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-10560

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09497 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022, what the scope of the preliminary work is; when the preliminary work began; when ministers requested a proposal be submitted for approval; how many staff have been committed to the preliminary work; which stakeholders it has met to determine the extent of the work; how many homeowners and their representatives it has engaged with, and how it would fund buy-outs.

The work to design a potential homeowner assistance scheme is in the discovery phase which involves defining the scope of any potential scheme and evaluating the suitability of existing forms of assistance. This also includes identifying a resilient funding and delivery model. This discovery phase relies on existing resources until such time as a proposal is approved. This discovery phase work began during summer recess and is scheduled to completed in the coming weeks. Officials have regular engagement with potential delivery partners and homeowners as part of the overall process and additional discussions will be undertaken prior to any scheme launch.

Question reference: S6W-10597

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline.

We are not aware of any current difficulties affecting the immediate development pipeline related to insolvencies. We are unable to quantify the impact that the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline as for many projects until they are tendered we do not know who the house builder or construction company will be. Some local authorities and RSLs operate development framework agreements but we have not been made aware of any issues of insolvency affecting these frameworks. Scottish Government does not directly procure housing contracts. It is for Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities to procure construction delivery partners.

Question reference: S6W-10596

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many small and medium house builders involved in the affordable housing supply programme have become insolvent in the last year, and how many projects this has affected.

Question reference: S6W-10558

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether its monitoring shows whether the situations outlined in the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group have materialised, and whether it has convened a meeting of the sector to raise benchmarks ahead of the proposed 1 April 2023 uprating date.

Question reference: S6W-10557

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many requests it has received from the affordable housing supply sector for an early review of benchmarks in accordance with the scenarios envisaged in the Report on the work of the 2021 Affordable Housing Investment Benchmarks Working Group.

Question reference: S6W-10559

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09497 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2022, what steps it is taking to ensure that any scheme can increase in scale in the event of increased financial hardship as a result of increasing interest rates or a recession.

Question reference: S6W-10685

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what Home Energy Scotland’s (a) budget and (b) actual spend has been to support (i) unique households, (ii) advice interactions, including advice provided to customers during telephone or email advice discussions, and (iii) low-income, potentially fuel-poor clients who were offered support in each year of its operation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07387 on 30 March 2022. 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

This includes the funding provided to the Home Energy Scotland Advice Service in each year of operation. In each of the years listed Home Energy Scotland has fully used the allocated budget. Please note spend covers the main Home Energy Scotland funding relating to advice delivery cost.

A Home Energy Scotland advisor supporting an inbound enquiry from a new “unique” household will result in multiple separate advice interactions with that enquirer. Advisors also field calls from multiple different types of clients, including potentially fuel-poor clients. It is not feasible therefore to split the cost of delivering advice into the separate parameters requested.

Question reference: S6W-10922

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government on which dates it has met representatives of the mortgage lending industry to discuss the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property.

The Deputy First Minister met with the financial services sector at the quarterly Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD) on 30 August 2022 and discussed measures industry and government can partner on to support households and businesses in Scotland.

Officials also regularly engage with UK Finance (representative body for the banking and Finance Industry) to discuss a range of issues affecting the mortgage sector including at their quarterly Board meetings in Scotland, last held on 10 June 2022, and on 1 September 2022 where discussions included the cost crisis, and the support lenders can offer customers in difficulty.

The Scottish Government remain in contact with the financial services sector on a regular basis in the current period and expect to engage regularly in the future.

Question reference: S6W-10769

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to bring forward Compulsory Rental Orders for long-term vacant properties.

Question reference: S6W-10681

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide the details of each (a) question raised and (b) answer given, at each of the Building Scotland (Amendment) Regulations 2022 - Online Q&A Sessions, which ran from 27 June to 3 August 2022.

The questions asked and the answers provided, during each of the Building Scotland (Amendment) Regulations 2022 - Online Q&A Sessions, were recorded and have now been collated and organised according to topic within a summary document.

This document is currently being finalised and will be published at: www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-technical-handbooks-2022/ before the end of September.