- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 31 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many tenancy deposits were unclaimed at the end of the tenancy agreement in each year since 2021-22, and what action it takes to promote the uptake of deposits.
Answer
The requested information is detailed in the following table:
Financial Year | Increase in unclaimed deposits from previous year | Total number of unclaimed deposits |
2021-22 | 862 | 12,912 |
2022-23 | 988 | 13,900 |
2023-24 | 6,297 | 20,197 |
The total value of unclaimed deposits in the requested financial years can be found in our previously issued response to S6W-33204 on 20 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
In reference to the increase of number and value of unclaimed tenancy deposits in 2023-24, Scottish Government received notification from one of the schemes in August 2023 explaining that they had reviewed the criteria used to report on unclaimed deposits. This has resulted in a fluctuation in their figures with a corresponding increase in the total number of unclaimed deposits amongst the three schemes.
Each of the three schemes may calculate unclaimed deposits differently, as an unclaimed deposit is not currently defined in law. Provisions within the Housing (Scotland) Bill will create a legal definition of when a tenancy deposit can be considered unclaimed, ensuring there is consistency in all three schemes figures if the Bill is approved.
The tenancy deposit schemes have taken a number of active steps to reunite unclaimed deposits with former tenants and have recently shared best practises amongst each other. The Scottish Government intend to take forward additional changes to support tenants to reclaim their deposit at the end of the tenancy. This includes providing more information to tenants about unclaimed tenancy deposits to raise awareness of the issue and to be clear about what would happen if they don’t reclaim their deposit, as part of implementation of the measures in the Bill.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 31 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which routes has the Marine Directorate deployed (a) patrol vessels and (b) patrol planes to in each year since 2021, and for what reason.
Answer
Marine and aerial taskings are determined by a rigorous risk assessment process, using live data and intelligence to prioritise the areas where assets are directed.
In 2024 our three patrol ships carried out 866 patrol days, and our two-surveillance aircraft undertook 165 flights, it is therefore not possible to describe the routes taken other than to state they include Rockall, Shetland, the West Coast and North Sea.
A copy of a document detailing heat maps showing patrol areas for each year has been provided to the Scottish Parliaments Information Centre (Bib number is 65620)
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many mobile phones it has purchased for use as government-issued devices in each of the last five years, and what the total cost was.
Answer
The Scottish Government do not hold central records for how many mobile phones it has purchased in the last 5 years as they are purchased by individual business areas to meet their requirements through delegated purchasing. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many government-issued mobile phones are currently in use, broken down by department.
Answer
The Scottish Government do not centrally hold records by department for mobile phones. Mobile phones are purchased by individual business areas to meet their requirements. There are 3922 mobile phones in use.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether any audits have been conducted on the use of government-issued mobile phones, and what the outcomes of any such audits were.
Answer
All corporately managed Scottish Government mobile phones are audited monthly for compliance in line with our Cyber Security principals. Any remediation actions identified are investigated and addressed as necessary.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what models of government-issued mobile phones are currently in use across its departments, and what criteria are used for their selection.
Answer
Through our mobile voice & data contract the Scottish Government have purchased various models of mobile phone including those from Apple, Motorola and Samsung. When selecting mobile phones, each device is evaluated on value for money, supportability and usability over the expected device lifecycle.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to government-issued mobile phones, how much mobile data has been used by its departments in each of the last five years, and what the associated costs were.
Answer
The mobile data used in terabytes (Tb) on the Scottish Government’s account as part of our mobile voice and data contracts is shown below. This data is only available from August 2020, it is not possible to separate the associated mobile data costs by department from the overall spend.
January 2024 to December 2024 - 82.59Tb
January 2023 to December 2023 - 94.87Tb
January 2022 to December 2022 - 97.77Tb
January 2021 to December 2021 - 125.07Tb
July 2020 to December 2020 - 39.99Tb
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it monitors compliance with policies on the use of government-issued mobile phones.
Answer
The Scottish Government has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure all corporately managed mobile phones are monitored and continually assessed using industry standard security tooling to ensure compliance with our policies.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many times in each of the last five years has a request by it to a UK Government department for data been (a) denied and (b) delayed, broken down by department; what steps were taken to resolve the issue, and what the outcome was, also broken down by data specifically in relation to (i) meeting its net zero targets and (ii) social security and poverty reduction policies.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested centrally. Where data sharing agreements are put in place under certain data sharing powers in Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017, these are recorded on a register of information which can be found at: Register of Information sharing agreements under chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 - GOV.UK. These can only be established where there is a clear legal gateway to undertake the sharing. Requests for UK government data which have been delayed or are in the process of being resolved are part of continued policy development. To support this, the Office of the Chief Statistician established its UK Data Sharing Team in 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic and in response to the need for greater data sharing across the UK. The team provides advice and guidance on request to support Scottish Government in accessing data from UK Government departments for statistics and research. Delays often occur in identifying the appropriate legal gateway or in demonstrating technical and security requirements.
The Scottish Government is working with UK departments to resolve barriers to data sharing, such as those evidenced in the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority by Professor Denise Lievesley (Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority 2023 - 2024 - GOV.UK) which noted “systemic and cultural barriers to responsible data sharing between government departments”. In addition, it is working with the UK Government to continue to implement the Digital Economy Act which is expected to improve data sharing processes across programme for government policy areas in the future.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it has provided to PetroIneos toward Project Willow at the Grangemouth refinery site, and whether all material in relation to the project will be made publicly available.
Answer
As set out in our Draft Just Transition Plan, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting a long term and sustainable future for the Grangemouth industrial cluster.
Alongside the UK Government, we have jointly funded £1.5m to support the development of ‘Project Willow’ which has identified a shortlist of low carbon alternatives which could be deployed in the future at the Refinery site. These alternatives include low carbon hydrogen, eFuels and sustainable aviation fuel.
The work is due to conclude shortly and key outputs and recommendations will be made available via a public communication. As I set out in my reply to S6W-31864 on 10 December 2024, the Scottish Government will provide an update to Parliament on the findings of Project Willow in due course.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
