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-16567

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Welsh Government regarding the £20 million Welsh Building Safety Developer Loan Scheme, and whether it plans to introduce a similar loan scheme in Scotland.

We meet regularly with the Welsh Government to discuss Building and Fire Safety issues and the delivery of the Cladding Remediation Programme. The safety of residents and homeowners in buildings with potentially unsafe cladding is our absolute priority. On that basis Scottish Government is identifying and assessing buildings through our Single Building Assessment Programme; focusing public funding on remediating so called ‘orphan’ buildings and pressing developers to do the right thing and take responsibility for funding the remediation of their buildings. We will assess the effectiveness and impact of the Building Safety Developer Loan Scheme to consider its applicability in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-16647

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how frequently the Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder Group will meet, and on what date it will publish its terms of reference.

Our Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder Group will meet a minimum of twice yearly, to advise on the relevant commitments in the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 strategy document in relation to housing for older people and disabled people.

The Terms of Reference have yet to be agreed but a draft will be considered by the group at their next meeting which is scheduled to take place in June. The agreed Terms of Reference will be published on the Scottish Government website once they have been considered and approved by the group.

Question reference: S6T-01312

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional revenue it anticipates that local authorities would be able to raise, in light of its reported proposals to enable them to double council tax on second homes.

Question reference: S6W-15861

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any Unique Property Reference Numbers, that are used in the property registers held by Registers of Scotland or any other publicly available property registers for which it is responsible, match across all of the registers, and what information it has on whether these numbers match with any Unique Property Reference Numbers used in the Scottish Energy Performance Certificate Register.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) are used in the following land and property registers held by RoS:

Land Register
Scottish Landlord Register
Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land

These registers use the same UPRN identifiers as the Scottish Energy Performance Certificate Register.

Entries held in the different registers can therefore be matched using the UPRN where it is available.

87% of titles in the Land Register have a UPRN.

95% of properties in the Scottish Landlord Register have a UPRN.

46% of land references in the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land have a UPRN.

Question reference: S6W-16025

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) property registers held by Registers of Scotland and (b) other publicly available property registers for which it is responsible, use Unique Property Reference Numbers, and what information it has on whether the same of similar Unique Property Reference Numbers are used in the Scottish Energy Performance Certificate Register.

Question reference: S6W-16062

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder Group was formed, and what its (a) membership and (b) remit is.

Invites to join our Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder group were sent in October 2022 and the group had a productive first meeting on 3 November 2022, giving constructive feedback to our Housing for Varying Needs review.

a) Membership of the group includes the following:

Age Scotland
Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers
Carers Trust
Care & Repair Scotland
Chartered Institute of Housing
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
Disability Equality Scotland
Health and Care Directorate
Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living
Glasgow Disability Alliance
Hanover Housing Association
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Housing Options Scotland
Homes for Scotland
Housing Support Enabling Unit
Motor Neuron Disease Scotland
Our Positive Voice
Regional Networks Tenant Representatives
Royal College of Occupational Therapists
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Scotland’s Housing Network
Scottish Association of Landlords
Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities
Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Scottish Older People’s Assembly.

b) The Terms of Reference have yet to be agreed in detail by the group, but its purpose is to advise on the relevant commitments in the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 strategy document in relation to Housing for older people and disabled people.

Question reference: S6W-16047

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 12 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the date was of the planned March meeting of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group, and whether it took place.

Question reference: S6W-16018

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S6W-15581 by Humza Yousaf on 16 March 2023, in relation to the £193,000 funding, whether this was funding for (a) 2022-23 or (b) 2023-24; whether it meets all project costs for 2022-23, and whether it includes (i) revenue, (ii) capital and (iii) salary costs.

Question reference: S6W-15862

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commission research into private rented sector landlord exits, using the methodology described by BuiltPlace in its February 2023 Market Commentary, dated 1 March 2023, of comparing sale and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data by Unique Property Reference Number.

The Scottish Government has no plans to commission such research.

The BuiltPlace article itself refers to the methodology being “limited in multiple ways”.

The Scottish Government set out in response to question on 22 May 2022 how it monitors the size of the private rented sector using data from the Scottish Landlord Register.

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

Question reference: S6W-15948

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is, regarding any lessons that can be learned regarding cancer prevention in Scotland, to the article, Night shift work and risk of aggressive prostate cancer in the Norwegian Offshore Petroleum Workers (NOPW) cohort, in the International Journal of Epidemiology.