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-39207

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 22 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that some local authorities have indicated in their six-monthly Local Development Plan progress updates that they are facing delays in preparing their new-style plans; if so, which local authorities have done so, and, for each such local authority, whether it will provide a summary of (a) the estimated length of the delay, (b) the reasons provided for the delay and (c) what support the Scottish Government has offered to help ensure timely completion of the plan.

In April, the Chief Planner and I required planning authorities to report every six months on their local development plan timelines and actions they are taking to avoid delays and accelerate the process.

We have not yet received the initial formal six-monthly updates, which are to be sent to the Scottish Government by 30 September 2025. We will analyse and share details from the progress updates in due course.

In this year’s Programme for Government, we committed to providing local authorities with additional capacity and expertise, through the National Planning Hub. This includes prioritising action where evidence shows that authorities are having challenges in meeting timescales or where there are delays in producing local development plans. Planning authorities were advised of the support available to them in a letter from the Chief Planner issued in May. Since that letter, the Hub has been working with a number of local authorities to provide direct support at the earliest opportunity in response to their specific pressures and needs.

We are continuing to work with the National Planning Improvement Champion, the Improvement Service and Heads of Planning Scotland to raise the imperative of making timely progress with local development plans, to encourage proactive steps to accelerate timelines, and to provide support to authorities who have identified slippage as a concern.

Question reference: S6W-38895

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the total current round of funding for the Housing Infrastructure Fund has been distributed to date.

Question reference: S6W-38896

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 15 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much money was allocated to the Housing Infrastructure Fund in total for the current 2025-26 round of funding.

Question reference: S6W-39122

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 8 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of occasions when the First-tier Tribunal has made a report to Police Scotland for prosecution in relation to section 24 of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 since the Act came into force.

Question reference: S6W-38963

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of what ear, nose and throat (ENT) and hospital audiology waiting times would currently be had a community audiology service been treating the majority of age-related hearing loss patients since 2021.

The waiting time information available to the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not provide details on the reason an individual has been referred into a NHS service, including if the patient is experiencing age-related hearing loss. It is therefore not possible to make an assessment of what the waiting times for ear, nose and throat (ENT) and hospital audiology would be if a community audiology service had been treating the majority of age-related hearing loss patients since 2021.

Question reference: S6W-38372

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 19 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent capital budget commitments it has made to tackle the housing emergency.

To tackle the ongoing Housing Emergency, the Scottish Government is investing £768 million in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) for 2025-2026, a 38% increase compared to 2024-2025. Of this, £688 million is capital, which is a 44% increase compared with the previous year. This includes £40 million targeted towards acquisitions to support the local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures.

In addition are also investing an additional £4 million in the Ending Homelessness Together budget for 2025-2026 to help local authorities, frontline services and relevant partners prepare for new prevention measures and to help them to respond to the housing emergency by preventing homelessness before it occurs.

We have also announced a long-term commitment of £100 million for Mid-Market Rent – and with institutional investment we will grow that fund to at least £500 million to support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes.

Question reference: S6O-04856

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what health policies it has in place to support the neurodevelopment of children born prematurely through their early years and adolescence.

Question reference: S6W-38371

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an update on the progress of the actions undertaken by Planning Aid Scotland and Heads of Planning Scotland to work towards ending the housing emergency.

We are working with Planning Aid Scotland (PAS) to strengthen local elected member training, addressing the housing emergency by building capacity and improve decision-making within the planning system. The Scottish Government supported PAS in producing a high-level training route map for elected member training. The recommendations have been considered and we expect the next stage to involve formulating and testing pilot training.

The Scottish Government supported Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to take forward work on a set of standard templates for common planning conditions, good practice on Section 75 agreements and aligning consents. HOPS will share outputs with authorities once complete.

Our work with partners on stalled housing sites to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. A progress report has been prepared and is available by contacting [email protected].

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.

Question reference: S6W-38369

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered any potential long-term impact on new housing supply of the proposed increase to planning appeal fees, including for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in light of reports that they could be disproportionately impacted.

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution of the SME sector to the delivery of the right homes in the right places and their role in tackling the Housing Emergency.

The planning appeal and local review fee structure is designed to correspond with the different scales of planning applications. The fees operate under the same general principle i.e. the smaller the development, the lower the fee. The appeal fees are approximately 60% lower than those which are payable for planning applications.

It is important to note that in recent years, over 92% of planning applications have been approved and so the number of appeals arising is relatively low.

A business and regulatory impact assessment was carried out in relation to the new fees regulations. This considered the potential impacts of the regulations on businesses of all sizes.

We will monitor the implementation of the fees regulations and their impact, including on the performance of the appeals system. This will help us to identify, and in the future address, if necessary, any unintended consequences.

Question reference: S6W-38370

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 June 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress on the actions in the planning and housing emergency delivery plan.

We are making good progress delivering across the 23 actions outlined in our Planning and the Housing Emergency Delivery Plan. Our National Planning Hub is now operational and on 22 May a Chief Planner letter was issued inviting authorities to identify areas for surge capacity, particularly on priority areas including housing.

Our work with key partners to overcome barriers and accelerate delivery of new homes continues at pace, and our blog of 9 June provides further details on progress. We are committed to providing stakeholders regular updates on the Delivery Plan and on 30 April, myself and Chief Planner issued a letter detailing progress across all four themes of policy, delivery, capacity and efficiency.

The Scottish Government provides regular progress updates on all workstreams via it’s e-alerts, on X @ScotGovPlanning and on LinkedIn.