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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-09614

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many times it has exceeded the time limit for responding to (a) freedom of information requests, (b) written parliamentary questions and (c) letters to ministers.

The Scottish Government remains committed to answering all correspondence as quickly as possible and within agreed timescales. This question has been interpreted to be seeking figures from the start of session 6 to date.

a) The Scottish Government responded to 2750 freedom of information requests within the statutory 20 working day deadline during this period. The time limit was exceeded 470 times. FOI performance figures are published on monthly basis on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-of-information-foi-reporting/ .

b) The Scottish Government produces statistics, available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, which show how many written parliamentary questions were answered after the substantive date.

c) A high volume of Ministerial correspondence was received by the Scottish Government during this period. Of the 44991 pieces of correspondence received, 77% were answered on time with 10370 exceeding the response deadline.

Question reference: S6W-09594

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00750 by Shona Robison on 29 June 2021, whether it will provide an update on how many empty (a) private and (b) public sector residential properties there have been in each local authority area in the South Scotland parliamentary region, in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-09619

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what data and information it collects on (a) remediation and (b) removal of combustible cladding from affected householders and property factors outside of the Single Building Assessment programme.

Question reference: S6W-09641

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people busking have been charged by the police under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 following a complaint of noise, in each year since the relevant provisions came into force.

Question reference: S6W-09635

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of the members of the reported working group established to examine the delivery of a pilot scheme for juryless trials.

Question reference: S6W-09642

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people busking have been charged by the police with a breach of the peace following a complaint of noise, in each year since 1982.

Question reference: S6W-09571

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by George Adam on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to extend freedom of information legislation to all care providers in receipt of public funding.

Following the 2019 consultation on the future use of the Scottish Ministers’ power under section 5 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 to extend coverage of the Act, the Scottish Government is currently considering all the issues highlighted in the responses. One area of particular consideration is social care services provided on behalf of Scottish public authorities. No decisions have yet been taken. Before making any order under section 5 the Scottish Ministers have a statutory obligation to consult those to whom the order relates, and there would also be wider public consultation on any proposed order.

Question reference: S6W-09570

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that the recording of incidents of domestic and sexual abuse against men in Scotland is accurate.

The operational recording of information on incidents of domestic and sexual abuse against men is a matter for Police Scotland, and as with any report of criminal behaviour, will be underpinned by the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS). The Standard sets out to ensure a more victim-oriented approach is taken to recording crime, and ultimate responsibility for compliance lies with the Chief Constable.

The Official Statistics on both recorded domestic abuse and sexual crime in Scotland are based upon data returns made by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government (and are a by-product of their administrative processes). Further quality assurance work is then undertaken between Scottish Government and Police Scotland statisticians prior to their publication. Many of the categories used to record crimes that may be typically associated with domestic or sexual abuse, such as those under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 or Rape / Sexual assault, also identify whether the victim is male or female.

Question reference: S6W-09547

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation of the Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund it plans to conduct.

Question reference: S6W-09549

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what value of Scotland Self-Build Loan Fund loans it has issued in each year of operation, and how many homes have been completed, broken down by local authority.

The number of Self Build Loan Fund loans and value of these loans issued by year of operation is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Number and Value of Self Build Loan Fund loans by year of operation

Year	Value of loans offered	Number of Loan
1	£ 819,500 (to 31-08-2019)	6
2	£1,202,500 (to 31-08-2020)	8
3	£2,623,000 (to 31-08-2021)	17
4	£1,376,600 (to 30-06-2022)*	9

Table 2: Number of loans issued split by local authority

Local Authority Area	No of loans	Value of loans £
Aberdeen-shire	3	470,000
Argyll & Bute	2	345,000
Highland	14	2,230,000
Perth & Kinross	2	315,000
Shetland	2	233,000
South Lanarkshire	3	425,000
Western Isles	7	896,100
Orkney	1	162,500
East Ayrshire	1	150,000
North Ayrshire	1	175,000
Falkirk	1	175,000
Stirling	2	270,000
Scottish Borders	1	175,000
	40	6,021,600

To date, 12 homes have been completed by people in receipt of a Self Build Loan: Argyll & Bute - 2, Orkney - 1, Perth & Kinross - 2, Western Isles - 3, Highland - 1, S Lanarkshire - 1, Aberdeenshire - 2.