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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.

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Question reference: S6W-13911

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications to the Fuel Insecurity Fund have (a) been received, (b) been rejected and (c) resulted in a grant being given in each year since it was established.

The Scottish Government does not hold the full level of information requested.

We regularly monitor the support provided by our delivery partners, together with scheduled engagements across the year. We always seek to avoid excessive demands for data gathering in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed with a level of partner discretion to target direct support to those most in need at the time.

In 2021-22 - SFHA awarded funding to 35 projects, comprising single organisation, partnership and consortium bids. In total, 41 organisations were direct recipients, with a further 24 accessing vouchers for their tenants through one of the main grantees. Successful applications were received from housing associations from across Scotland, supporting rural, island and urban communities. While overall success rate reported by ADS for their applications from the fund in 2021 stood at 96%, with a total of 1,208 successful. ADS grant payments were administered to a total of 58 different energy suppliers in Scotland.

On receipt of FIF delivery partners 2022-23 evaluation reports, officials will consider appropriate publication of such details for access on the SG website.

Question reference: S6W-13912

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average payment from the Fuel Insecurity Fund has been in each month of 2022-23 to date.

Question reference: S6W-13786

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the reasons for lenders reportedly not offering mortgages on properties in cladded buildings in Scotland that are in accordance with the new RICS Standards and Regulation Board guidance, Valuation approach for properties in multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential buildings with cladding, which came into effect in December 2022, and whether any changes are required to be made to the cladding remediation programme to ensure that the guidance is applicable in Scotland.

The safety of residents and homeowners in Scotland is our priority as we work to tackle cladding safety issues. We are aware of the difficulties that some people are facing in accessing mortgages for buildings with potentially unsafe cladding. Work has been undertaken between the UK Government and UK Finance to develop a solution which reflects the situation in England and we are in urgent discussion with UK Finance about adapting that solution for Scotland as quickly as possible. The Single Building Assessment is a crucial element in identifying issues in buildings with potentially unsafe cladding in Scotland. We expect the vast majority of buildings to be found to be safe, but we first have to carry out comprehensive and technical assessments. This is a complex and time-consuming programme, and a number of assessments are either at final or pre-final reporting stage. We have issued funding to start remediation work and are continuing to work through Homes for Scotland with housing developers on our Safer Buildings Accord, which is being designed to give affected homeowners a clear path to ensuring their homes are safe.

Question reference: S6W-13913

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many payments from the Fuel Insecurity Fund have been made to support households that have damp and mould issues in each month of 2022-23 to date, and what the total value of payments for this purpose has been.

Question reference: S6W-13910

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in the (a) local authority, (b) registered social landlord, (c) private rented and (d) owner-occupier sector have received payments from the Fuel Insecurity Fund in each month of 2022-23 to date.

Households of all tenures are eligible to seek assistance from the Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF) if they are at risk of self-rationing their energy use or self-disconnecting entirely. Our trusted third sector delivery partners, namely Advice Direct Scotland (ADS), the Fuel Bank Foundation and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), are not required to monitor the housing tenure type of the individuals they support. In the case of the SFHA, though, all of the support they provide, £6.6m this financial year, is directed towards social housing tenants of member RSLs.

We regularly monitor the support provided by our delivery partners; however we seek to avoid excessive demands for data gathering in order to ensure the FIF can be distributed with a level of partner discretion to target direct support to those most in need at the time.

Question reference: S6W-13839

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Home Owners' Support Fund system was reportedly decommissioned in late 2021; what impact this has had on new and outstanding applications since it was decommissioned, and what the new system will cost.

The previous HOSF casework management system was built between 2008-2010 using legacy software that could no longer be supported.

The impact on existing and new applications to HOSF has been minimal as this was a stand-alone system that was not integrated into the application process.

In the interim period prior to the rollout of a new digital system, all cases have been moved to an alternative temporary solution. There is some additional work involved with the drafting of offer letters using the contingency process, however this is balanced with the improvements we have been able to make in other areas, such as better visibility of workflow and performance reporting. The new digital system is being designed to build on the process improvements already made.

Work on the new system is ongoing and the cost will depend on the final solution which will be chosen after the testing of prototypes.

Question reference: S6O-01821

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what guidance it gives to landlords in all sectors to help prevent and deal with damp, condensation and mould in their properties, including when this was last revised.

Question reference: S6W-12903

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what value of Tenant Hardship Loan Fund loans have (i) been (A) repaid and (B) written off and (ii) yet to be repaid and remain outstanding.

Question reference: S6W-12902

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on administering the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund.

The total spend on administration of the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is £433,886.88.

Admin costs 2020-21 = £240,217.20 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2021-22 = £162,210.30 inclusive of VAT

Admin costs 2022-23 (until October 2022) = £31,459.38 inclusive of VAT

This is the administration costs for loan fund awards with a total value of £733,894.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund was one part of a range of support and interventions put in place to help people who were struggling with rent because of changes to their finances caused by the Pandemic.

To enable the loan fund to be delivered quickly given the infra-structure and resource requirements, an existing contract with Energy Savings Trust for administration of the loan was extended.

Administration costs for the fund are based on a contractually agreed annual management fee, dependant on whether the scheme is open or closed, combined with a cost per application, regardless of whether the application resulted in a successful award or not.

The loan fund was demand led and affordability and ability to repay a loan was a key part of the assessment of all applications to protect applicants from unsustainable borrowing.

Question reference: S6W-13352

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the proposed 24% reduction in spending on More Homes in 2023-24, what its revised resource planning assumptions are for local authorities to plan their housing supply for 2021-22 to 2025-26, broken down by local authority area.

The 24% reduction is when comparing the total More Homes budget in 2023-24 against the total More Homes budget in 2022-23. The profile of our more than £3.5 billion commitment over this parliament varies from year to year as do its component parts which include capital, financial transactions and anticipated receipts.

The £751.945m budget for 2023-24 for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme has reduced by 4.7% from that previously planned, a net decrease of £37.320m, and will be supplemented by donations from the Charitable Bond Programme and contributions from the Heat in Buildings Fund for the installation of zero emission heating systems in affordable homes where these systems are installed.

Our guidance asks Local Authorities to over plan in their Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) programmes against these planning assumptions by at least 25% to mitigate delays to housing programmes. There are therefore no plans to revise Resource Planning Assumptions for 2023-24. Any in year funding pressures that emerge will be managed in discussion with local partners. Planned annual budgets for the remainder of the parliament have not been reduced.