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: S6O-02806

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the budget for its Mental Health Directorate having increased substantially in the past three years, how it plans to measure the impact of this spend, including outcomes for people with mental health conditions.

Question reference: S6O-02608

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve rail services in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency.

Question reference: S6O-02541

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what opportunities the development of a Scottish Education Exchange Programme would present for young people in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.

Question reference: S6O-02472

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards the decarbonisation of buildings and the schemes of assistance that are available to the public to help them make the transition.

Question reference: S6W-19892

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 7 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent average level of Council Tax is for a Band D property in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with the level in (a) England and (b) Wales.

Question reference: S6W-19890

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent known levels of housing and community amenity spending per person are in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with spending in (a) England and (b) Wales.

The most recent information on spending on housing and community amenities for Scotland is set out in the Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland (GERS) 2021-22 publication, which shows that spending on these services for Scotland was £479 per person in 2021-22. This compares to spending of £185 per person for England and £380 per person for Wales in 2021-22. The England and Wales figures are taken from HM Treasury's Country and Regional Analysis publication, available at: Country and regional analysis: 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Cross-country comparisons of the level of public spending are affected by which services are provided by the public and private sectors. Excluding spending on water supply, which is provided by the private sector in England and Wales and the public sector in Scotland, the level of spending per person on housing and community amenity services was £371 per person in Scotland, £185 per person in England and £380 per person in Wales in 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-19891

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 1 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent known number of affordable homes per head of population is in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares with the number in (a) England and (b) Wales.

There are different types of affordable housing programmes and schemes in Scotland and across the UK, and statistics on stock levels for each of these different types are not readily available. Information is published on social sector housing stock levels across each of the countries.

The following table sets out information on the number of social rented dwellings compared to population figures, based on the latest available comparable year of data for 2020 from UK housing stock tables published by the Office for National Statistics.

This shows that the 608,000 social sector dwellings in Scotland in 2020 equates to 1,112 dwellings per 10,000 population, higher than the equivalent per head of population figures of 729 in England and 726 in Wales in the same year.

Table on social rented dwellings compared to population figures, for latest comparable year
Country	Social Sector dwellings, 2020	Mid-year population, 2020	Social Sector dwellings per 10,000 population
Scotland	608,000	5,466,000	1,112
England	4,121,000	56,550,138	729
Wales	230,000	3,169,586	726
Sources:
Dwelling stock by tenure, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-19927

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 1 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to young, single, professional people in order to help them access the housing market for the first time, and what assessment it has made of any impact of recent mortgage rate rises on young single people in Scotland who are trying to access the housing market.

We continue to support home ownership and have interventions in place to help first time buyers through our Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme which helps people on low to moderate incomes to buy their first home.

Our first-time buyer relief for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax has the effect of raising the nil-rate threshold from £145,000 to £175,000, saving first-time buyers up to £600.

No formal assessment has been carried out on the impact of increased mortgage rates on First Time Buyers (FTB’s), however we are aware that an increase in mortgage rates will make it more difficult for many FTB’s to obtain mortgage lending or in fact access it due to a decreased number of products available.

Question reference: S6O-02393

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it will take account of the views of Ayrshire farmers as part of its proposed Agriculture Bill.

Question reference: S6W-18716

Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Patrick Harvie on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the expected status of the provisions within Part 1 of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 for the period after 30 September 2023.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 is a response to the impact of the cost crisis on those living in the rented sector. The Act introduced a temporary rent cap and a temporary moratorium on the enforcement of evictions, along with simplifying the process for claiming unlawful eviction damages and increasing the level of damages that can be awarded.

The Act was initially due to expire on 31 March 2023, however Scottish Ministers used the powers available to them to extend Part 1 for a further period of 6 months to 30 September 2023.

In addition to being time limited, the Scottish Government has also made clear it will retain and use the provisions within the Act only for as long as they are necessary and proportionate. As a result, where it has been possible to do so, provisions in the Act have been suspended or expired when they have fulfilled their purpose and the Scottish Government has examined available evidence and views and both supported a change in approach.

The ongoing cost crisis continues to place people across Scotland in a precarious economic position. Renters, in particular, have lower household incomes, higher levels of poverty and are more vulnerable to economic shocks. Over the period from 2018-2020, 63% of social rented households and 40% of private rented households did not have enough savings to cover even a month of income at the poverty line, compared to 24% of households buying with a mortgage and 9% of households owning outright. Thus rented sector households entered the cost of living crisis in a more vulnerable position than owner occupiers.

In carefully considering this wider economic context, the Scottish Government have decided that it is necessary and proportionate for Part 1 of the Act to be extended for a further, and final, 6 month period to 31 March 2024.

Subject to approval by Parliament, regulations have been laid today that would mean:

Most in-tenancy private rent increases would continue to be capped at 3%;
Alternatively, private landlords could apply for increases of up to 6% to help cover certain increases in costs in a specified time period where these costs can be evidenced;
Enforcement of evictions would continue to be paused for six months for most tenants, except in a number of specified circumstances; and
Increased damages for unlawful evictions of up to 36 months’ worth of rent would continue to be applicable.

A Statement of Reasons has been published alongside these regulations, setting out the evidence why the Scottish Government believes it is necessary and proportionate to extend Part 1 of the Act beyond 30 September 2023.

Part 1 of the Act can only be extended in its entirety and not on a provision by provision basis. Any provisions that should not be extended therefore need to be expired or suspended through separate regulations. In addition, throughout the proposed six month extension period, if provisions are deemed to no longer be necessary during that time then they must be suspended or expired early. A suspended provision could subsequently be revived if this was considered necessary and proportionate in connection with the cost of living.

Therefore, proposing that Part 1 of the Act be extended at this time does not guarantee that all provisions covered by the extension would remain in place until 31 March 2024, and we will continue to review – and report on - whether the provisions remain necessary and proportionate in connection with the cost of living.

Average CT bill	Band D
Scotland 2023-24	£1,417
England 2023-24	£2,065
Difference Eng - Scot	£648
Wales 2023-24	£1,879
Difference Wal - Scot	£463