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: S4W-15269

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 30 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to licensing authorities regarding the testing of vehicles used as (a) taxis and (b) private hire cars.

Question reference: S4W-15271

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 30 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how the (a) owner and (b) driver of a taxi or private hire car can appeal the decision of a licensing authority’s testing centre with regard to the work needed to be carried out on the vehicle.

The legislation which provides for the licensing of taxi and private hire cars, the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (the 1982 Act), does not outline an appeals process specifically for the decisions of a local authority testing centre. Each local authority will develop their own processes to handle complaints about the testing regime. Public safety, as a main purpose of licensing, will be the overriding consideration for any local authority.

There is an appeals process where a licence has been suspended. This is outlined in Paragraph 18, Schedule 1 of the 1982 Act.

Question reference: S4O-02201

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the chief constable regarding the number and location of control rooms required by Police Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-15073

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the new marketing services framework will be published.

Question reference: S4W-15074

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government which public sector bodies have had to buy in marketing services due to the delay in the new framework and what extra expenditure has been incurred.

The current Marketing Services Framework has been extended until 31 May 2013 to allow Scottish Central Government bodies to continue to call off their requirements in order to ensure that their objectives are met. We are not aware of any requirement to buy in services other than through the current framework. We do not hold information on which bodies have made use of the current framework during the extension period.

Question reference: S4W-14820

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether registered social landlords are able to evict tenants who have been imprisoned as a result of antisocial or threatening behaviour and, if so, what steps they are required to take to do so.

Social landlords must obtain a court order before evicting a tenant. They can obtain an order on various grounds, which include (amongst others) that the tenant has behaved antisocially towards neighbours or been imprisoned for an offence committed in the locality of the house.

Further information around raising proceedings in court for recovery of possession of a tenancy is set out in Section 14 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2001/10/section/14.

Question reference: S4W-14817

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) specialist housing for older people or (b) housing built to wheelchair standard will be provided as part of the 2012-13 to 2014-15 Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

In May 2012, we introduced a new three year resource planning system to enable councils to plan the delivery of affordable housing more efficiently and effectively. This new approach has enabled each council to bring forward strategic local programmes of social and affordable housing based on local needs, identified through the Housing Needs and Demand Assessment and Local Housing Strategy. Councils will therefore decide upon the size and type of housing required to help satisfy these local needs.

For the period 1 April 2012 to 31 December 2012, a total of 309 specialist housing units for older people were provided. During the same period, a total of 61 wheelchair units were provided. Housing statistics covering the whole of 2012-13 are not due to be published until 4June 2013.

Question reference: S4W-14816

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-1817 by Margaret Burgess on 20 February 2013, whether it is now in a position to provide a timescale for its response to its consultation on the right to buy.

Question reference: S4W-14815

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on developing new private finance options for the next three years to complement grant funding and facilitate the building of social rented housing.

Current rounds of the Scottish Government’s award-winning National Housing Trust (NHT) initiative for local authorities and developers are supporting delivery of over 1,000 new affordable homes with 13 developers across 10 local authorities, as set out in the table below. Further local variants of the NHT model are in development.

Council	Units
Aberdeen City	85
City of Edinburgh	422
Clackmannanshire	28
Dumfries and Galloway	69
Dundee	114
Falkirk	27
Fife	62
Highland	135
Scottish Borders	50
Stirling	16
Total	1008

The Scottish Government is also encouraging and supporting the development of a range of other approaches to private finance by the housing association sector and prospective new investors. These include the introduction of bond finance, recycling Housing Association Grant and equity investment. Taken together these innovations are supporting the provision of new housing supply across a range of tenures including social rent.

A total of 1,900 affordable homes have been approved so far from innovative approaches to housing investment, with more units in the pipeline.

Question reference: S4W-14814

Asked by: Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 28 May 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will put in place a transparent framework for monitoring the volume and structure of new supply output of affordable housing, as suggested in A Housing Report for Scotland.

We publish the approvals, starts and completions for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme as part of the quarterly housing statistics and we will continue to do this. We are also happy to meet with stakeholders to reassure them that our programme to deliver 30,000 homes over the lifetime of this parliament is currently on track. For example, all of the approvals we plan to make through the three year Resource Planning Assumptions to local authorities are expected to complete by March 2015.

Annual Outturn Reports have been published on the Scottish Government website since 2008-09. Please see link below to the outturn report for 2011-12:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/investment/ahip/AHSP2011-12Report