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: S4W-23597

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on (a) preventing and (b) tackling homelessness in prisoners and their families in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government is committed to addressing homelessness amongst prisoners and their families. All those assessed as unintentionally homeless by local authorities, including prisoners upon liberation, are entitled to settled accommodation as a legal right.

The Scottish Government is prioritising the prevention of homelessness through the funding of five regional local authority led Housing Options Hubs. In June 2010 the Scottish Government provided £500,000 of 'enabling funding' to the Housing Options Hubs over a 14-month period. This funding assisted local authorities to make the changes needed to move towards the housing options approach through commissioning research, funding joint training, work shadowing, and sharing practice. Since April 2012 the Scottish Government has provided ongoing support funding of £150,000 per annum to the hubs to assist with their continuing development, with a commitment to 2015-16.

The Scottish Government also provides grants for the voluntary sector to work with prisoners through the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme. In 2014-15, £8,000 was made available to a third sector organisation to support a prison leaver peer support project for HMP Edinburgh.

The Scottish Government recognises the particular challenges that may be faced by prisoners and their families at risk of homelessness and the support that may be required to help sustain tenancies. Local authorities work with prisoners through the housing options approach to homelessness prevention which looks at all an individual’s circumstances. Housing options may consider issues of particular importance in preventing homelessness amongst prisoners and their families, such as employability, the need for mediation, life skills needed to cope in society including basic DIY, cooking, shopping and financial capability training.

Question reference: S4W-23599

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 6 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been (a) placed in foster care, (b) placed in kinship care and (c) classed as homeless as a result of parental imprisonment in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the sub-reasons for children becoming looked after, so it is not possible to provide specific data on the numbers of children being placed in kinship and foster care due to parental imprisonment.

The annual totals of children becoming looked after in foster care and kinship care (some of whom may have entered the care system due to parental imprisonment) are presented here:

	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013
Starting to be looked after in kinship care	850	822	842	967	960
Starting to be looked after in foster care	1,451	1,261	1,097	1,404	1,421
All children starting to be looked after	5,201	4,859	4,746	4,811	4,470

The most relevant figures to homelessness available are in the following table, which details the number of children in households applying as homeless, where the main applicant had previously been in prison:

	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
Male Children	69	75	88	94	65	42
Female Children	69	81	73	85	74	34
All Children	138	156	161	179	139	76

It should be noted that the applicant’s earlier imprisonment may only be one of a number of factors leading to a homelessness application.

Question reference: S4W-23598

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 6 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many ex-offenders have presented as homeless in each of the last five years, broken down by gender, and how many were ex-service personnel.

During 2013-14, 2,156 ex-offenders presented as homeless, of which 1,951 were male and 205 were female. A total of 47 were ex-service personnel. Figures for the last five years are shown in the following table.

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
Ex-Offenders presenting as homeless	2,438	2,262	2,250	2,226	2,156
Male	2,246	2,088	2,043	2,009	1,951
Female	192	174	207	217	205
Ex - service personnel	50	58	58	58	47
Not ex - service personnel	2,388	2,204	2,192	2,168	2,109

Source: Scottish Government HL1 Dataset.

Question reference: S4W-23600

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 December 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 23 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out of a potential increase in the rail network in Renfrewshire.

In the next ScotRail franchise there will be no diminution of service and throughout the life of the franchise, we will continue to work closely with the franchisee in the review of current service levels and demand as we seek to identify even more improvements for passengers.

ScotRail have an obligation under the franchise contract to undertake passenger counts on each of its rail service. The passenger count data are used to inform decision making around future service levels, rolling stock investment and overcrowding.

We will also work closely with and offer advice to third party promoters who have aspirations to add new stations or increase accessibility on the network in Renfrewshire.

Question reference: S4T-00878

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent HomeLet report, which indicated that the average monthly rent in Scotland has risen by nearly 12% in the last year.

Question reference: S4O-03836

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy has had with colleagues regarding the allocation in the 2015-16 draft budget for housing adaptations for older and disabled tenants of registered social landlords.

Question reference: S4W-22834

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 14 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much public funding was given to (a) the Scottish Special Housing Association annually and (b) Scottish Homes in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Special Housing Association ceased to exist from 31 March 1989.

Scottish Homes existed from 1 April 1989 to 31 March 2001. The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on how much public funding was given to Scottish Homes.

We can however provide details of funding provided by Scottish Homes to others to build and improve homes in each year since 1999, as follows:

Year	Funding (£million)
1999-00	209.522
2000-01	215.824

Question reference: S4W-22832

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 14 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes were built by (a) the Scottish Special Housing Association and (b) Scottish Homes in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-22836

Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 14 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made each year to the Homeowner Housing Panel and how many enforcement notices were issued.

A total of 18 applications were received in the year 2012 (commencement of the Homeowner Housing Panel was on 1 October 2012) and no Property Factor Enforcement Orders (PFEOs) were issued.

A total of 333 applications were received in the year 2013 and 12 PFEOs were issued.

A total of 164 have been received so far in the year 2014 with 22 PFEOs being issued so far.

These figures are from 1 October 2012 to 4 November 2014.

Question reference: S4O-03713

Current Status: Withdrawn

Year	No. of completed homes
1999-00	5210
2000-01	6338