Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is undertaking an update survey in November on SME Access to Finance, which follows on from the publication of the first survey in July 2009. The survey will examine issues around accessing finance for small and medium-sized businesses in Scotland, and will include a new question to gauge the extent to which small businesses have secured finance against their personal homes.

The link to the first report on SME Access to Finance is given below:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/access-finance/report.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, gives local authorities new powers to take action against properties which are below the tolerable standard, in a state of serious disrepair or in need of repair and likely to deteriorate rapidly and cause damage to other properties if nothing is done to repair them. These powers would apply to domestic properties and non-domestic properties where they form part of a building containing housing which is also substandard. The Scottish Government has produced a suite of guidance to support local authorities in the implementation of the powers and continues to encourage the sharing of good practice.

In addition, the Scottish Government has granted local authorities the discretion to vary the level of council tax discount for long-term empty properties and flexibility to use the funds raised by reducing this discount for a range of purposes, including to bring empty properties back into use.

Volume four of the Scottish Government''s Review of the Private Rented Sector also suggests how local authorities can adopt a strategic approach to bringing empty houses back into supply, including methods for partnership working and data gathering. Officials are currently working with stakeholders to consider the review''s recommendation that the Scottish Government should fund a fixed-term post to provide support to local authorities to take action on empty houses.

Information on the number of derelict houses in Scotland where the owner cannot be traced is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government and the General Register Office for Scotland both collect data annually on the number of empty properties throughout Scotland. Information on derelict homes will be collected as part of this.

The Scottish Government also collects data annually, by local authority, on the number of vacant local authority dwellings, including on the length of the vacancy and the status of the dwelling. In addition, the Scottish Housing Regulator gathers data annually on the number of self contained housing association dwellings, by local authority, that are vacant. Information is also collected on the number of self contained dwellings that are unavailable for let, because of demolition, rehabilitation or other reasons.

On 23 June, the Scottish Government established the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) which brought together all agencies with an interest in PACE to oversee a continuous improvement programme to enhance the operation of PACE.

As part of this improvement programme, on 1 December a new data capture system will be introduced across the 21 local PACE teams. This will combine information on redundancies of 20 or more from the HR1 system with information on smaller scale redundancies based on local intelligence collected by local PACE teams. This new system will provide a more comprehensive range of information on PACE interventions across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28806 on 18 November. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

It would be extremely difficult for procurement organisations to assess the direct causal impact of a contract opportunity on suppliers and it would be problematic to ensure an equity in approach across all suppliers.

There is no specific guidance regarding the sourcing of local products for use in NHS Scotland. Local health boards and national NHS organisations work together to ensure a contract delivery that best suits the requirements of the NHS in Scotland. A commodity strategy is developed for each contract area which ensures full consideration of the shape of the supply market. Procurement processes continue to be reviewed to ensure SMEs have as simplified a process as possible to access public sector contracts.

The purpose of the recently launched Scottish Government Sustainable Procurement Action Plan is to build sustainability, including carbon reduction, into the procurement process. The ten point procurement sustainability plan is being implemented across the public sector in Scotland with the majority of activities due to take place by the end of April 2010.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-29168, on 2 December 2009. The answers to all written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, for which the search facility can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.