- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many households living in fuel poverty have received information about any support schemes available, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Since 2015, 663,670 households have accessed the Home Energy Scotland advice service in the following local authority areas:
Local authority | Cumulative Distinct Properties |
2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 |
Aberdeen City | 4,426 | 4,500 | 4,518 | 4,311 | 4,599 | 4,098 | 5,336 |
Aberdeenshire | 5,358 | 5,187 | 4,991 | 5,049 | 4,964 | 4,208 | 6,824 |
Angus | 1,670 | 2,010 | 1,919 | 1,928 | 1,892 | 1,828 | 3,087 |
Argyll & Bute | 2,189 | 2,172 | 2,332 | 2,987 | 2,652 | 2,811 | 3,029 |
Clackmannanshire | 500 | 699 | 739 | 831 | 884 | 693 | 746 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 2,408 | 2,345 | 2,941 | 3,003 | 3,502 | 4,133 | 4,833 |
Dundee | 2,024 | 2,769 | 2,543 | 2,811 | 2,702 | 2,859 | 3,835 |
East Ayrshire | 2,182 | 1,891 | 2,209 | 2,033 | 2,176 | 2,552 | 3,153 |
East Dunbartonshire | 1,140 | 1,234 | 1,149 | 1,074 | 1,371 | 1,330 | 1,611 |
East Lothian | 1,778 | 1,994 | 1,954 | 2,017 | 1,928 | 1,482 | 2,484 |
East Renfrewshire | 1,249 | 1,255 | 1,144 | 1,054 | 1,395 | 1,304 | 1,470 |
Edinburgh | 11,537 | 10,218 | 9,429 | 9,438 | 9,425 | 8,869 | 11,437 |
Falkirk | 1,841 | 1,967 | 1,962 | 1,558 | 1,821 | 1,874 | 2,172 |
Fife | 6,612 | 6,726 | 6,669 | 5,959 | 5,726 | 5,110 | 7,893 |
Glasgow | 6,444 | 7,099 | 7,287 | 6,409 | 7,850 | 8,685 | 8,440 |
Highland | 6,716 | 7,686 | 7,568 | 6,520 | 5,231 | 4,931 | 5,988 |
Inverclyde | 1,204 | 1,533 | 1,515 | 1,108 | 1,552 | 1,542 | 1,307 |
Midlothian | 1,766 | 1,713 | 1,629 | 1,614 | 1,748 | 1,366 | 2,218 |
Moray | 1,648 | 1,901 | 2,005 | 1,739 | 1,781 | 1,519 | 2,442 |
Nah-Eileanan Siar | 1,524 | 939 | 928 | 991 | 921 | 864 | 839 |
North Ayrshire | 2,054 | 1,717 | 2,050 | 2,029 | 2,342 | 2,525 | 3,319 |
North Lanarkshire | 3,660 | 3,704 | 3,709 | 3,375 | 3,865 | 4,095 | 4,500 |
Orkney | 1,570 | 553 | 543 | 473 | 525 | 614 | 806 |
Perth & Kinross | 2,333 | 2,752 | 2,677 | 3,076 | 3,600 | 3,293 | 4,373 |
Renfrewshire | 2,278 | 2,345 | 2,102 | 1,848 | 2,504 | 2,315 | 2,401 |
Scottish Borders | 2,345 | 2,559 | 3,823 | 3,489 | 2,976 | 2,407 | 3,709 |
Shetland | 838 | 268 | 667 | 515 | 539 | 696 | 851 |
South Ayrshire | 2,219 | 1,974 | 2,630 | 2,561 | 2,571 | 2,962 | 3,575 |
South Lanarkshire | 4,392 | 4,577 | 4,343 | 4,090 | 4,965 | 4,864 | 5,690 |
Stirling | 1,033 | 1,269 | 1,182 | 1,280 | 1,521 | 1,382 | 1,674 |
West Dunbartonshire | 1,120 | 1,247 | 986 | 839 | 1,040 | 1,079 | 1122 |
West Lothian | 3,138 | 3,020 | 3,321 | 2,669 | 2,401 | 2,238 | 3,848 |
Totals | 91,196 | 91,823 | 93,464 | 88,678 | 92,969 | 90,528 | 115,012 |
Since 2017 householders contacting Home Energy Scotland have been asked whether their home is hard to heat or they are worried about their bills. Householders living in or at risk of fuel poverty may also have received advice from other publicly funded advice services. We do not hold sufficiently comprehensive data to enable a comparison with the statutory definition of fuel poverty in Scotland.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 17 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to establish a national pothole fund to give local authorities access to additional resources to fix roads.
Answer
The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations.
It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them 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 no plans to establish a national pothole fund.
The overall funding package for local authorities of almost £12.7bn for 2022/23 represents a rise of £1.06bn or 9.2% in cash terms, or 6.3% in real terms compared with 2021/22.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop a new partnership with the hospice sector.
Answer
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing. The Scottish Hospice Leadership Group and a number of hospices continue to be valued members of the Scottish Government’s Strategy Steering Group for Palliative and End of Life Care, and Scottish Government officials continue to attend the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group (SHLG).
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a national payment for kinship carers, and, if so, when it anticipates such a payment will be agreed and delivered.
Answer
The Scottish Government values the crucial role carried out by kinship carers and is committed to delivering a Scottish Recommended Allowance for them, alongside foster carers. We acknowledge that it has taken far longer than we would like. That is why we are actively exploring all available options and working at pace with CoSLA, to deliver the allowance as soon as possible.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any sustainable funding needed by the hospice sector.
Answer
Our Programme for Government in 2021-22 committed to provision of high-quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7 million per year through Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Scottish Government officials are in discussions with CHAS about the sustainability and oversight of funding going forward.
It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to plan and commission adult palliative and end of life care services for their areas using the integrated budgets under their control.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and myself met with hospice sector representatives on 14 March to discuss the pressures that the hospice sector are currently facing, including representatives of adult hospices and CHAS.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) fostered and (b) adopted babies have received a Baby Box in each year since the initiative was launched.
Answer
We do not hold the information requested on the number of Baby Boxes distributed to fostered and adopted babies.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many foster carers there have been in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on the number of foster carers registered with local authorities or independent/voluntary service providers.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to developing a Scottish patients trial charter, to improve access to clinical trials.
Answer
The Scottish Government is not currently considering the development of a Scottish patients clinical trials charter.
On 13 February 2023 the Scottish Government published an independent report on Improving Equity of Access to Cancer Clinical Trials in Scotland. We will be working with the cancer clinical research community to prioritise and develop the report's 51 recommendations.
Improving equity of access to cancer clinical trials in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information Police Scotland holds on the number of cars that have been abandoned in each year since 1999.
Answer
Police Scotland hold management information on recorded incidents of abandoned vehicles. Not all abandoned vehicles will relate to cars and an incident may relate to more than one abandoned vehicle. Figures are available at a Scotland level from 2019, which was the first calendar year where information was recorded consistently across all police divisions. The 2023 figure relates to a partial year (from 1st January to 10th March).
Incident Type | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Abandoned vehicle Incidents | 18,422 | 13,471 | 14,107 | 13,702 | 2,250 |
Source: Police Scotland Management Information extracted 10 March 2023
Police Scotland also hold management information on the number of vehicles which have been abandoned on a road and removed by Police Scotland under section 99 of the Road Traffic and regulation Act 1984. Data is available from 2017 onwards. The 2023 figure relates to a partial year (from 1 st January to 12 th March)
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Vehicles Removed under Section 99 | 992 | 843 | 809 | 832 | 693 | 704 | 137 |
Source: Police Scotland Management Information extracted 13 March 2023
Requests for this information can also be submitted directly to Police Scotland at: foi@scotland.police.uk.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 February 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 16 March 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many children currently living in temporary accommodation are not registered with a dentist.
Answer
This information is not held by the Scottish Government.
Public Health Scotland does publish statistics on the number of children registered with a dentist but data on the accommodation status of patients is not collected. Registration statistics can be viewed at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/dental-statistics-registration-and-participation/dental-statistics-nhs-registration-and-participation-24-january-2023/ .