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-28856

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) research it has carried out and (b) discussions it has had regarding pay weighting for public sector workers working in Edinburgh.

Research has focused on the wider challenges and opportunities associated with rapid localised population growth where it is occurring in parts of Scotland. This was discussed at the October 2023 meeting of the Population Taskforce and is a priority within the Population Balance strand of delivery of the Population Strategy. The minutes of the October meeting are published on the Scottish Government webpages: https://www.gov.scot/publications/population-taskforce-minutes-october-2023/

Our approach to public sector pay has provided support to public sector workers during COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis, balancing fairness, affordability and fiscal sustainability within an extremely difficult fiscal context. We have protected the lowest paid and encourage employers to take a progressive approach to pay. As a result, public sector salaries in Scotland after taxes are 6% higher on average than the rest of the UK, with median full-time pay around £1,500 higher, up from around £430 prior to the pandemic.

A short briefing note will be prepared on how the London weighting allowance is calculated and applied, which can be shared with Mr Briggs in due course.

Question reference: S6O-03703

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the Ministerial Taskforce on Population has made of the reported population increase in Edinburgh and the south east, including any proposals that it has made to address this, since it was established in June 2019.

Question reference: S6W-29227

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many developments have been approved in the first phase of its review of permitted development rights, broken down by local authority area.

In most cases, permitted development rights (PDR) allow certain developments to be carried out without reference to the planning authority – provided the relevant PDR conditions are complied with. Therefore, such developments do not require an application for planning permission to be submitted to and approved by a planning authority and, accordingly, data is not available on those developments carried out under PDR.

However, a small number of PDR are subject to a process known as “prior notification/prior approval”. The planning authority’s determination is limited to the particular matters specified in the relevant PDR class – for example, siting, design or appearance. Although there is no statutory requirement to do so, planning authorities should keep records of prior notification/prior approval cases.

Data on prior notification/approvals form part of the statistics that are submitted by planning authorities and form the basis of the Scottish Government’s Official Statistics available on https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/. Most recent figures are available https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-applications-statistics-2022-23-annual-quarterly-october-2022-march-2023/documents/

The information is broken down into certain development types. However, the figures are not broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-29006

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government since 5 July 2024 regarding delivering more homes across all housing tenures in Scotland, including the potential for increased funding for increasing unit output.

The First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, via a Microsoft Teams call, on Wednesday 17 July 2024. Discussion highlighted that the forecast reduction in Capital and Financial Transactions (FTs) funding is causing significant challenges for the Scottish Government’s investment in affordable housing.

The First Minister met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, via a Microsoft Teams call, on Wednesday 31 July 2024. The First Minister raised his close interest in the UK Government’s housing agenda, and reiterated the impact of the reductions to our capital and FTs.

The First Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister met in person at Bute House on Thursday 15 August 2024. The First Minister again raised the issue of reductions to financial transactions funding in relation to affordable housing. The First Minister also restated his commitment to building a constructive and collaborative relationship with the UK Government that delivers for the people of Scotland.

On 28 August, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government met the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Glasgow and reiterated the concern of the Scottish Government over the damage that has been done to housing investment by the real terms reductions in the overall Capital Budget and the budget for Financial Transactions. The First Minister encouraged the Chancellor to rectify this in her Budget Statement on 30 October.

Question reference: S6W-28997

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the single building assessment for housing developments will operate in relation to fire safety.

Single Building Assessment (SBA) is defined by section 32 of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024, with SBAs to be carried out in accordance with the standards to be specified by Scottish Ministers. The SBA Technical Specification was published on 21 June 2024 and is expected to form the core of these standards.

The SBA is a risk assessment process rather than a change to existing fire safety. An SBA will culminate in a report on any risk to human life that is (directly or indirectly) created or exacerbated by the building’s external wall cladding system, and what work (if any) is needed to eliminate or mitigate any risk of that kind which is identified.

Question reference: S6W-29005

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the overall economic impact of its cladding remediation programme, including the impact of new homes being built as a result of this.

Question reference: S6W-28869

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 28 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what review it has made of the support being given to develop bespoke services to help disabled people who experience loneliness.

We launched a new Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund on 8 March 2023. This funding is helping organisations to create opportunities for people to connect with one another in our communities. 53 projects are currently operational across Scotland, delivering projects within communities that are diverse and are responding to local needs. Disabled people are one of the priority groups targeted by the Fund.

Our analysis of the fund informs us that 20 out of the 53 funded projects are targeted at disabled people and to date 1529 disabled people are benefitting from the services provided by these projects.

We will continue to evaluate the fund and learn what further interventions are required for disabled people who experience loneliness.

We recognise loneliness impacts on different demographics as stated in ‘A Connected Scotland’ and we are using this strategy to bring together the different parts of Government that can make a real difference in tackling loneliness. This is evident in approaches delivered by both Creative Scotland and Sport Scotland, both Government funded bodies, who invest and support people to connect by enabling access to inclusive activities.

Question reference: S6W-28864

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) individuals and (b) families from each local authority area have had to use secure temporary accommodation outwith their local authority area, also broken down by how many had to travel to England to do so.

The information requested is not held centrally by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government collects information on the types of temporary accommodation provided or arranged by the local authority which a household makes a homelessness application to. Information on the location of this accommodation is not collected. Temporary accommodation data by local authority is released on an biannual basis as part of the Homelessness in Scotland statistics

Question reference: S6W-28854

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 28 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been in local authority housing budget reserves in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-28861

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many e-bikes have been reported stolen in each year since 2013, broken down by Police Scotland division.

The Scottish Government does not hold information specifically on the number of e-bike thefts as the data we receive from Police Scotland is a general count of the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, split by local authority.

Depending on the circumstances of any given case, such as how an e-bike was stolen or it’s spec, there are a number of different crime classifications that might be used by the police (for example Theft of a Pedal Cycle, Theft of a Motor Vehicle, Robbery etc.). As such, it is not possible to identify within the Recorded Crime statistics how many of the cases involve an e-bike being stolen.