Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-05572

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Due to be taken in the Chamber on 26 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport regarding its plans to deliver a franchising framework assessment to support the potential introduction of local franchising, as required under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

Question reference: S6W-43668

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on ScotRail fares for 2026.

From 1 April 2026, all ScotRail fares will be frozen for the financial year 2026-2027, including Season Tickets and Flexipass.

This will be welcome news for passengers as we aim to make Scotland’s Railway as affordable as possible to maintain the attractiveness of rail as a travel option and encourage new passengers onto our railway. That is why we also removed peak fares from ScotRail services for good in September last year.

Question reference: S6O-05512

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the support provided through Discretionary Housing Payments for households in the private rented sector that rely on Local Housing Allowance to pay their rents but face a shortfall due to LHA rates.

Question reference: S6W-43348

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the total cost of mitigating any impact in Scotland of UK Government policy decisions since 2007-08, also broken down by the amount spent in (a) each of the last five years and (b) since April 2025.

The Scottish Government has spent over £1.3 billion in the past 15 years mitigating the impacts of UK Government welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, introduced since 2010. Of that, over £148 million is being invested in the current financial year (2025-26), and over £681 million has been spent in the last five financial years (2020-21 - 2024-25), funding Discretionary Housing Payments, the Scottish Welfare Fund, money advice services, and Universal Credit Scottish choices.

In addition to the above support, in 2025-26, we forecast that we will spend £458 million on the Scottish Child payment, giving support to the families of over 323,000 children who currently receive it.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government mitigates pressures from UK immigration processes by investing in Scotland’s prevention-based homelessness framework, including rapid rehousing approaches and integration support through New Scots.

Despite limited economic levers, the Scottish Government has a strong record on helping people with the costs of living. We call on the UK Government to follow the Scottish Government’s lead to protect and enhance the social security safety net.

Table 1 below provides a breakdown of spending to mitigate UK Government policy decisions in the last five years, plus the forecast spend for the current financial year (six years in total).

Table 1: breakdown of spending on UK Government welfare mitigation (2020-21 - 2025-26)

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	Total (£m)
DHP bedroom tax budget	£59.70	£71.30	£68.10	£69.70	£74.84	£79.70	£423.34
DHP benefit cap budget				£6.155	£7.75	£9.45	£23.35
DHP “Other”	£18.901	£10.90	£16.002	£7.90	£7.90	£10.9010	£72.50
DHP admin funding	£1.20	£1.20	£1.703	£2.20	£2.20	£2.20	£10.70
Scottish Welfare Fund	£57.50	£35.50	£38.004	£35.50	£53.007	£40.9711	£260.47
Scottish Welfare Fund admin funding	£5.50	£5.50	£5.50	£5.50	£8.008	£5.50	£35.50
Money advice services	£1.50	£1.50	£0.70	See note 6 below			£3.70
Universal Credit Scottish choices	£0.20	£0.10	£0.10	£0.13	£0.169	See note 12 below	£0.69
Total cost of mitigating UK Government welfare reform	£144.50	£126.00	£130.10	£127.08	£153.85	£148.72	£830.25

1.Figure includes additional £8m of Covid support funds.

2.Figure includes additional £2.6m for benefit cap support and £2.5m cost of living support.

3.Figure includes £0.5m additional admin funding paid for benefit cap policy roll-out preparation.

4.Figure includes £2.5m to support delivery of the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2022-23.

5.Prior to 2023-24 benefit cap funding was included in the DHP ”Other” line.

6.From 2018 to late 2022, The Scottish Government allocated funding from its overall welfare and debt advice budget for specific advice relating to UKG welfare reforms. From October 2022, this funding stream was brought together with other previously separate funding streams to support the new, streamlined Money Talk Team service delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland.

7.On 28 November 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice announced a further £17.5m for the Scottish Welfare Fund during winter 2024-25.

8.On 28 November 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice announced a further £2.5m for Scottish Welfare Fund admin funding during winter 2024-25.

9.This is a forecast figure.

10.On 2 September 2025, the Cabinet Secretary for Housing announced an extra £2m for DHPs through the Housing Emergency Action Plan. On 27 October 2025, Cab Sec Housing announced a further £1m.

11.On 8 January 2026, the First Minister announced an additional £5.465m for the Scottish Welfare Fund, originally earmarked in 2025/26 to support the two-child limit mitigation payment in Scotland.

12.No forecast is available at this time.

Question reference: S6W-43395

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi McAllan on 29 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its response to the Heat in Buildings Bill consultation.

The Scottish Government has today published its analysis report and response to the Heat in Buildings Bill Consultation, available at this link Delivering net zero for Scotland's buildings - Heat in Buildings Bill: consultation analysis.

The consultation responses have directly informed the development of the draft Buildings (Heating and Energy Performance) and Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill, which I intend to introduce as early as possible in the next Parliament, subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election and UK Government action to reduce the cost of electricity. We will also shortly consult on proposals for heat network installation and maintenance licences.

Question reference: S6W-43245

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what new action it will take to address the housing emergency in Scotland.

Since declaring a national Housing Emergency in May 2024, I am proud that:

This year the Affordable Housing Supply Programme will invest £808 million - an increase of more than £251 million on last year’s budget;
Approvals for affordable housing between July-September are up by 61% compared to last year;
£120 million targeted through our acquisitions fund is supporting the acquisition of at least 1,200 homes – helping to reduce homeless households in temporary accommodation;
In 2026-27 we are investing at least £1.3 million towards the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, ensuring that empty homes are brought back into use - building on our record investment of £5.7 million since 2010;
We have helped an estimated 2,261 households with children into affordable housing in the year to end June 2025;
Our action to keep rents lower than market rents benefits approximately 140,000 children in poverty each year and we have introduced provisions for a national system of evidence based rent control;
Our draft budget for 2026/7 commits the single largest funding allocation to affordable housing since our records began in 1989 and our Spending Review, for the first time, offers multi-annual certainty for the coming four years;
The draft Budget also commits an additional £4 million for action to prevent homelessness. This is in addition to £11.5 million for activities such as rapid rehousing and the Fund to Leave - as well as a further £23.5 million already baselined for Local Government; and
We have worked to create the optimum conditions for investment including by setting an all-tenure target, developing clear exemptions from rent control for Mid-Market Rent and Build to Rent developments and by seeking an emergency-led approach from Local Authority Heads of Planning.

Together with our partners, so much has been achieved.

However our efforts to tackle the emergency have tested and exposed the limitations of the current housing delivery arrangement in Scotland. Ultimately, we must deliver more high quality, affordable homes, more quickly. We must simplify the landscape to achieve economy of scale savings; increase land and infrastructure support; and enable closer working with the private sector. The root and branch action demanded by this challenge requires us to think, and to act, in a radical way.

The First Minister will today announce the intention of the Scottish Government to create a new agency focused squarely and simply on accelerating housing delivery in Scotland. While extending its reach to all tenures, it will maintain an emphasis on affordable housing.

The agency will bring together housing, land, planning support and delivery expertise to simplify, scale and speed up the delivery of homes. Working with local authorities and Ministers through a joined-up model we will improve capacity, support regeneration and rural housing, and reduce duplication across government.

This tangible Government action in response to the Housing Emergency will take a Scotland wide all-tenure approach and focus on four pillars: affordable housing delivery, rural and island housing, land and development, and investment. It will also ensure we continue to deliver on the objectives set out in the Housing Emergency Action Plan and our Housing to 2040 strategy.

This new agency will help to drive forward the core government priorities of eradicating child poverty and growing our economy. It will also help to support first time buyers by increasing supply.

I will be working with experts across the housing sector, supported by COSLA and the Scottish National Investment Bank, to lead an initial design phase over the next two months to refine the operating model. This will allow us to carefully consider how this new agency optimises delivery while ensuring maximum value for money.

I intend to update Parliament in March, upon conclusion of the design phase but I am pleased to confirm the intention to announce, for simplicity, scale and speed: More Homes Scotland.

Question reference: S6O-05411

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports local authorities to investigate short-term lets that are operating without planning permission or registration.

Question reference: S6W-42922

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 January 2026
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on its plans to introduce Hereditary Tyrosinemia Type 1 (HT1) screening in Scotland.

Following a positive recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee, from the 12 January 2026, all newborn babies in Scotland will be eligible for testing for Hereditary Tyrosinemia Type 1 (HT1) through the existing bloodspot test. Introducing newborn screening for HT1 will enable earlier diagnosis and treatment for babies born with this life-threatening condition. This will significantly reduce the number of babies who develop severe liver disease as a result of this condition. It may also lower the likelihood that those diagnosed with HT1 will require a liver transplant later in life.

Question reference: S6O-05380

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the development of a new statutory code of practice for household waste and recycling.

Question reference: S6O-05260

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports Scotland's Living Wage Places to encourage the uptake of the real Living Wage amongst employers.

Chamber and committees