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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-34929

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have had a rural housing burden applied to their title deeds in each year since 2003, broken down by (a) council tax band and (b) local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, I have contacted the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (the Keeper) and they have been able to provide some of the information. The breakdown by each year the rural housing burden was applied is not available. The property registers maintained by the Keeper do not include council tax band. The following number of titles contain rural housing burdens by local authority:

Argyll and Bute 134

Dumfries and Galloway 109

Highland 388

Inverclyde 1

Moray 4

Na h-Eileanan an Iar 110

Orkney Islands 24

Perth and Kinross 13

Total 783

Question reference: S6W-34932

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many rural housing burdens have been issued each year since 2003.

Question reference: S6W-34931

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many bodies designated as a rural housing body under section 43 (6) of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 have issued rural housing burdens, broken down by year.

Question reference: S6W-34536

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 26 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure the sustainability of cultural facilities in the Central Scotland region, in light of Creative Scotland's decision not to award multi-year funding to Cumbernauld Theatre, which has been reported as being "heartbreaking".

The Scottish Government has demonstrated its commitment to the culture sector across Scotland with an increase of £34m in 2025-26 to the culture budget. The largest part of this is an additional £20m for Creative Scotland to provide core funding through its Multi Year Funding programme. This is a foundational moment for culture and the arts in Scotland which means that more organisations than ever, in more parts of the country, will benefit from the stability of core funding. 251 organisations have been successful in securing support, up from 119 currently, and a further 13 organisations will join a development stream and have the possibility of joining the portfolio of funded organisations from 2026-27.

I recognise of course that those organisations that have not been successful in the Multi Year Funding process, such as Cumbernauld Theatre, and their communities will be deeply disappointed. While these funding decisions have been for Creative Scotland to take, I am reassured that the small number of unsuccessful applicants will all be offered bespoke support from Creative Scotland.

I would encourage the Cumbernauld Theatre to continue to engage with Creative Scotland to understand the basis of this decision and take up opportunities offered through the transition support that they will be eligible for.

Question reference: S6O-04325

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting times are for a neurodevelopmental assessment and a speech and language therapy assessment for children and young people in NHS Lanarkshire and in Scotland as a whole.

Question reference: S6W-33597

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a summary of the reasons for the continued delay in the transfer of responsibility for delivery of the Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is prioritising longer term reform so that Employment Injury Assistance better meets Scotland’s needs. This is the option which was supported by the largest number of responses to our public consultation held last year.

Our work on Employment Injury Assistance has taken longer than initially intended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated delays to the development and delivery of social security benefits. Furthermore, we have prioritised the delivery of Scottish Child Payment, Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment, in line with the expectations of disabled people and stakeholders.

The Industrial Injuries Scheme has undergone minimal reform by successive UK Government’s since it was introduced more than 75 years ago. While reform will therefore take time, a like-for-like replacement would have been complex, not offered value for money and would not meet the needs of people in the modern workforce.

Question reference: S6W-33596

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 30 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects to have held the first meeting of the employment injury assistance steering group.

The Scottish Government is in the process of establishing a stakeholder group on Employment Injury Assistance which will be comprised of organisations and experts with experience of Industrial Injuries Scheme benefits.

Invitations for the Employment Injury Assistance Steering Group will be issued in the coming weeks. The first meeting will take place early this year, subject to members’ availability.

This group will take forward considerations raised in the consultation and provide valuable input for our ongoing work on Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-04261

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the uplift in the Scottish Prison Service budget for 2025-26 will be spent on improving the prison estate.

Question reference: S6W-33194

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average grant rate was for a social new-build property delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) the first half of 2024-25, broken down by (i) local authority and (ii) registered social landlord new builds.

The following table provides the average grant rates for Registered Social Landlord (RSL) and Local Authority social rent new build homes approved through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) between April 2022 and end September 2024.

Financial Year	RSL Social Rent New Build Homes Average Grant per Home (£ million)	Local Authority Social Rent New Build Homes Average Grant per Home (£ million)
2022-2023	0.120	0.095
2023-2024	0.140	0.113
2024-2025	0.134	0.104

Please note this table is based on management information and that RSL social rent new build homes approved using Charitable Bond Donations have been excluded from these figures.

Question reference: S6W-33193

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its announcement that it will deliver 8,000 new affordable homes in 2025-26, how many of these properties will be (a) social new-builds, (b) acquisitions, (c) other affordable properties and (d) voids brought back into use.