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-16326

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on delivering affordable housing in each year since 2016.

Information on annual spend on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme is reported through our published annual out-turn reports and can be accessed through the following link Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The following table provides the expenditure on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) in each financial year since 2016-17.

The expenditure incurred in a particular year does not correlate directly to the number of completions within that year as the construction of new affordable housing developments can span a number of years:

Financial Year	Total Expenditure (£m)
2016-17	550.779
2017-18	592.306
2018-19	745.188
2019-20	839.939
2020-21	754.497
2021-22	671.539

* 2022-23 spend has not yet concluded

Question reference: S6W-16302

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been issued to local authorities on landlord registration.

General guidance for local authorities to administer and manage the Private Landlord Registration scheme was issued in 2009: https://www.gov.scot/publications/registration-private-landlords-guidance-local-authorities/pages/1/ .

This was updated in 2017 to provide statutory guidance for local authorities regarding the effective regulation of landlord registration: https://www.gov.scot/publications/landlord-registration-statutory-guidance-local-authorities-2017-statutory-guidance-local/ .

We are preparing further guidance, in consultation with local authorities, that we expect to be issued later this year.

Question reference: S6W-16303

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been issued to local authorities regarding current houses in multiple occupation legislation.

Question reference: S6W-16139

Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any funding remains available, through the Scottish 4G Infill Programme, that could be used to site new masts or provide upgrades to the capacity of existing sites.

Question reference: S6W-16550

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 31 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-15856 by Jenny Gilruth on 22 March 2023, when it expects dedicated express logistics services to run between Scotland’s cities.

Freight works on a commercial basis so the decision to move products by rail is a decision for the customer and its logistics provider.

However, I can confirm that a dedicated express rail logistics service is currently running into Scotland. This service which runs between Birmingham and Mossend, started with a trial period on 17 October 2022 followed by a full operational service running five nights a week from 9 January 2023, is operated by Varamis Rail.

Question reference: S6W-16458

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken to evaluate the impact of the Retail Strategy Steering Group, which was established in January 2021 and was superseded by the Retail Industry Leadership Group in March 2022.

The Retail Strategy Steering Group was established to guide the content and recommendations of the Retail Strategy and operated for the duration of the strategy’s development.

The Steering Group was Chaired by the then Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur, and was made up of members from bodies across Trade Organisations, Public Sector Bodies, businesses, and Trade Unions whose expertise and insight helped to shape the Retail Strategy. Actions and recommendations arising from the Steering Group were progressed through a number of thematic workstream groups chaired by members of the Steering Group and comprised of business, policy, and delivery experts.

Three workstreams were identified – People, Place and Sector, which transformed into a set of actions within the Retail Strategy. Following the publication of the Strategy in March 2020. An Industry Leadership group was established to drive and support the delivery of these actions. This group has agreed an outline Delivery Plan, identifying the group’s priorities as well as a critical review process and timelines for measuring success.

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with the sector, trade unions and employees, whose experiences are crucial, to help the retail sector in Scotland become an exemplar for inclusive economic growth and play its part in creating a wellbeing economy and a fairer, greener, and stronger Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-16542

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Emma Roddick on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take, in light of the Scottish Fiscal Commission's Fiscal Sustainability Report, to address the reported long-term population decline.

The Scottish Government’s Ministerial Population Taskforce recognises the significance of long-term projected demographic change and since publishing the Population Strategy in 2021, it has focused - across government, and with local and regional partners – on ensuring Scotland’s population profile provides a platform for sustainable and inclusive economic growth and wellbeing.

In 2023, the Taskforce will launch a new Talent Attraction and Migration Service to support employers and those wishing to move to Scotland, and publish an Addressing Depopulation Action Plan with a focus on: place-based solutions to sustainably address discrete community need; and targeted, community-driven migration solutions to alleviate local labour market and demographic challenges.

Question reference: S6W-16460

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the £100 million allocated to help businesses to improve their digital skills, capacity and capability, whether it will provide a breakdown of what it has spent the £38 million on, as referred to in its response to the Economy and Fair Work Committee report on retail and town centres.

In the period since this commitment was made in 2021 we have invested £38 million directly into Scottish businesses and associated support for them to access. This does not include the value of the programmes that our enterprise agencies deliver on our behalf.

A breakdown of the £38 million is as follows.

DigitalBoost Development - £30 million

Digital Development Loan - £5.1 million

DigitalBoost National Programme - £2.9 million

Digital Productivity Labs Pilot - £600,000

Data Readiness Tool - £170,000

Total - £38.77 million

Question reference: S6W-16536

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the Scottish National Investment Bank to discuss the ongoing recruitment process for a new CEO.

Question reference: S6W-16523

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional investment it expects will be generated by the increase to the International Trade and Investment budget line in the Scottish Budget 2023-24.

The International Trade and Investment budget funds the delivery of three key plans. These are: A Trading Nation - Scotland's Export Growth Plan; Scotland's Inward Investment Plan and Scotland's Global Capital Investment Plan. Together these work to deliver economic growth as well as a stronger, fairer, greener Scotland that benefits everyone. They enable Scotland to be a highly productive and innovative place to live, work and do business on a global scale.

Evidence shows that our plans are working:

In terms of Inward Investment –

The EY Annual Attractiveness Survey 2022 showed that Scotland has been the top performing region or nation of the UK, outside of London, in attracting FDI, for the past 7 years.
Scotland’s FDI projects outpaced Europe and the rest of the UK – Scottish projects were up by 14% from 2020, compared to 5.4% increase in Europe and 1.8% per cent increase in UK.

In terms of Exports –

Comparing with the previous year, when oil and gas are excluded, Scotland’s international goods exports increased by 20.5% in 2022 compared to 2021. This compares to a 13.3% increase for the UK.

International Trade and Investment’s budget for 2023-24 will be targeted towards the next phase of delivery which will:

Set the direction on new Market Opportunities to attract high quality inward investment (and associated spill over benefits) and the technologies required to deliver our ambitions in areas such as Energy Transition, focusing on Scotwind and Hydrogen, Space, and Decarbonisation.
Scale up Scotland’s trade promotion, international reach and profile; promoting Scotland on world stage at key events such as COP28.
Continue targeted support to enhance our firms’ export capacity. In particular, delivering three Sector Export Plans (SEP) – Life Sciences, Technology and Renewables and the development of a Hydrogen SEP to support the growth of renewables exports from Scotland and identifying new and critical markets
Push forward our capital plans to support the economy, including exceeding our commitment to the annual capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank, and renewing support for the enterprise agencies and delivery partners.