Chamber and committees

The Cladding Remediation Unit did not employ a full time communication staff member from May 2021 to April 2022. Since May 2022 a communication staff member has been employed, but their role crosses a number of responsibilities.

The Cladding Remediation Unit have employed 0 full time Communication staff since May 2021. The team currently has one dedicated staff member covering as both Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, and the Accord Service Design. This member of staff took up post in May 2022.

We have received eight pre-final reports.

The working group does not, in general, create new material separate from that created to organise the meetings such as agendas and meeting notes, which are now subject to publication. The Chair will take a view on proactive publication of any new material in line with FOI principles and the need to respect the confidentiality of blocks engaged in the Pilot.

The Institution of Fire Engineers provided a list of eleven chartered fire engineering firms that operate in Scotland. All UK chartered fire engineers are eligible to participate in the Single Building Assessment programme.

Each local authority was awarded an allocation of funds, to be used in the last financial year, ending 31 March 2022. Where it has not been possible to spend this in full, local authorities can continue to use their allocation in 2022-23 until fully spent.

Existing funding has not been exhausted and there are no plans to provide additional funding at present. However our emergency budget review, published on 2 November 2022, has outlined significant funds to help those most affected by the cost of living crisis. The Scottish Government will continue to do everything within our resources and powers to help those most affected by the cost of living crisis.

We have approached local authorities seeking data covering quarters one and two of the current financial year, or confirmation that the fund has been used in full and is now closed. This information is currently being quality assured before it is published on the Scottish Government website.

Updated guidance on the expanded criteria is being finalised and agreed with local government partners and will be published on the Scottish Government website in the coming weeks.

It is the responsibility of local authorities through their Local Housing Strategy (LHS) to determine the appropriate housing required in their area, informed by a Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA).The HNDA is a policy neutral evidence-base which helps inform LHS outcomes and priorities for future housing and related service delivery, including specialist provision, to meet the needs of a range of equalities groups. All local authorities are required to carry out an Equalities Impact Assessment when developing a LHS.

10 November 2022

Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in

Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) were introduced in 2008 as part of the broader Local Housing Strategy process. The process was reviewed in 2014 and updated with revised guidance and an Excel-based Tool. The Guidance and Tool are kept under review and are refreshed regularly in line with the release of updated Household Projections by National Records of Scotland.

In 2020, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence undertook ‘An illustrative pilot of the HNDA Tool in the context of Northern Ireland’ the report from this exercise concluded that “the Scottish Government’s HNDA tool is an analytical model that is underpinned by a clear rationale. Its potential as a means to facilitate scenario planning and promote inter-organisational collaboration means its application in the context of Northern Ireland has much to commend it”.