Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-26250

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the average award level will be for new applications to the reopened Independent Living Fund.

Based on the recommendations of the Co-Production Working Group, the maximum award for new recipients of the Independent Living Fund has been set at £330 per week. Historically awards have tended to be substantially lower than the maximum. However, the Independent Living Fund is now open to new applicants for the first time since 2010, so it is challenging to estimate the average award level. Awards will depend on individual assessments by ILF Scotland Assessors of the award required to achieve the independent living outcomes sought.

Question reference: S6W-26246

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been committed to reopening the Independent Living Fund to new applicants in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-26251

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of any estimates, analysis or modelling that it has for the reopening of the Independent Living Fund.

Based on £9 million of funding available in 2024-25, Scottish Government and ILF Scotland worked together to develop indicative options based on varying threshold sums and maximum award levels for consideration by the Co-Production Working Group. The group provided recommendations to Ministers on reopening the fund, which were accepted. The recommendations report is available at: https://ilf.scot/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Recommendations-for-Scottish-Ministers-v01.0.pdf

The group recommend that the Fund should re-open using a ‘threshold sum’ as a key access principle. The threshold sum is the value of the local authority / Self Directed Support care package and has been used by ILF since 1993 as a proxy for level of need. Following deliberations on the group on the number of people that may be eligible at different threshold levels, the group recommend that the Fund should open with a threshold sum of £800.

The group considered that 10 hours of additional independent living focused support and assistance was meaningful in relation to the realisation of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD) and would enable a typical award to contribute to making a meaningful difference. Using the current ILF average hourly rates awarded of £22 per hour, taking 10 hours as the average, and 15 hours as the maximum, this equates to a maximum award of £330 per week.

To ensure that the Fund is affordable within the £9m allocation committed to by Ministers in the first year, each local authority area was allocated a share of 1,000 places in the Fund, with places allocated proportionately based on the size of the population and the percentage of disabled people in that area. The places allocated to each local authority is available on the ILF Scotland website: https://ilf.scot/re-opening-ilf/re-opening-frequently-asked-questions/#allocation

Question reference: S6W-26249

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many new applications to the reopened Independent Living Fund it estimates will be received.

Question reference: S6W-26245

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it anticipates it will reopen the Independent Living Fund to new applicants.

Question reference: S6W-26382

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 2 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Justice Committee’s inquiry in 2013 and the Scottish Government’s response to it, for what reason it has not yet published the voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

The Scottish Government is preparing a Voluntary Code of Practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning land maintenance companies.

I acknowledge that there has been a considerable time elapsed since the decision to bring forward a voluntary code of practice on dismissing and replacing land-owning maintenance companies.

Unfortunately, due to other pressures, work has not progressed on the voluntary code of practice as anticipated.

Question reference: S6W-26384

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on agreeing the specification for single building assessments in relation to cladding remediation.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.

Question reference: S6W-26387

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the specification that it is considering for single building assessments, in relation to cladding remediation, is limited to external cladding systems on buildings, or whether it is giving consideration to internal systems and fixtures being within scope.

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a risk-based approach to assess and culminate in a report on the risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the External Wall System (EWS) in multi-residential domestic buildings which may include a commercial premises, constructed or refurbished between 1 June 1992 and 1 June 2022, 11 metres and over in height and incorporating a form of external wall cladding system. The SBA includes a FRAEW (Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls) which requires that a building is assessed holistically, and for that reason, the SBA will also include a Fire Risk Assessment of the common parts of the building to the level of detail deemed required by the Fire Engineer / Assessor. The level of risk acceptance for any building in scope is tolerable risk. The recommendations identified by the Fire Engineer or Assessor within the SBA report which are deemed necessary to eliminate or mitigate risk to human life (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the EWS will form the remediation scope.

Question reference: S6W-26385

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 27 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to finalise the specification for single building assessments in relation to cladding remediation before the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill is debated at stage 3.

Question reference: S6O-03233

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of an accredited qualification and registration programme for Additional Support Needs assistants.

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