a storey at a height of 11 metres or more above the ground, must comply with the relevant mandatory functional standards, including mandatory standard 2.7 that requires the fire spread on external walls to be inhibited.

BS 8414 testing and the assessment criteria in BR 135 may be used for hotels as an alternative route to compliance with the mandatory standards. The continued use of this alternative solution for hotels over 11 metres in height is currently being considered by the Building and Fire Safety Expert Working Group.

Question reference: S6W-26506

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people under the age of 65 have received free personal care in each year since the expansion of the policy in April 2019, also broken down by local authority area.

The latest statistical release for Free Personal and Nursing Care is for the period 2022-23 and was published on 5 September 2023. Two published excel files accompany the publication, one of which provides data on people aged between 18-64, from the years 2018-19 to 2022-23. This can be found at: Supporting documents - Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The relevant information can be found in Tables 3a and 6a.

Although Care at Home may include personal care, it may also take the form of other support services which sit outwith Free Personal Care legislation.

Free personal care is available to all adults, regardless of their age, and is provided based on an assessment of need by the local authority. Local authorities set their eligibility threshold based on local guidance, and it may not be consistent across local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-26704

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when the most recent cancer mortality statistics will be published, in light of annual figures reportedly not being published in autumn 2023 in line with the normal publication schedule.

Mortality data up to 2022, including breakdowns of deaths caused by cancer, has been published to its usual annual timetable by National Records of Scotland at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/vital-events-ref-tables/2022/vital-events-22-ref-tabs-6.xlsx . This includes crude (unadjusted) death rates.

Public Health Scotland will publish further statistics on cancer mortality, including age-adjusted mortality rates and time series comparisons, in late 2024. This work has been delayed whilst the population figures for previous years are rebased by National Records of Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26353

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what investment it plans to make to support the transformation of NHS IT services, and how much will be made available to each NHS board for any such work.

The Scottish Government continues to protect investment in digital within health services, as shown in the published budget. Planning remains underway to fully assess the impact on planned activity for 20242-5 that takes into account the considerable financial challenges facing the Scottish Government in the forthcoming financial year.

Rather than provide specific financial allocations to NHS Boards for the transformation of NHS IT Services, the Scottish Government provides funding to support investment programmes which are aligned to our Digital Health and Care Strategy. We will shortly publish our updated Delivery Plan for Digital Health & Care. This will confirm delivery priorities for the year ahead using the investment available.