- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to tackle the issue of council tax debt in its proposed new deal for local government.
Answer
The New Deal for Local Government reflects a desire of both partners to re-set the relationship between local and national government. The New Deal will provide greater flexibility over local funding, with clear accountability for delivery on shared priorities and outcomes. This will include considering further reforms for council tax in partnership with local government through the Joint Working Group on sources of local government funding.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the maintenance of Scotland's UNESCO World Heritage Sites in each year since 2007, broken down by site.
Answer
Scotland’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites are highly varied in their composition and management. As Historic Environment Scotland is a partner for all six sites, I have asked it to write to the member with the information on Historic Scotland funding from 2007-15, and Historic Environment Scotland funding since 2015 when it was formed.
Exceptionally, there has been some direct funding from the Scottish Government, for example in the light of lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic. The amounts provided from 2015 onwards can be found in the following table.
| World Heritage Site | Year | Maintenance Funding |
| New Lanark | 2020-21 | £2,439,000 |
| 2021-22 | £327,000 |
| 2022-23 | £435,000 |
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how much has been received in planning gain contributions by each local authority, in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Research on the value, incidence and impact of developer contributions was published in 2021: https://www.gov.scot/publications/value-incidence-impact-developer-contributions-scotland/documents/
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 78,000 additional diagnostic procedures in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.
Answer
Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.
We are seeing improvements in diagnostic waiting times, and we continue to prioritise those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer for scope-based diagnostic tests.
Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report, Understanding the Drivers Behind the Accrual of Council Tax Arrears, published by Citizens Advice Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes this report and would encourage local authorities, who are responsible for the collection and enforcement of Council Tax arrears, to consider its findings.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what support and remedies are available in Scotland for people who cannot get their powers of attorneys, that have been arranged in Scotland, recognised in other parts of the UK, and what additional steps the Scottish Government is taking to address this.
Answer
In Scotland the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) Scotland is responsible for registering all power of attorney documents. If an individual has experienced any issues involving the recognition of a Scottish power of attorney in other parts of the UK they can contact the OPG for assistance.
There is already legislation in place that provides recognition of Scottish powers of attorney in England and Wales. This is about ensuring that the institutions and organisations have awareness and are educated on the legal status of Scottish powers of attorney.
The Scottish Government will be working with third party organisations to raise awareness and publicity about the validity of Scottish powers of attorney in England and Wales.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many doctors have qualified through the Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) programme to date.
Answer
Academic year 2021-22 represented the first graduating year of the ScotGEM course with 52 students qualifying at this time. The second cohort of students will graduate later this summer.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, published by the Office for National Statistics, which reportedly shows that the annual rental percentage change in Scotland continues to surpass that in England and Wales.
Answer
The latest Experimental Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) were published on 24 May 2023, available at Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . There are methodological limitations with the Scotland level results being presented given the influence of the restrictions on in-tenancy rent increases introduced through the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection)(Scotland) Act 2022 which has been in force since 28 October 2022. Users of the results are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries. The following cautionary text is included in this ONS publication:
“The rise in annual rental price inflation for Scotland since this (Cost of Living Tenants Protection Scotland) bill was passed will largely reflect increasing rental prices from new lets as they continue to feed into the Scotland IPHRP stock measure. There are also compositional differences between the Scotland rental data and Scotland's rental sector. Measures for Scotland are mainly based on advertised rental data, along with assumptions on average periods between rent price increases, so changes in rents for existing tenants are largely estimated. The IPHRP methodology assumes that rental price remains constant for up to 14 months if updated rental data for that property is not available. The Cost of Living (Tenants Protection) Scotland Bill could lead to an increase in the average length of time that rental price remains unchanged. If the average time between rental price changes is above the assumed 14 months, then IPHRP methodology will present higher estimates of rising rental costs in the overall market in Scotland. This is because only a small proportion of the sample is based on updated rental data from existing lets, and replacement data will be predominantly based on uncapped newly advertised rents. Users are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries.”
The Scottish Government does not therefore consider that these experimental statistics are sufficiently nuanced to draw valid comparisons between Scotland and England and Wales.
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 June 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many gull licences have been issued by NatureScot in each year for which data is available, and what the average response time is to make a decision on a gull licence application received via (a) the online application procedure and (b) a posted application form.
Answer
The detailed information requested is currently being collated and will be provided as soon as it is available. A copy will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 64328).
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Withdrawn
