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-20673

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the monthly reviews of affordable housing supply programme capital spend capacity have identified, and where any money has been redistributed to.

Question reference: S6W-20674

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what anticipated financial slippage the affordable housing supply programme has identified for the current financial year.

Question reference: S6W-20625

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the effect on tenants and homelessness services will be as a result of the 126% increase in the number of first charge buy-to-let mortgage loans in arrears by 2.5%, and the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears increasing 59% year on year, as reported in the UK Finance publication, Mortgage Arrears and Possessions Update Quarter 2 2023.

UK Finance data, which is only available for the UK as a whole, shows that at the end of Q2 2023 there were 8,980 first-charge buy-to-let loans which were in arrears of more than 2.5% of the outstanding balance, a 28% increase from the previous quarter and a 59% increase from the previous year.

Oversight and regulation of mortgage lenders is a reserved matter; as a result the Scottish Government has no powers or authority to intervene in the operation of the mortgage market.

Tenants living in a property where a lender is seeking repossession due to mortgage arrears are afforded the same rights as any other tenant facing eviction, as the lender is required to go through the same eviction process that applies to private landlords.

Safeguards have been built in to the emergency rent cap measures to balance the rights of landlords and tenants in the context of the costs crisis. Private landlords can apply to Rent Service Scotland to increase the rent for a let property above the rent cap (up to 6%) in connection with defined ‘prescribed property costs.’

Question reference: S6W-20624

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement in the UK Finance publication, Mortgage Arrears and Possessions Update Quarter 2 2023, that homeowner mortgages in arrears of 2.5% or more were 7% greater than in the previous quarter, and what the specific numbers for Scotland are.

The 81,900 first-charge homeowner mortgages in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more of the outstanding balance at the end of Q2 2023, as reported by UK Finance, represents an increase of 7% from the previous quarter, although it is 3% below the post-covid peak of 84,010 recorded in Q1 2021, and also 33% below the 122,610 recorded in Q2 2014, the earliest figure in this particular time series. UK Finance does not publish a breakdown for Scotland. We continually monitor UK Finance and Financial Conduct Authority data on arrears.

Oversight and regulation of mortgage lenders is a reserved matter, as a result the Scottish Government has no powers or authority to intervene in the operation of the mortgage market. We are doing all that we can with limited powers which is why, both last year and this, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies which tackle poverty and to protect people as far as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Our Cost of Living Support Scotland website provides information on the wide range of advice and support available, and we would also urge people concerned about their finances and mortgage payments to contact their lender as soon as possible.

Question reference: S6W-20668

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff have (a) resigned and (b) retired from its More Homes Division in each quarter since May 2021, and how many are due to retire in the year to April 2024.

In the following table, the number of resignations and retirements within More Homes Division over the requested period is shown, subject to the following restrictions:

1. Where a value relates to fewer than 5 individuals, that value has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes, represented by [c].

2. Resignations only includes those who resigned from the Scottish Government and its agencies, not those who moved internally.

Quarter ending	Resignations	Retirements
30 June 2021	0	0
30 September 2021	0	[c]
31 December 2021	0	[c]
31 March 2022	0	[c]
30 June 2022	0	[c]
30 September 2022	0	[c]
31 December 2022	[c]	0
31 March 2023	0	0
30 June 2023	[c]	[c]
Total over period	[c]	8

Question reference: S6W-20593

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 4 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the housebuilder, Bellway, has begun cutting jobs in anticipation of a UK property market slowdown, and what impact it anticipates this could have on the affordable housing supply programme in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-20623

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 31 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many repossessions the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service has recorded in each quarter since April 2018.

Repossession involves the retaking of property when a borrower is in breach or default of a mortgage or loan secured on the property.
‎

The first table shows the number of repossessions registered by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services since April 2018, split by residential and non-residential and unoccupied property.

		Initiated cases		Disposed cases
Year	Quarter	Non-residential or unoccupied property	Residential property	Non-residential or unoccupied property	Residential property
2018	Apr - Jun	11	416	6	417
	Jul - Sep	14	437	12	381
	Oct - Dec	6	381	10	382
2019	Jan - Mar	7	597	3	405
	Apr - Jun	12	699	3	564
	Jul - Sep	9	511	6	512
	Oct - Dec	8	407	6	396
2020	Jan - Mar	16	542	4	357
	Apr - Jun	1	18	0	8
	Jul - Sep	5	6	17	22
	Oct - Dec	3	13	2	28
2021	Jan - Mar	5	40	4	61
	Apr - Jun	3	85	4	128
	Jul - Sep	5	281	3	205
	Oct - Dec	8	307	2	260
2022	Jan - Mar	13	485	13	356
	Apr - Jun	10	313	5	382
	Jul - Sep	10	370	7	325
	Oct - Dec	10	305	7	334
2023	Jan - Mar	8	326	5	302
	Apr - Jun	11	347	11	304

The second table details the residential repossessions cases disposed by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services since April 2018, split by disposal type.

			Disposal Type
Year	Quarter	Total residential disposals	Absolvitor	Allowed or granted 1	For pursuer defended	For pursuer Undefended	Decree by default	Summary decree	Dismissed 2
2018	Apr - Jun	417	1	0	34	200	8	1	173
	Jul - Sep	381	1	3	30	197	6	5	139
	Oct - Dec	382	1	1	21	219	11	8	121
2019	Jan - Mar	405	1	1	32	246	5	8	112
	Apr - Jun	564	2	1	25	318	30	20	168
	Jul - Sep	512	1	4	18	296	8	9	176
	Oct - Dec	396	1	3	34	194	8	8	148
2020	Jan - Mar	357	1	5	32	161	4	7	147
	Apr - Jun	8	0	0	0	1	0	0	7
	Jul - Sep	22	1	0	1	3	0	0	17
	Oct - Dec	28	1	0	1	9	0	1	16
2021	Jan - Mar	61	1	0	10	9	0	1	40
	Apr - Jun	128	3	1	8	54	0	1	61
	Jul - Sep	205	0	1	16	88	3	11	86
	Oct - Dec	260	1	1	15	136	2	7	98
2022	Jan - Mar	356	0	0	18	196	4	9	129
	Apr - Jun	382	2	3	15	203	0	5	154
	Jul - Sep	325	5	1	10	176	1	3	129
	Oct - Dec	334	2	2	15	171	2	8	134
2023	Jan - Mar	302	1	4	17	147	2	13	118
	Apr - Jun	304	1	3	19	135	1	7	138

Notes

1. Includes any disposals of 'decree for pursuer'

2. Includes any disposals of 'decree for defender'

Question reference: S6O-02458

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with trade unions to ensure that it includes workers' voices in its policy development.

Question reference: S6W-20626

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 30 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many evictions the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service has recorded in each quarter since April 2022 as a result of a property being sold by a lender, including where the property is a tenanted property or the landlord's own property.

Question reference: S6W-20362

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much non-domestic rates income has been forgone where Small Business Bonus Scheme rates relief has been claimed for self-catering units, broken down by (a) 100%, (b) 25% and (c) 0% (where they were not eligible due to having a number of properties with a combined rateable value of £35,000) of income forgone, in each year since 2011.

Eligibility for non-domestic rates reliefs, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), is set out in legislation and it is for local authorities to administer reliefs to eligible properties in accordance with that legislation.

Table 1 presents the estimated value of SBBS relief awarded to self-catering units in each year since 2011-2012, broken down by the level of SBBS awarded, for properties receiving 100% SBBS, 25% SBBS, and other proportions of SBBS (e.g. when combined with other reliefs). These tables include all self-catering properties in receipt of SBBS relief.Data for 2014-2015 and 2017-2018 is not available. Data for 2023-2024 is not yet available.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on reasons why properties may be ineligible for reliefs.

The rateable value thresholds for SBBS changed over the requested period. Details on current and historical thresholds are available in Table 14 of Non-domestic rates relief statistics 2022 .

Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. The data is derived from the Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, and local authorities’ billing data, as at: end March 2011, end April 2012, 1 October 2013, 8 October 2015, 5 October 2016, 1 June 2018, 31 May 2019, 1 July 2020, 1 June 2021, and 1 July 2022.

Table 1: Estimated value of SBBS relief awarded to self-catering premises in 2011-2012 to 2022-2023

Year	100% SBBS ‎ (£)	25% SBBS ‎ (£)	Other % SBBS ‎ (£)
2011-2012	5,496,000	96,000	165,000
2012-2013	6,446,000	90,000	103,000
2013-2014	7,452,000	102,000	116,000
2014-2015	no data available	no data available	no data available
2015-2016	8,795,000	140,000	127,000
2016-2017	9,674,000	155,000	142,000
2017-2018	no data available	no data available	no data available
2018-2019	16,896,000	271,000	13,000
2019-2020	19,426,000	202,000	65,000
2020-2021	21,332,000	291,000	4,000
2021-2022	19,452,000	271,000	10,000
2022-2023	21,069,000	277,000	4,000