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: S5O-04317

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 25 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can provide that any real-terms reductions to council funding will not impact on its commitment to provide sport and physical exercise, as set out in its Active Scotland Delivery Plan and other national strategies.

The 2020-21 local government finance settlement increases local government day to day spending for local services by £589.4 million in cash terms, a real terms increase of 3.9 per cent.

The Scottish Government are working with Scotland's 32 Councils to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19. For example, in light of the recent measures implemented to combat the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of all leisure facilities, there is now a 100% non-domestic rates relief for all retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

Question reference: S5W-27917

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15195 by Kevin Stewart on 15 March 2018, what impact the increase in the number of hotel rooms in Edinburgh during the last decade is having on its target to increase the (a) housing supply and (b) number of homes available for purchase in the city.

The Scottish Government has not made a specific assessment of the impact of the increase in the number of hotel rooms in Edinburgh on its target to increase the (a) housing supply and (b) number of homes available for purchase in the city.

Over the life of the previous Parliament, the Scottish Government exceeded its five-year target of delivering 30,000 affordable homes by end March 2016, and delivered 33,490 affordable homes. Of these, 4,570 were in the City of Edinburgh.

Over the lifetime of this Parliament, we have an ambitious target to deliver 50,000 affordable homes, including 35,000 homes for social rent. Between April 2016 and December 2019, some 31,136 affordable homes have been delivered. Of these, 3,764 were in the City of Edinburgh.

Between 2011-12 and 2018-19, there have been a total of 84,777 residential property sales registered in the City of Edinburgh, of which there have been 9,052 sales of new build properties. The annual number of sales has increased over this period from 7,703 in 2011-12 to 12,262 in 2015-16 and has remained at relatively similar levels with 11,236 sales in 2018-19 of which 1,304 were new build.

Question reference: S5W-27916

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27616 by Kevin Stewart on 5 March 2020, what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding how the increase in the number of hotel rooms in the city over the last decade has impacted on the city’s local housing strategy and development plans, including the impact on (a) property prices and (b) housing (i) affordability and (ii) availability.

Scottish Government officials have met with the City of Edinburgh Council (‘the Council’), and other local authorities within the South East area of Scotland, at the South East Scotland Housing Forum, to discuss matters of relevance to the development and review of their local housing strategies. At this forum, there has been no discussion concerning the number of hotel rooms in Edinburgh.

Discussions with the Council on a range of planning matters including City Plan 2030 have not involved the number of hotel rooms.

Question reference: S5W-27782

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been delivered through the Scottish Growth Scheme in each year, also broken down by the proportion that was delivered through (a) European funding streams and (b) Scottish Enterprise and other public sector bodies in Scotland.

To 31 January 2020, under the Scottish Growth Scheme, some £193.2 million investment, in debt and equity has been unlocked for 342 companies.

The following table contains a breakdown by year of the funding delivered by the Scottish Growth Scheme and also the proportion that was delivered by (a) European funding streams and (b) Scottish Enterprise and other public sector bodies in Scotland.

Year	Funding delivered	European funding streams including investment by European Investment Fund (a)	Scottish Enterprise/other public sector bodies in Scotland (incl Scottish Government) (b)	Private sector leverage
	£m	£m	£m	£m
2017	22.7	2.3	3.3	17.1
2018	83.5	8.2	15.0	60.3
2019	69.2	6.8	15.3	47.1
2020	17.8	0.3	0.7	16.8
Total	193.2	17.7	34.2	141.3

Question reference: S5W-27616

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on property prices in Edinburgh of the reportedly almost 50% increase in the number of hotel rooms in the city over the last decade.

The City of Edinburgh Council, as the statutory housing and planning authority, has primary responsibility for assessing local housing requirements. This is based on findings from their Housing Need and Demand Assessment, which considers a range of issues including housing affordability, and which helps inform the Local Housing Strategy and Local Development Plan.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken an assessment of the impact of hotel accommodation on property prices but it has carried out some assessment on the impact of short term lets. A copy of the report can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/research-impact-short-term-lets-communities-scotland/

Question reference: S5O-04157

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the increase in the number of tourists is impacting on the country’s cities.

Question reference: S5W-27172

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 19 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take in response to Scottish Natural Heritage's finding that 32% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest are in an unfavourable condition.

The Scottish Government uses the ‘Condition of protected nature sites’ National Performance Framework indicator to report on the percentage of natural features on protected sites to be found in favourable condition or recovering with the necessary management measures in place. The latest available data (for 2019) shows that 78.9% of natural features were assessed as being in favourable condition or recovery is in progress, 2.9% higher than recorded in 2007. Further information on the indicator, including the sources of data, how the indicator is measured and reported as an Official Statistic, and the criteria for change can be found at:

https://nationalperformance.gov.scot/measuring-progress/national-indicator-performance .

For Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) alone, the figure for sites in favourable or recovering condition is 81.7%. This figure, and further data on the condition of protected nature sites, is available on Scotland’s Environment Web at: https://www.environment.gov.scot .

Where unfavourable condition is determined through SCM and an on/near-site remedy is possible, this is a trigger for SNH to either directly, or with partners such as Scottish Forestry or SEPA, explore and encourage the implementation of management options with land managers on the protected area to improve condition. To facilitate this process, and to better target resources, SNH maintains the rolling Delivering Favourable Condition Action Plan, which identifies the actions which need to be taken to improve condition and the lead organisation for delivery. Mechanisms to support management change include Scottish Rural Development Programme and SNH’s own Management Agreement funding (for more specialist management).

There are also some features where the cause of unfavourable condition is not related to management on, or near to the protected area, but relates to wider environmental factors (eg. Seabird natural features being affected by changing prey distribution in the marine environment). These natural features are recognised as having no on-site remedy and are therefore reliant potentially on wider national or international policy changes if recovery is to be promoted. In some instances recovery may not be possible for example due to changes in the natural range of species.

Question reference: S5O-04012

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that a record number of people are waiting over 12 hours in A&E departments.

Question reference: S5O-03957

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that there will be a functioning equivalent to the Motability scheme in Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-03916

Asked by: Gordon Lindhurst, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to improve transport infrastructure through Ratho and the Lothian area in response to reports of an increase in accidents because of excessive traffic flow.

The roads through Ratho are local roads which are the responsibility of the relevant Councils. This includes the identification and delivery of any road safety interventions which may be required. In addition, Transport Scotland has been liaising with both the City of Edinburgh Council and West Lothian Council to explore options to improve traffic flows from the M9 to the A8 at the Newbridge junction, this work is ongoing.

In relation to the trunk road network, Transport Scotland assesses these roads annually and any casualty related issues are added to our overall casualty reduction programme.