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-04035

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are penalties for private landlords who are not registered.

Under the landlord registration system administered by local authorities, landlords who do not register are committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £50,000.

A local authority can also serve a Rent Penalty Notice on an unregistered landlord. The effect of the notice is that no rent or other payment is payable under a tenant’s lease or occupancy arrangement from a specified date.

Question reference: S4W-04036

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what penalties there are for private landlords who fail to maintain their properties at an acceptable standard and how they are enforced.

A tenant in the private rented sector can apply to the Private Rented Housing Panel if they consider that their landlord has not maintained the property they rent to an acceptable standard.

If the panel decides that the landlord has failed to comply with the statutory repairing standard, it will issue a repairing standard enforcement order requiring that necessary work be carried out.

Non-compliance with a repairing standard enforcement order without reasonable excuse is an offence under section 28 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. The Private Rented Housing Panel can enforce a repairing standard enforcement order by issuing a separate order reducing the rent payable under a tenancy agreement. Under the repairing standard enforcement order, the local authority can carry out the work required and recover the cost from the landlord.

Local authorities also have a range of powers to deal with houses in disrepair through the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. A local authority is able to serve a work notice requiring work to be carried out on a property that fails to meet the tolerable standard, is in serious disrepair, or is in disrepair and is likely to deteriorate rapidly or damage other premises if nothing is done about it.

Local authorities are also able to serve maintenance orders, so as to prevent houses falling into disrepair in the first place. Owners can be required to produce a maintenance plan for up to a five year period where living accommodation has not been, or is unlikely to be, maintained to reasonable standard, or where the benefit of work from a work notice has been reduced or lost.

A local authority is able to enforce a work notice or maintenance plan, and recover the costs for doing so, where the owner fails to implement it.

Question reference: S4W-04032

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when (a) its policies and (b) legislation on dangerous dogs will next be reviewed.

The Scottish Government keeps its dangerous dogs policy under review as appropriate. We are committed to ensuring our communities are protected from dangerous dogs and we would support any sensible and practical measures that help achieve this, but there are no plans to change the policy at this juncture. Section 10 of the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 amended the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 so that a dog owner can be held criminally responsible where a dog is found to be dangerously out of control in any place rather than only a public place or private place where a dog is not permitted to be. The 2010 act came into force on 26 February 2011. We have no current plans to review the law in relation to dangerous dogs.

Question reference: S4W-04033

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 22 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to place greater responsibility on private landlords in relation to antisocial behaviour.

Question reference: S4W-04037

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money from the Cashback for Communities scheme has been invested in Renfrewshire since 2007.

Cashback funding is not allocated to individual local authority areas. Instead, funding is allocated to our partner organisations, who are tasked with delivering diversionary and participatory activities, or developing local facilities that will benefit our communities.

Work is currently ongoing to monitor and evaluate the cashback programme going forward and such information will be collated under an evaluation framework.

Question reference: S4W-04030

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dog attacks against children under 12 have been recorded in the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-04031

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dog attacks have been reported to the police in the last five years.

The available information is given in the following table. As well as the number of attacks by dogs which result in an injury, and are subsequently recorded by the police, the numbers include offences connected to destruction and disqualification (for having custody of a dog) orders.

Number of offences recorded by the police under sections 3 and 4 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, 2006-07 to 2010-11:

Year	Number of Offences
2006-07	623
2007-08	587
2008-09	604
2009-10	653
2010-11	668

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Question reference: S4W-03910

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how far it has progressed toward its target of reducing the suicide rate by 20% by 2013.

Question reference: S4O-00382

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what further action will be taken to reduce litter.

Question reference: S4W-03312

Asked by: Derek Mackay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 31 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4O-00262 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 October 2011, whether Renfrewshire will be included in the initial or pilot phases of NHS Great Glasgow and Clyde's family nurse partnership programme.