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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-09064

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-01176 by Shona Robison on 1 June 2022, how many people have been helped onto the property ladder through government schemes in each Scottish Parliament region in each year since 2016-17.

The information on properties purchased through the Scottish Government shared equity schemes (Help to Buy (Scotland), the Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme, New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE) and the First Home Fund is not recorded by Scottish Parliamentary region. It is recorded by Local Authority area and information on the numbers of properties purchased in each year of each scheme can be found in the published figures at the following links.

Help to Buy (Scotland) under Monitoring Information Report

https://www.gov.scot/policies/homeowners/help-to-buy/

Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity under Affordable Housing Supply Programme annual out-turn reports and related data

https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/

First Home Fund

https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-home-fund-spend-and-units-monitoring-information-report-december-2019-to-march-2021/

Question reference: S6W-09081

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6O-01176 by Shona Robison on 1 June 2022, what the source was for the cabinet secretary's comment that "mortgage approvals for first-time buyers have increased by 13% in the 12-month period to quarter 1 in 2022, from the amount in the period up to quarter 1 in 2021".

Question reference: S6W-08977

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 21 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the use of the eviction grounds in part 1, schedule 3 of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, in light of research from Generation Rent that reportedly found that one-third of private landlords granted an eviction order at tribunal in order to sell the property had failed to sell the home more than a year later.

We have already committed in Housing to 2040 to review and consider potential reforms to the current eviction grounds under the Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) after 5 years of operation, which will be at the end of this year.

We have already started to seek views on the effectiveness and operation of the existing eviction grounds for the Private Rented Sector as part of the New Deal For Tenants consultation to help inform the review when it begins and we will continue to work with stakeholders during it.

As highlighted in Generation Rent’s research, measures are in place under the PRT where a tenancy has been ended due to misleading information, the First-tier Tribunal have the power to make a wrongful termination order against the landlord and award compensation to the tenant. The use and effectiveness of wrongful termination orders will form part of the review.

Question reference: S6W-08965

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 June 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what index or mechanism it uses to review the Open Market Shared Equity thresholds.

The Open Market Shared Equity thresholds are reviewed annually each December to reflect the overall movement in average house prices across all transactions over the previous financial year in each area, based on house price data from Registers of Scotland on the lower quartile of house prices in urban areas and the median of house prices in rural areas. The price threshold figures used are rounded up to the nearest £5,000.

Every few years we carry out a more comprehensive analysis of house prices by linking house price data with property characteristics data. This provides more detailed figures by property size category for lower quartile and median prices. This was last carried out using data for 2015-16, and has been applied to the thresholds from 2018 onwards, with the price thresholds for each year as noted above being updated to reflect the overall movement in changes in house prices in each area over time.

Question reference: S6W-08749

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the Home Owners' Support Fund rules in light of rising interest rates and the cost of living crisis.

At present, there is no marked increase in applications to the Home Owners Support Fund (HOSF). However, to ensure the scheme has maximum impact as part of our response to the current economic situation, I can confirm my officials are currently reviewing HOSF to consider what more can be done through the scheme to support homeowners struggling with mortgage repayments as a result of rising interest rates and the cost of living crisis.

Question reference: S6W-08750

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when it will review the guidance, capital and equity limits, and eligibility criteria in relation to the Home Owners' Support Fund.

Question reference: S6W-08805

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08560 by Shona Robison on 25 May 2022, how rapidly the register and other official statistics provides this data.

The Scottish Landlord Registration provides data on the number of private landlord registrations, for example in relation to the number of new applications, renewals made and the number of properties these relate to, on a monthly basis.

Official statistics on the sector from the Scottish Household Survey, are released as soon as they are available. In recent years, national results from the Scottish Household Survey have been published around September following the survey year, although Covid-19 has impacted on this survey, with 2020 results published in January 2022 and 2021 results scheduled for publication in December 2022.

Question reference: S6W-08807

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08560 by Shona Robison on 25 May 2022, what information the register records regarding the subsequent (a) destination of any tenants leaving properties that have exited, including the homeless presentations made to their local authority, and (b) use of those properties, including use as (i) PRS stock, (ii) owner-occupied homes, (iii) second homes, (iv) empty homes and (v) short-term lets.

The propose of the Landlord Register is to enable Local Authorities to complete checks on private landlords. Most private landlords are required to apply for registration with their local authority under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 . The applicant must provide information to help local authorities assess whether they are a fit and proper person to let houses.

The fit and proper person test is intended to provide a level of assurance that the owner of a let property is a suitable person to let privately rented property. It is a standard that all private landlords are required to uphold throughout the time that they operate as a private landlord.

The Landlord Registration System is an administrative system used primarily to manage these registration of landlords and rental properties by Local Authorities. It does not collect data regarding landlords and properties no longer registered. It does not include data on individual tenants, either those in a property or their destination on exit.

Question reference: S6W-08806

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08560 by Shona Robison on 25 May 2022, what its strategy is for managing exits (a) holistically and (b) on a case-by-case basis.

The private rented sector has seen a steady increase in size over the last 20 years, more than doubling in size, with some annual fluctuations. We will continue to monitor the whole housing market using the Landlord Register along with other statistical information on a regular basis and will consider further should significant changes happen.

Individual landlords will enter and leave the sector depending on their personal and business circumstances and through the Private Residential (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, strong protections and processes are in place for tenants in that situation.

Question reference: S6O-01243

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the support capacity of Home Energy Scotland was before this was increased by 12,000 households.