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: S6W-13141

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many households have been on pre-payment meters in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government does not hold all of this information. However, a question added to the Scottish Housing Condition Survey in 2016 to allow for more accurate fuel bill estimation means that we are able to provide figures from 2016 in the following table.

Due to enforced changes in response to Covid-19 restrictions the 2020 SHCS was not completed and it was not possible to collect this data as part of the 2021 SHCS. This data is being collected as part of the 2022 SHCS which we expect to publish in late 2023 / early 2024.

Year	Number of households with PPM Meters	Percentage of households with PPM Meters
2016	565,000	23%
2017	529,000	21%
2018	467,000	19%
2019	421,000	17%

Question reference: S6W-13142

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have been estimated to be in energy debt in each year since 1999.

Energy debt is a matter reserved to the UK Government, so the Scottish Government does not hold this information. I suggest contacting Ofgem in the first instance.

Scottish Government analysts have estimated that the UK Government’s current price cap (Energy Price Guarantee) of £2,500 puts 860,000 (34%) of households in Scotland in fuel poverty and 600,000 (24%) in extreme fuel poverty. In line with the Energy Price Guarantee rising by £500 from April 2023, we estimate that there will be around 980,000 fuel poor households in total (39%) and 860,000 in extreme fuel poverty (34%).

Question reference: S6W-12735

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 19 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the impact in Scotland of the UK Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry, The right to family life: adoption of children of unmarried women 1949-1976.

Question reference: S6W-13140

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils have received swimming lessons as a percentage of the school population in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive at least two hours of physical education per school week in primary schools, and at least two 50-minute periods of physical education per school week in secondary schools - between secondaries 1 and 4.

Under the provisions of Curriculum for Excellence schools and education authorities have the flexibility to decide upon the content of their lessons at the local level by taking into account the needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. This includes taking decisions locally about the content of their PE lessons, where they can offer swimming lessons to their pupils if they wish to do so.

Question reference: S6W-12810

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it assesses the quality of roads.

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based based surveys using specialist vehicles each year to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underling road construction. This is similar in nature to the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey conducted by Scottish Local Authorities and it provides an annual snapshot of the road condition across the network. This is supplemented with a series of targeted inspections completed under the term maintenance contract to obtain specific information about the road asset. The combined information is used to determine maintenance programmes and investment requirements.

Question reference: S6W-12782

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 16 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the next Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey is due to be carried out.

Question reference: S6O-01731

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the social justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the support available to families experiencing poverty, including as a result of rising energy costs, where a seriously ill child relies on life-sustaining equipment at home.

Question reference: S6W-11839

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce new legislation regarding prompt payment, and specifically in relation to construction companies being paid.

Question reference: S6W-12620

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what support it will provide to help sustain local swimming pools.

The Scottish Government places great importance on leisure facilities and recognises the significant challenges that are facing operators such as leisure trusts, particularly with swimming pools, as increased operational costs continues to put pressure on their operations.

I recently met with members of Community Leisure UK to discuss the issues facing the leisure and culture trusts in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has increased the local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget. It is the responsibility of the individual local authorities to provide leisure facilities, including swimming pools, and local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own power and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial recourses available to them, including on swimming pools, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government will continue to make the case for the UK Government to do more to protect our public services.

Question reference: S6W-12618

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to develop a strategic housing land availability assessment for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to develop a strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA) for Scotland. SHLAA is part of the English planning system for housing, as expected by the English National Planning Policy Framework.

Scotland has its own planning policy and processes relating to housing. The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 and National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) set out new processes for Local Development Plans (LDPs) and policy for new homes in Scotland.

Our Revised Draft NPF4, if approved by the Scottish Parliament, will expect deliverable land to be allocated to meet the 10 year Local Housing Land Requirement in locations that create quality places for people to live. In addition, areas that may be suitable for new homes beyond 10 years are also to be identified. LDP delivery programmes will be expected to establish a housing land pipeline for the Local Housing Land Requirement. The annual housing land audit will sit alongside the delivery programme and will monitor the delivery of housing land.

Draft LDP Guidance has been consulted on, and is in the process of being finalised. This will include further information on how NPF4 housing policy is implemented in LDPs. We will provide updated guidance on housing land audits to support NPF4 housing policy.