Chamber and committees

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-20709

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will support calls for Scotland to hold an annual national litter day on 16 August.

The Scottish Government recently published the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy which sets out our ambition to ensure individual, communities and organisations have greater awareness of the problems caused by litter, understand their responsibilities in preventing litter and are enabled and motivated to behave responsibly. A 2023-24 Action Plan, published with the Strategy, details specific actions and interventions that will be progressed in the first year of the Strategy, including a national community-focused education programme.

If there is a broad stakeholder support for an annual national litter day going forward, then Scottish Government would consider endorsing it as part of wider awareness raising work with stakeholders to tackle littering in line with the Strategy commitments.

Question reference: S6W-20691

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20139 by Jenni Minto on 15 August 2023, whether it will provide an update on the composition and activity of the task group considering indoor air quality, as outlined in the report, Cleaner Air for Scotland 2.

Question reference: S6W-20674

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what anticipated financial slippage the affordable housing supply programme has identified for the current financial year.

Question reference: S6W-20636

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the affordable homes supply programme target was increased to 110,000 in the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme but did not set a specific revised mid-point target.

Question reference: S6W-20594

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason job losses in the housing construction sector are reportedly not considered a risk to the affordable housing supply programme in its risk register.

Question reference: S6W-20690

Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether an impact assessment of proposals to introduce a charge on single-use cups will be carried out before the end of 2023.

Question reference: S6W-20669

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) headcount and (b) FTE staffing level was of its More Homes Division in each quarter since May 2021.

The number of directly employed staff with More Homes Division in each quarter since May 2021 is shown in in the following table, for both headcount and full time equivalent (FTE).

Quarter ending	Headcount	Full-time Equivalent (FTE)
30 June 2021	84	79.1
30 September 2021	82	77.0
31 December 2021	77	73.2
31 March 2022	75	71.2
30 June 2022	78	73.9
30 September 2022	75	70.9
31 December 2022	75	70.5
31 March 2023	75	70.5
30th June 2023	71	66.7

Question reference: S6W-20413

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the national acquisition plan will open for applications for purchases.

Question reference: S6W-20664

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many homes there are in each parliamentary region, including a breakdown of how many homes have an EPC rating below grade C.

This information is not available in the form requested.

The Scottish Government does not produce counts of homes by parliamentary region.

The number of households and dwellings in each parliamentary constituency is published by the National Records of Scotland, with the latest available estimate dating from 2022. This is available at: Scottish Parliamentary Constituency .

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number of homes which have an EPC rating below band C.

The SHCS survey has not been designed to provide results by Parliamentary Region, however results are available by Local Authority area.

The Scottish Government publishes local authority analysis using a three year pooled data set to ensure sufficient sample sizes. The most recent estimates of homes with an EPC below C at local authority level are for 2017-2019, and are presented in the following table.

	Number of dwellings by Local Authority and the number and percentage which have an EPC rating below C.
Local Authority		Total number of households / occupied dwellings	Of which EPC rated below C	% rated below EPC C	Sample
Aberdeen City		108,000	57,000	53%	248
Aberdeenshire		111,000	74,000	66%	245
Angus		54,000	38,000	71%	257
Argyll and Bute		42,000	29,000	71%	232
Clackmannanshire		24,000	10,000	41%	220
Dumfries and Galloway		70,000	53,000	76%	270
Dundee City		70,000	41,000	59%	256
East Ayrshire		55,000	29,000	53%	252
East Dunbartonshire		46,000	27,000	58%	253
East Lothian		46,000	28,000	60%	238
East Renfrewshire		39,000	24,000	60%	233
Edinburgh, City of		236,000	115,000	49%	613
Na h-Eileanan Siar		13,000	12,000	91%	273
Falkirk		72,000	33,000	46%	251
Fife		168,000	95,000	57%	443
Glasgow City		293,000	128,000	44%	644
Highland		109,000	82,000	75%	261
Inverclyde		38,000	19,000	50%	219
Midlothian		39,000	19,000	49%	275
Moray		43,000	30,000	70%	206
North Ayrshire		64,000	37,000	58%	227
North Lanarkshire		152,000	68,000	45%	335
Orkney Islands		10,000	9,000	85%	265
Perth and Kinross		68,000	45,000	66%	262
Renfrewshire		86,000	36,000	42%	190
Scottish Borders		54,000	36,000	65%	213
Shetland Islands		10,000	10,000	92%	274
South Ayrshire		52,000	34,000	65%	236
South Lanarkshire		146,000	82,000	56%	329
Stirling		39,000	23,000	59%	246
West Dunbartonshire		43,000	21,000	49%	229
West Lothian		78,000	30,000	39%	268
Scotland		2,479,000	1,374,000	55%	8,963
Notes 1. Source Scottish House Condition Survey 2017-19. 2. EPC figures are based on SAPv9.92 3. The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size. A statistical tool for calculating 95% confidence intervals around these estimates can be found at Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . 4. The national rate shown in this answer (55%) is an average over 2017-19 to match the local authority data and will differ from that found in the main SHCS Key Findings report (53%) which relates to a single year, most recently 2019. Available at Scottish house condition survey: 2019 key findings

As set out in the most recent Scottish House Condition Survey 2021 Key Findings Report, (available at Scottish House Condition Survey 2021 ) there will be no Local Authority publication relating to the 2019 to 2021 three year period as the 2020 SHCS was suspended due to Covid-19 and the 2021 SHCS was undertaken using a different methodology that is not consistent to previous years.

Question reference: S6W-20591

Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take in light of a recent report by Asthma + Lung UK, which reportedly found that one in five people in Scotland struggle with breathlessness each day and that the poorest communities are most impacted by lung health inequalities.

We know that people living in poverty in Scotland are more likely to develop a lung condition than the general population, and recognise that we still have progress to make on improving access to care and treatment for respiratory conditions.

In March 2021, we published the first Respiratory Care Action Plan for Scotland (RCAP) . The Plan sets out our priorities and commitments for driving improvement in the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment and support of people living with respiratory conditions. Tackling health inequalities is a key focus of the RCAP and we want to ensure a more targeted approach to supporting those who need it most.

The main focus of our respiratory programme this year will be on improving the availability of respiratory data. We have recently commissioned and funded Public Health Scotland to begin building a respiratory audit programme. This will better allow us to review the demographics of people living with respiratory conditions and ultimately ensure we deliver services which meet their needs.

We are also in the final stages of producing a best practice document for child to adult respiratory transitions, as well as working closely with key stakeholders to determine the best route to improve access to pulmonary rehabilitation services.

More widely, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting families and households face the increased cost of living. This includes the provision of services and financial support not available elsewhere in the UK that is helping to reduce everyday costs and increase incomes.