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-05465

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the outcome of its consultation, Building standards (fire safety) – a consultation on external wall systems, will be published.

Question reference: S6W-05464

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the (a) minutes of the third meeting of the Fire Safety Review Panel will be published and (b) Panel is expected to finalise its work.

Minutes of the third meeting of the Fire Safety Review Panel will be ratified at the fourth review panel meeting on 24 January 2022 and published shortly thereafter.

The next fire safety review panel meeting on 24 January 2022 will be the final panel meeting, subject to any new evidence emerging from the Grenfell Inquiry. The Building (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 are expected to be laid in the Scottish Parliament by the end of March with supporting guidance published in the Spring. The new regulations and guidance are planned to come into force on 1 October 2022.

Question reference: S6W-05626

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost has been to it in each of the last 10 years to process, decide upon or administer planning appeals in relation to onshore wind farms, including section 36 wind farm appeals that have been decided upon by the Scottish Government in the first instance, also broken down by the local authority area to which the applications and appeals applied.

Parties involved in planning cases are expected to meet their own costs. The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government will meet the costs of the reporter and administrative staff; advertisement of the case and the cost of the inquiry venue if necessary; and the general administrative costs of the case. DPEA deal with a wide range of casework and reporters and administrative staff normally deal with a number of different case types at the same time. The cost of an individual case can vary depending on a number of factors including the complexity of the case and whether an inquiry is necessary. DPEA do not record the cost of dealing with wind farm appeals or Section 36 wind farm applications.

Question reference: S6W-05643

Asked by: Neil Gray, MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been allocated to North Lanarkshire Council to build council housing in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Government Council House Build Programme was introduced in April 2009, the aim being to incentivise local authorities to build new homes. This was the first such central government support to councils in a generation.

Our allocation through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) is not specific to council house building but for all social landlords across the council area. The following table, however, does show the actual funding spent by North Lanarkshire Council from the AHSP for council house building between 2009/10 and 2020/21.

Financial Year	Funding provided through the AHSP £m
2009-10	0.00
2010-11	0.00
2011-12	0.00
2012-13	3.200
2013-14	2.053
2014-15	4.592
2015-16	1.832
2016-17	5.200
2017-18	11.919
2018-19	5.660
2019-20	13.107
2020-21*	9.668
Total	57.231

*Funding for 2020-21 cannot be confirmed at this time as figures have not been published in the out-turn reports, and as we are currently working on the programme for 2021-22, we cannot provide this information.

A more comprehensive annual breakdown by local authority and programme type, including expenditure, is made available each year in the published Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports.

Out-turn reports can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/ .

Question reference: S6W-05629

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents of hate crime have been recorded on public transport in each of the last five years, broken down by category of hate crime.

Incidents of hate crime on public transport will be recorded by either Police Scotland or, if they occur on the railways (on trains or at stations), the British Transport Police.

Table 1 presents information provided by the British Transport Police on hate crime offences recorded in Scotland, by type of hate category, since 2017-18. The 2021-22 reporting year is partially complete as it will run up to the end of March 2022. The total number of crimes recorded each year is less than the summation of the separate hate categories, as some crimes include more than one type of prejudice.

Information is not held centrally on the number of hate crimes recorded in other public transport settings. Some analysis is available from a study into the characteristics of police recorded Hate Crime , published by the Scottish Government in February 2021. This report was based on a review of just over one-third of all hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19, and findings were presented separately depending on whether the victim was a police officer in the line of duty. For those cases that didn’t involve a police officer as the victim (estimated to be 4,620), table 2 below shows the percentage that occurred on public transport (both on the mode of transport and at stations/stops). This information is also available in Table 11 of the report, which breaks down hate crimes by types of location. The equivalent data on public transport-based hate crimes with police officers as victims cannot be estimated due to the very low number found within the study.

A second study into the characteristics of hate crime recorded by Police Scotland is due to be published later this year. This will provide the same type of disaggregated data and information for the year 2020-21.

Table 1: The number of hate crime offences recorded on railway Network in Scotland by crime, 2017-18 to 2021-22 a

Financial year	Hate Indicators					Number of Crimes with Hate Marker 1
Financial year	Disability	Sexual Orientation	Racial	Religious	Transgender
2017-18	4	24	105	85	3	193
2018-19	7	29	73	51	1	150
2019-20	0	32	96	37	3	154
2020-21	2	13	42	11	0	61
2021-22 a	2	38	71	16	4	118

Source: British Transport Police

a. Partial Data for performance year 2021-22, cut-off 12/01/2022.

1. There can be multiple flags added per crime

Table 2: Percentage hate crimes recorded by Police Scotland (with non-police officer victims) which occurred on public transport, 2018-19

Aggravator	Percentage
Disability	4%
Race	3%
Religion	*
Sexual orientation	6%
Transgender	*
Total 2	3%

Source: Scottish Government, study into the characteristics of police recorded Hate Crime

2.Includes all hate aggravators and calculated using weighted values from the study.

‘*’ indicates a value of less than 0.5% (or based on a figure less than 5) but greater than zero.

Question reference: S6W-05638

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether a running total of the number of air filter devices that are being used in school classrooms will be published.

It is for local authorities to exercise their statutory responsibilities and deliver a safe environment for all school users. It is also for local authorities to determine what remedial action is required in their schools, in line with guidance.

The recently announced funding of up to £5 million is in addition to previous funding of £10 million to address issues around ventilation and CO2 monitoring, and on top of £90m of COVID-19 logistics funding.

Question reference: S6W-05622

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what it defines as (a) "where technically feasible" and (b) "cost effective" as set out on page 23 of Tackling Fuel Poverty Strategy in Scotland: Strategic Approach.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy confirms our intention to introduce – subject to consultation later this year – regulations requiring Scotland’s homes and other buildings to meet EPC Band C equivalent by 2033, where that is technically feasible and cost effective. This key proposal from the Heat in Buildings Strategy aligns with our commitment in Tackling Fuel Poverty Strategy in Scotland: Strategic Approach, of addressing poor energy efficiency and fuel poverty in homes.

We have previously consulted in December 2019 on proposals for introducing minimum energy efficiency standards in owner occupied housing, which included potential options for defining cost effectiveness and technical feasibility. We are further developing these definitions ahead of the planned consultation later this year.

Question reference: S6W-05604

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish data on hospitalisations as a result of COVID-19, broken down by cases where individuals were (a) vaccinated and (b) unvaccinated.

The COVID-19 statistical report which is published weekly includes a section for COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalisations, and Deaths by Vaccine Status. These can be found at this link. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20580

This reports on the total number of COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 related acute hospital admissions and confirmed COVID-19 deaths by their vaccination status and covers the period from December 2020 to present.

Question reference: S6W-05586

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the annual staffing numbers for Transport Scotland have been in each year since 2011, broken down by (a) full-time equivalent positions, (b) head count and (c) seasonal workers.

Transport Scotland Staff Numbers Since 2011
Year	(a) FTE	(b) Head Count	(c)Seasonal Worker
2011	*	403	0
2012	*	382	0
2013	*	380	0
2014	*	401	0
2015	*	404	0
2016	375.7	389	0
2017	379.8	394	0
2018	385.8	398	0
2019	427.5	443	0
2020	462.2	479	0
2021	482	497	0

Please see information in regards to reference S6W-05586 . Attached is the figures as requested since 2011 and broken down by (A) FTE (B) Headcount and (C) Seasonal workers. Transport Scotland as an organisation do not have Seasonal Workers and this is the reason for the nil response. Please note , in relation to the Q for (A) FTE, we can only provide FTE figures for the period 2016-2021. FTE figures prior to 2016 are not available, hence why the “ * ” response shows in some parts of that section. This is due to the way that FTE information was collated at that time, as it has been cleansed as per our data retention policy.

Question reference: S6W-05615

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether UNESCO biospheres, and specifically the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biospheres, as initiatives of significance, will be highlighted within the new National Planning Framework 4.

The Draft Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) was laid in Parliament on 10 November 2021. The draft sets out that ‘Local development plans should identify and protect locally, regionally, nationally and internationally valued natural assets, landscapes, species and habitats’. In addition to the parliamentary scrutiny of the draft, a public consultation runs until 31 March 2022 and the Scottish Government welcomes responses and comments being provided to support the production of a finalised NPF4. Further information is available from: www.transformingplanning.scot .