- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-30798 by Gillian Martin on 7 November 2024, whether the eight schemes stated as withdrawn and the one stated as no longer required were included in the 16 out of 33 remaining schemes marked as complete.
Answer
The eight schemes highlighted in answer S6W-30798 on 7 November 2024 as withdrawn from the cycle one flood protection scheme funding programme, and the one scheme highlighted as no longer required, were not included in the list of 16 schemes complete at that time.
18 schemes are now complete.
- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government on what date MV Glen Sannox was transferred from the Scottish Government back to CMAL as part of its ferry fleet.
Answer
MV Glen Sannox was transferred to CMAL on 20 November 2024.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the operation of temporary traffic regulation orders.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the system of Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs) remains effective and responsive to the needs of local communities and road users. A review of the TRO process was undertaken by Transport Scotland in 2021. While there are no immediate plans to undertake a formal review of the entire TTRO system, we continue to engage with local authorities and stakeholders to monitor its effectiveness.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many times each local authority has breached its legal duty to provide suitable accommodation for homeless people in the last five years.
Answer
The first table shows instances where local authorities are not able to fulfil their legal duties in offering temporary accommodation to households who make a homelessness application, annually for 2019-20 to 2023-24, and for the most recent six months April to September 2024.
Local Authority | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Apr-Sep 2024 |
Scotland | 4,585 | 595 | 715 | 450 | 7,955 | 7,545 |
Aberdeen City | 10 | 5 | 0 | <4 | <4 | <4 |
Angus | 5 | <4 | <4 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
Clackmannanshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 50 |
East Renfrewshire | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Edinburgh | 660 | 530 | 700 | 420 | 1,515 | 1,020 |
Falkirk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | <4 |
Fife | 50 | <4 | 15 | 25 | 140 | 140 |
Glasgow City | 3,830 | 55 | <4 | <4 | 6,270 | 6,320 |
Highland | 35 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 10 | 5 |
Midlothian | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 |
Renfrewshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 |
Scottish Borders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
South Lanarkshire | <4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 10 |
Stirling | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
The second table shows instances where unsuitable temporary accommodation placements have been offered and taken up, annually for 2019-20 to 2023-24, and for the most recent six months April to September 2024.
Local Authority | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Apr-Sep 2024 |
Scotland | 2,060 | 2,345 | 4,790 | 14,275 | 20,230 | 10,780 |
Aberdeen City | <4 | <4 | 0 | 670 | 560 | 230 |
Aberdeenshire | 10 | 60 | 40 | 50 | 25 | 10 |
Angus | 5 | 5 | 10 | 30 | 35 | 40 |
Argyll & Bute | <4 | <4 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 15 |
Clackmannanshire | <4 | <4 | 50 | 125 | 170 | 85 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 230 | 670 | 470 |
Dundee City | 0 | 0 | 140 | 345 | 865 | 345 |
East Dunbartonshire | 5 | <4 | <4 | <4 | 10 | <4 |
East Lothian | 10 | 210 | 280 | 385 | 385 | 135 |
East Renfrewshire | 10 | 55 | 60 | 90 | 245 | 195 |
Edinburgh | 960 | 530 | 1,800 | 3,530 | 4,725 | 3,205 |
Eilean Siar | <4 | <4 | 5 | 5 | 10 | <4 |
Falkirk | <4 | 5 | 15 | 110 | 110 | 65 |
Fife | 5 | 265 | 755 | 690 | 675 | 325 |
Glasgow City | 790 | 460 | 770 | 6,155 | 9,075 | 4,660 |
Highland | 20 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 25 | 15 |
Inverclyde | 10 | 5 | 0 | <4 | 20 | 20 |
Midlothian | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 55 | 35 |
Moray | 0 | 15 | 0 | 115 | 145 | 85 |
Orkney | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 | <4 |
Perth & Kinross | 0 | <4 | <4 | 15 | 0 | <4 |
Renfrewshire | 0 | 245 | 30 | 145 | 240 | 90 |
Scottish Borders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 0 |
Shetland | <4 | 0 | <4 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
South Ayrshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105 | 310 | 35 |
South Lanarkshire | 20 | 305 | 25 | 270 | 685 | 260 |
Stirling | 20 | 25 | 20 | 35 | 15 | 25 |
West Dunbartonshire | 45 | 20 | 15 | 150 | 260 | 95 |
Breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order occur when a household has spent more than seven days in unsuitable accommodation.
Figures on failures to accommodate and breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order are published on a six-monthly basis as part of the Homelessness in Scotland Statistics series.
Notes:
Local authorities are not presented in the tables where they have zero instances across all time periods.
For disclosure purposes, figures are rounded to the nearest 5, apart from 1,2 and 3, which are rounded to '<4'.
Households can have multiple failure to accommodate and/or unsuitable temporary accommodation placement records and so may appear multiple times in the tables.
Data source: Scottish Government, HL3 Homelessness statistics
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider working with NHS Scotland and NHS boards to ensure that standalone anti-stalking policies are introduced and embedded across the health service, for the protection of staff, volunteers, patients and visitors, in line with the findings and recommendations of the charity, Action Against Stalking.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes this report and will fully consider the Action Against Stalking report recommendations and will work in partnership to consider current policy and how recommendations may be taken forward.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have accessed child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland from each NHS Board. This data does not contain specific information about the number of young people accessing CAMHS who are international students.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many young people have been removed from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting lists in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is sent to Public Health Scotland from individual NHS Boards. This data reports on the following:
- number of referrals to CAMHS services;
- numbers waiting to start treatment;
- total waiting;
- numbers starting treatment;
- number of referrals that were not accepted
People who have started treatment, as well as those whose referral has not been accepted, will be removed from the waiting list, in line with the CAMHS Specification. The National CAMHS specification includes a clear expectation that children and young people whose referral is not accepted for CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service.
CAMHS waiting times statistics are published quarterly by PHS: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-december-2024/
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has conducted a full assessment of any administrative and financial risks associated with its plan to mitigate the two-child benefit cap, and, if so, whether it will publish that assessment.
Answer
We are working at pace to develop the systems needed to effectively mitigate the two-child cap in 2026. We recently carried out an online consultation to inform policy development and are engaging with the Department for Work and Pensions to develop the necessary systems and data sharing arrangements needed to deliver the payments effectively. Impact assessments will be published in due course to inform Parliament’s consideration of the required legislation.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that finances remain on a sustainable trajectory and that we continue to reach a balanced position each year. We will continue to take forward our strategy for doing this, which will be updated in the next Medium Term Financial Strategy due to be published later this year, alongside the fiscal sustainability delivery plan.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to leveraging (a) private and (b) public
investment to support the offshore wind supply chain.
Answer
Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is expected to leverage additional private investment of up to £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the offshore wind sector.
We are almost tripling our capital funding in offshore wind to £150 million in 2025-26. This strategic investment is being delivered through the Scottish National Investment Bank and our enterprise agencies, with public funds leveraging additional investment.
We welcome the commitment of developers to invest an average projection of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project across the 20 ScotWind offshore wind projects through the Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) process. We expect developers to honour their SCDS commitments, which were a condition of their being awarded Option Agreements.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the full cost-benefit analysis that was used to approve the retrofit project for the headquarters of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Edinburgh.
Answer
Proposals for funding via the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme are reviewed by a panel of technical experts to assess eligibility and value for money. The fund operates on a competitive basis and funding is offered only to projects that clearly meet the scheme’s objectives and have potential to progress to deployment, driving value for money from our investment.
When assessing value for money the panel consider how projects support key Scottish Government net zero priorities. Prior to receiving funding, projects must demonstrate that they have potential to deliver a significant reduction in energy consumption or meet clean heat objectives, provide savings for public bodies and show that the requested support amount is reasonable for the work being completed. In addition to this assessment process, all funding awarded is subject to public procurement regulations.
While the Scottish Government did award funding for the Edinburgh Crown Office project, it was the decision of the COPFS to take this project forward. The Scottish Government does not routinely publish panel appraisals of applications submitted to the scheme; however, a case study containing lessons learned will be published following completion of the project.