Chamber and committees

Private residential landlords in Scotland are required to register with their local authority under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland Act) 2004 and pass the fit and proper person test. One of the considerations in the fit and proper person test is whether the applicant has contravened any provision of housing law. Landlords have a duty to ensure that property they let meets the Repairing Standard and Tolerable Standard at the start and at all times during a tenancy.

Responsibility for enforcement of the Repairing Standard lies with the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service staff carry out the administration of that tribunal.

The First Tier Tribunal will notify the relevant local authority when an application for a determination on the repairing standard is received. It is the responsibility of the local authority to investigate and take any necessary action where standards are not being met.

Enforcement arrangements for all elements of the Repairing Standard are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.

There are no new requirements for fire safety in the Repairing Standard.

There are currently no requirements for local authorities to report to Scottish Government on the Repairing Standard.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27429 on 4 June 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

There are no reporting requirements on the rate and nature of non-crime hate incidents from Police Scotland to the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government is not aware of reporting requirements to any other public body.

The proportion of electricity consumed by households that will be generated by nuclear power stations in the rest of the UK is not possible to predict with any level of certainty in 2028. It will depend on a range of market factors.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting families who have experienced pregnancy and baby loss through the delivery of high-quality, sensitive bereavement care, and has provided funding to Sands UK to develop and implement the National Bereavement Care Pathway for pregnancy and baby loss in Scotland (NBCP).

All 14 NHS Boards are now officially signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway which is currently being implemented in 9 Boards. Initial meetings have taken place with the remaining 5 Boards, who signed up at the end of 2023. A link to the NBCP can be found here: Home | SANDS (nbcpscotland.org.uk)

SANDS UK have also produced Bereavement Care Standards and these complement the National Bereavement Care Pathways for Scotland. The Scottish Government encourages NHS Boards to use the bereavement care standards wherever possible. More information on the Bereavement Care Standards can be found here: Bereavement Care Standards | SANDS (nbcpscotland.org.uk)

The Scottish Government are not aware of any regulations which prevent public sector bodies from using recycled aggregates in construction projects.

SEPA encourages the use of recycled aggregates and has issued guidance on their manufacture from inert waste production-of-recycled-aggregates.pdf (sepa.org.uk) . This aims to ensure recycled aggregates have the same technical and environmental performance as virgin aggregates, providing confidence to users. Recycled aggregates must also comply with the relevant performance specifications.

Transport Scotland encourages the use of recycled aggregates where appropriate and, in order to encourage and facilitate this, recently issued a guidance note on road recycling https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51380/ts-ia-52-road-recycling.pdf .

Scottish Government guidance Client Guide to Construction Projects includes a chapter on Sustainability in Construction that endorses a circular economy approach to conserve and value all resource.

More widely, the Scottish Government has introduced an Aggregates Tax and Devolved Taxes Administration (Scotland) Bill, which will encourage the use of recycled materials in construction, by taxing the sale or use of aggregates consisting of freshly extracted rock, gravel or sand.

The Scottish Aggregates Tax, scheduled for introduction in April 2026, is intended to encourage the minimum necessary exploitation of primary aggregate, maximise the use of secondary and recycled aggregates and incentivise innovation and the development of alternative materials.

The Scottish Government is grateful for the hard work foster carers do in providing caring homes to vulnerable children. However, there are no plans to extend eligibility for Scottish Child Payment to all foster carers.

Children in foster care are considered looked after by the local authority and, as such, foster carers do not satisfy the legal responsibilities or rights that entitle them to child responsibility benefits. Foster carers receive allowances from local authorities to cover the needs of children living with them.

Steps have already been taken to disseminate the NCA alert to all schools in Scotland.

Education Scotland officials worked with the NCA to ensure a copy of the alert went to all safeguarding leads in each local authority for onward transmission to all schools. In addition, the alert has been circulated to the Personal and Social Education and Health and Wellbeing Network members, who are school teachers, as well as the Registrar of Independent Schools.

Enforcement arrangements for all elements of the Repairing Standard are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006.

It is the responsibility of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) to decide whether the landlord has complied with the duty imposed by the legislation.

Where the First-tier Tribunal decides that the landlord has failed to comply with that duty, it must by a “repairing standard enforcement order” require the landlord to carry out such work as is necessary, specifying the period within which the work required by the order must be completed.

A landlord who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a repairing standard enforcement order commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine which would be determined by the tribunal.

The Scottish Government does not currently collect any information about compliance with the new repairing standard requirements on electrical fittings. Where a tenant believes the Repairing Standard is not being met in the house they rent from a private landlord, they can apply to the First Tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber) for a determination.

No new requirements for fire safety came into force under the Repairing Standard in March 2024.

A requirement for fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors was previously part of the Repairing Standard. Since 1 February 2022, this requirement has been part of the Tolerable Standard and is therefore required in all tenures, including private rented housing.

In 2022 the Scottish House Condition Survey asked the following new question on fire alarms: Has the dwelling satisfactory equipment for detecting fire and giving warning in the event of fire or suspected fire. Responses were recorded as a yes or no answer, and in order to be recorded as ‘yes’ a dwelling must have interlinked fire alarms installed meeting a number of criteria.

The Scottish House Conditions Survey conducted in 2022 shows that around 41,000 dwellings (14% of private rented sector dwellings) failed the smoke alarm criteria.

While all dwellings meeting the fire alarm criteria have interlinked fire alarms, there may be some dwellings recorded as having insufficient fire detection equipment that do have interlinked fire alarms but failed the fire alarm criteria due to other factors such as insufficient number of alarms, improperly powered alarms, or improper locations of alarms. However, due to the yes / no mode of question this number cannot be quantified from 2022 SHCS data.

From 2023 the SHCS question on fire alarms will provide details as to why a dwelling’s equipment for detecting a fire is unsatisfactory which will allow analysis in this area from 2025.