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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: S5W-36140

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £25 million Rural Housing Fund has been allocated.

Question reference: S5W-36143

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 19 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £5 million Islands Housing Fund has been allocated.

Question reference: S5W-35987

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are on council housing waiting lists, broken down by local authority area.

Scottish Government annual statistics on the number of applicants on local authority or common housing register lists as at end of March 2019 are published at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-
scotland-2019-key-trends-summary/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-
management-of-local-authority-housing/ .

More recent figures as at March 2020 are not yet available due to a delay in the publication of annual housing statistics for 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19 on data provision and staff resourcing.

The annual statistics figures are sourced from local authority data returns that provide information on the number of applicants on local authority or common housing register lists, although this excludes stock transfer authorities. Some applicants will be on more than one waiting list, and therefore the total figures presented will include an unidentifiable level of multiple counting of applicants.

Separate survey based estimates of the proportions of households on housing lists are published as part of the Scottish Government Scottish Household Survey outputs, with local authority level figures available in Table 3.18a at https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-scottish-household
-survey-data-explorer/ . Note that the Scottish Household Survey figures are based on the proportion of households reporting to be on any type of housing list, not just council lists. The figures presented will be subject to sampling variation, especially at a local authority level, however the results are not subject to any double counting issues. In addition, the Scottish Household Survey provides estimates of the proportions of households who are actively seeking to move into social rented housing through choice based letting systems and who are not formally on housing lists.

Question reference: S5O-05149

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to research by the University of Edinburgh suggesting that more than half of severe COVID-19 cases were as a result of transmission in hospital during the second wave of the pandemic.

Question reference: S5W-35725

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33656 by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020, how many applications have been made to the Private Rent Sector Landlord (non-business) COVID-19 Loan Scheme, also broken down by how many have (a) been approved, (b) been rejected and (c) yet to be processed; how much has been paid to date in total, and what the average award has been.

As of 8 March 2021 there has been a total of 107 applications made to the Private Rented Sector Landlord (non-business) COVID-19 Loan Scheme.

Within these applications:

(a) 47 have been approved
(b) 28 were rejected
(c) 1 is yet to be processed

In addition, 26 applications are in progress. However, this includes 21 applications where the applicants have not responded to requests for information. A further 5 applications have been withdrawn.

The amount paid out in total to date is £164,934.64, a further £5,070 has been offered but has yet to be paid.

The average award, based on total awards including loans that have been fully paid and those that have been offered, is £3617.12.

Question reference: S5W-35758

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will promote greater female and BAME representation across Glasgow's housing association boards.

The Scottish Government’s Scottish Social Housing Charter sets the outcomes and standards that all social housing landlords are required to meet. The independent Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) monitors and reports on social landlords performance against the Charter, including complying with equalities legislation.

The SHR has set Regulatory Standards that social landlords must comply with. These standards require all Registered Social Landlords to have in place effective succession plans for Board membership, that they maintain an appropriate and effective composition and profile of governing body members and that they encourage a diverse membership.

Each year the SHR require landlords to confirm through their Annual Assurance Statement that they have assurance and evidence that they comply with the Regulatory requirements including these Regulatory Standards, and if they don’t, what actions they are taking to improve their compliance.

The SHR is currently working with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to produce guidance that will help RSLs meet their equalities obligations.

Question reference: S5W-35726

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33657 by Kevin Stewart on 9 December 2020, how many applications have been made to the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, also broken down by how many have (a) been approved, (b) been rejected and (c) yet to be processed; how much has been paid to date in total, and what the average award has been.

As of 8 March 2021 there have been:

702 applications to the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund

(a) there have been 118 approvals

(b) 255 rejections

In addition, 287 applications are in progress and 15 applications have been withdrawn.

The amount paid out in total to date is £107,001.55, a further £210,108.71 in loans has been offered but not yet paid.

The average award, based on total awards including loans that have been fully paid and those that have been awarded but not yet paid, is £2687.37.

Question reference: S5W-35646

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage higher education institutions to enrol more young people from Scotland.

New data released by the university admissions service UCAS on Thursday 18 February show that the application rate for Scottish students has increased by 3.9 percentage points to 35.8%, with a 16% increase in the number of 18-year-old Scottish domiciled students applying to university.

The statistics also show continued increase in applicants from the most disadvantaged background with a 15% increase (1,100 people) in the number of applicants. 21.1% of 18-year-olds from SIMD20 backgrounds are applying to university, demonstrating that efforts to widen access are encouraging people of all backgrounds to apply.

We remain absolutely committed to the principle that access to education should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay. Every child growing up in Scotland, regardless of their background, should have an equal chance of attending university and participating in higher education. We continue to work with the sector to maintain our commitment to the widening access agenda.

Unlike elsewhere in the UK, Scottish students studying in Scotland do not incur additional debt of up to £27,000. Average student support provided per full-time student was £6,140 in 2019-20, an increase from £6,010 in 2018-19.

We know that this year has not been the educational experience that students expect and deserve, and we are grateful to them for the sacrifices they are making to protect themselves, their fellow students and the wider community. Through our Learner Journey Task Force we are urgently working in partnership with colleges, universities, staff and student representatives to investigate all practical solutions to enable students to continue and complete their learner journeys, and move into employment or further study.

Question reference: S5W-35626

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 12 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many emergency hospital attendances there have been for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in each year since 2017, broken down by the average (a) length of stay and (b) cost of treatment per patient.

a) The following table shows the number of emergency hospital attendances with a main diagnosis of COPD. Please note that the data for 2020 only covers up to September as the data for October 2020 onwards is not yet complete.

Table: Number of emergency admissions with a diagnosis of COPD in the main diagnosis column between January 2017 and September 2020* for hospitals in Scotland

Calendar Year	2017	2018	2019	2020 *
Continuous Inpatient Stays	18650	17528	18215	9178
Average Length of Stay (days)	6.17	6.58	6.19	6.08

Source: Public Health Scotland, SMR01

Extracted: March 2021

*data for 2020 only covers up to September as the data for October 2020 onwards is not yet complete.

b) We are not able to determine the costs for emergency hospital attendances for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as this level of information is not held centrally.

Question reference: S5W-35724

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 March 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 March 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the total number of homes built under the affordable housing programme from the start of the current parliamentary session.

Statistics relating to the progress of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme are published quarterly on the Scottish Government website. These figures relate to the number of approvals, site starts, and completions of homes. They can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-for-scotland-new-house-building/

The next set of quarterly affordable housing statistics (October to December 2020) are due to be published on 23 March 2021 as part of the Housing Statistics Quarterly Update.

It is expected that affordable housing statistics for the full financial year (2020-21) will be published in June 2021, and formal plans for this will be pre-announced when these are finalised.

In addition to these quarterly statistics, a more comprehensive annual breakdown of approvals, site starts and completions by local authority and programme type, including expenditure, is made available each year in the published Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports. Out-turn reports can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/ .