Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Programme for Government 2023 committed to deliver secondary legislation to enable councils to apply up to a 100% premium on Council Tax rates for second homes. Subordinate legislation will be laid later this year to enable local authorities to charge a premium for second homes from 1 April 2024. Once this has been approved by Scottish Parliament guidance will be issued to local authorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-20878 on
‎ 26 September 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

It is for each individual college, and not the Scottish Government, to determine how best to secure its financial sustainability and therefore operational decisions reside within colleges themselves.

New College Lanarkshire has engaged with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) over its decision to close its nurseries, which will remain open until 31 December 2023. The SFC approved the College’s voluntary severance scheme in May 2023 for some of the affected staff, with the College planning redeployment for the other affected staff members.

The Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) and the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) are demand-led funds and the Scottish Government has ensured full funding against demand in each year since 2018-19. Actual spend may differ from profiled spend as demand requirements change over time.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

We are making available at least £60 million for the National Acquisition Programme. Spend will be reliant on suitable properties being available to purchase that align with local authorities’ strategic housing priorities. We are working closely with partners to identify and support projects to be brought forward.

We have published resource planning assumptions covering 2021-2026. When annual financial year expenditure is concluded and finalised we publish an annual out-turn report which illustrates actual spend compared to original resource planning assumptions at the start of the financial year. The report for 2022-23 is currently being finalised but the report for 2021-22 can be found here – Affordable Housing Supply Programme: out-turn report 2021-22 - ( www.gov.scot )

Workforce numbers are reviewed regularly to make sure the Scottish Government is delivering its policy priorities efficiently and effectively. Enhanced recruitment controls are in place to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money, however these operate at the level of the Scottish Government, and there is no specific recruitment cap set centrally with workforce decisions managed across directorates and their divisions.

The Scottish Government collects information on the composition of households making homelessness applications through the HL1 data collection. This includes information on the number of children in the household. The HL3 data collection collects information about temporary accommodation placements connected to homelessness applications.

An additional question was added to the HL3 data collection in 2019 to ask if a child is in the temporary accommodation placement. Although all local authorities have been able to provide this data from April 2022, as this is the first time a full set of data has been available, this is subject to on-going quality assurance. Therefore, information relating to the presence of children within temporary accommodation placements has been derived by linking household records between the HL1 and HL3 data collections. However, it is important to note that households may sometimes make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation and therefore it is not always the case that children included in the HL1 return are present in associated temporary accommodation placements. It can also be the case that children are present for only part of the stay in temporary accommodation e.g. as part of shared custody arrangements.

Data on temporary accommodation taken from the HL3 data collection is only available for all local authorities from 2017-18, however, this includes temporary accommodation placements which commenced prior to 2017-18. In addition, some local authorities have provided data prior to 2017-18 and, where this is available it has been included.

Information at individual (person or household) level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

The following table shows the distribution of time spent in temporary accommodation for households with children included in homelessness applications for each local authority. The figures are based on homelessness applications made since 1 January 2016 that closed on, or prior to, 31 March 2023 with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement. Note that figures may be based on the total duration of multiple temporary accommodation placements taken up by a household.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 due to small numbers in some categories.

These figures may include households who have turned down multiple offers of settled accommodation by the local authority and chosen to stay in temporary accommodation instead.

Time spent in temporary accommodation for households with children included in the homelessness application (number of households)

Households with an open homelessness application from 1 January 2016 which was closed at, or prior to 31 March 2023 with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement*

The quarterly statistics covering the period to end June 2023 are planned to be published on 12 September. The quarterly statistics for the period including to end August are expected to be published in December.