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: S5W-09059

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of its affordable housing target will be homes for homeless people.

The responsibility for the allocation of housing in the social rented sector lies with the local authority or housing association concerned. In law social housing landlords are required to give reasonable preference, or priority, to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Social landlords must allocate housing based on an assessment of an applicant’s housing needs against its allocation policy and within the legal framework.

While it is for the landlords to decide who is allocated any particular house, an overall increase in a landlord’s social housing stock will enable the landlord to house more applicants in need of social housing. We as a Government are working hard to do just that. We have committed to delivery of 35,000 social rented homes over this Parliamentary term, a 75% increase on our previous social housing target which we not only achieved but exceeded. These sit within our wider 50,000 affordable homes target, to which we have pledged over £3 billion of funding.

The number of social rented homes within each local authority area over the current target period will depend on the priorities of local authorities as identified in their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA), Local Housing Strategies (LHS) and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs).

Local authorities are required by law to prepare an LHS, supported by an assessment of housing need and demand. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 places a statutory duty on each local authority to carry out an assessment of homelessness in its area and to prepare and submit to Ministers, a strategy (as part of the LHS) for the prevention and alleviation of homelessness.

Question reference: S5W-09057

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what requirements there are on local authorities to ensure that a homeless person is secured accommodation in a timely manner.

Homelessness legislation sets out the requirements on local authorities to ensure a homeless person can access accommodation in a timely matter.

The local authority has a legal duty to provide a minimum of temporary accommodation and advice and assistance to all those it finds to be homeless or threatened with homelessness. If the household is unintentionally homeless, it is entitled to settled accommodation. Additionally, the statutory Code of Guidance on Homelessness supports local authorities in their implementation of these legislative requirements.

Question reference: S5W-09054

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many homeless people have been housed by a local authority in accommodation outside of its area in each of the last three years, also broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S5W-09056

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-07226 by Kevin Stewart on 1 March 2017, what actions it has taken following such recommendations.

The Scottish Government has taken a number of actions as a result of delivering the workplan and recommendations of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group:

We are working with local authorities to identify models of temporary accommodation which can improve outcomes for homeless households. This is against the background of a reduction of funding made available for temporary accommodation as a result of UK Government welfare reform. A formula for distribution of funding for 2017-18, which was transferred from UK Government to the Scottish Government for temporary accommodation to local authorities, was agreed with COSLA in March 2017.
A number of steps have also been taken to strengthen links between homelessness and health services, including work to link data to improve understanding and inform policy responses. This has been alongside supporting the promotion of innovative approaches to addressing homelessness amongst those with more complex needs such as the Housing First approach and the need for Psychologically Informed Environments.
All of this is also linked to our continued promotion of the Housing Options approach and financial support for local authorities, including providing additional funding for the development of a training toolkit which will involve a number of different policy areas beyond housing. The toolkit will assist to ensure a consistent response on Housing Options across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-09062

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the success of its Housing Options Approach.

Statistical information on the operation of housing options approaches is collected by local authorities (Prevent 1) and published by the Scottish Government. This and the HL1 statistics on homelessness applications provide ways that the operation of the approach can be measured.

However, we also ensure that statistical information is underpinned by regular engagement and sharing of best practice on homelessness prevention between the Scottish Government, Housing Option Hubs, other partners and homeless people themselves to help measure progress.

Question reference: S5W-09033

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 3 May 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on what should happen to rental deposits held in secure schemes that are unclaimed after the cessation of the let.

Question reference: S5W-08526

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 April 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will include a question in its next Household Survey questionnaire, which asks whether someone would consider downsizing to a home designed to meet their needs as they become older.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) team is currently assessing all the bids received for the SHS 2018 and 2019 questionnaires. This includes a bid for a question on the willingness for older people to downsize their home. The SHS steering group will consider the SHS questionnaire at their next meeting in June at which final decisions on content will be made. The Scottish Government will publish a report in July which details the outcomes of the review and which questions will be included in SHS 2018 and 2019.

Question reference: S5O-00855

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 30 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report to the UK Government, Each Home Counts.

The Scottish Government has long held the view that the UK Government should look to strengthen their consumer protection frameworks and industry standards in the energy efficiency market and therefore we welcomed the review when first announced.

Now that it is published we will carefully consider the review’s recommendations as part of the development of Scotland Energy Efficiency Programme (SEEP). We are currently consulting on programme and policy options for SEEP until 30 May 2017. As part of this consultation we are asking how best the programme can build consumer confidence, ensure quality delivery and how it can integrate with the findings of the Each Home Counts review.

Question reference: S5F-01073

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2017

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to reports that, in 2015, around one-in-five referrals to child and adolescent mental health services were rejected and, over the last three years, approximately 17,000 children and young people have been affected.

Question reference: S5O-00820

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the divisional commander of British Transport Police in Scotland that its proposed merger with Police Scotland risks reducing the effectiveness of railway policing.