Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10237 on 7 September 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17723 on 17 May 2023. Parliament will be updated once the review has completed. 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 .

The Scottish Government do not hold this information. Under the current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom immigration is fully reserved to the UK Government and is dealt with by the Home Office. If a displaced person from Ukraine has been issued a visa, they are free to travel anywhere within the UK or to leave and re-enter the UK when they wish, as long as they are meeting the conditions within their visa. The UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities publish data on arrivals in the UK, with a Scottish Sponsor Visa: Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: Visa data by country, upper and lower tier local authority - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Scottish Government publish the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine coming to Scotland through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme. This data can be found on our website via: Ukraine: analysis and statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We continue to support home ownership and have interventions in place to help first time buyers through our Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT) scheme which helps people on low to moderate incomes to buy their first home.

Our first-time buyer relief for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax has the effect of raising the nil-rate threshold from £145,000 to £175,000, saving first-time buyers up to £600.

No formal assessment has been carried out on the impact of increased mortgage rates on First Time Buyers (FTB’s), however we are aware that an increase in mortgage rates will make it more difficult for many FTB’s to obtain mortgage lending or in fact access it due to a decreased number of products available.

I refer the member to my to the answer to S6W–19805 on 31 July 2023. 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 .

The policy review work is being led by civil servants as part of their overall role of policy development and operational delivery. As such there are no costs that have been incurred. Two full-time equivalent policy team officials are working on the review as part of their wider duties with support from other officials, including analysts, as required.

There are different types of affordable housing programmes and schemes in Scotland and across the UK, and statistics on stock levels for each of these different types are not readily available. Information is published on social sector housing stock levels across each of the countries.

The following table sets out information on the number of social rented dwellings compared to population figures, based on the latest available comparable year of data for 2020 from UK housing stock tables published by the Office for National Statistics.

This shows that the 608,000 social sector dwellings in Scotland in 2020 equates to 1,112 dwellings per 10,000 population, higher than the equivalent per head of population figures of 729 in England and 726 in Wales in the same year.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards setting out our expectation that Health Boards will ensure Ukrainian refugees have access to local dental treatment and GP practices. Ukrainians living in Scotland have access to the same level of primary and secondary health care services as everyone else and these are designed to ensure that their health needs are identified and addressed appropriately and effectively.

The requested figures for live applications for loans for standalone solar PV/energy storage systems not being installed as part of a package including a certified renewable heating system are set out in the following table. These applications were submitted prior to the change in funding on 27 June 2023, and are being processed by Energy Saving Trust, the scheme administrator.

Scottish Government do not provide direct funding to STV as they are an advertiser funded broadcaster.

We do however provide funding to Screen Scotland who have themselves provided funding to STV Studios. STV Studios is separate to the broadcasting element of STV and is the television production arm of the STV Group plc. They work with a range of broadcasters and streamers, not only STV. All funding decisions of Screen Scotland are made independently of Scottish Government.

In addition, all Scottish Government media buying and planning is undertaken via agencies appointed through the Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services 2019 to 2023 framework. Therefore, this is not conducted directly with STV.