Chamber and committees

The average number of FTE staff employed by the Scottish Information Commissioner in the last five years broken down into the total number of staff employed and those employed for the purpose of handling FOI request appeals is set out in the table below.

(1) The figures include all members of the Commissioner’s Enforcement Team which handle FOI request appeals made to the Commissioner.  The Enforcement Team consists of the Head of Enforcement, Deputy Heads of Enforcement, Freedom of Information Officers (Investigators), Validation Officers, and the Enforcement Team Support Assistant. 

Providing the information requested prior to April 2017 could only be answered at disproportionate cost. Following a change to the way we record shared equity sales from 2017-18 we are able to provide the information requested.

Since 2017-18 there have been 7 partial tranche-ups where the Scottish Government still hold an investment. This includes 3 properties purchased through the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme, 2 through the Help to Buy scheme and 2 through the New Supply Shared Equity Scheme.

The Scottish Government have been working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sport scotland and Scottish Water to develop interventions and approaches to provide opportunities for children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers.

Scottish Swimming aim to run a number of Delivery Model Pilots in 2022-23 to support schools to understand and consider different approaches and models of delivery to help educate and provide opportunities for children across Scotland to experience the water in a fun, safe and inclusive approach. This reflects the many different scenarios faced by schools when deciding how best to support young people to access school swimming.

In terms of the issues reported in Dumfries and Galloway, we understand that the waiting list expanded significantly due to the reduced capacity available to deliver lessons whilst they operated from the temporary swimming pool at Dumfries Ice Bowl. This was then further exaggerated by COVID closures. The local authority are looking at their swimming pool timetables with a view to securing lessons for as many children as possible within their existing resources and available teaching complement.

Any proposals around its future operational estate are a matter for Scottish Enterprise. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to respond to you directly. However, I do understand that the current consultation on office requirements - which includes consideration of co-location with other public sector bodies and industry partners, to enhance collaborative working – will include completion of an Equality Impact Assessment as a key component.

Scottish Government officials have fortnightly meetings with counterparts in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We have committed all the consequentials so far, £400 million, to the programme of work.

18 To date the Scottish Government and sportscotland (National Lottery) has funded 29 projects via the Cycling Facilities Fund, seven of which have been completed. The details and amounts of this funding can be found in the following table:

The 2023 revaluations in Scotland and England will for the first time have different tone dates following the Scottish Government’s acceptance of the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates’ recommendation to move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date. This inevitably results in direct comparison between the two systems being less meaningful than in the past with Scottish rateable values more accurately reflecting contemporary market circumstances.

The Scottish Budget will set out non-domestic rates measures including the poundage, supplements and reliefs that will apply in 2023-24 based upon draft values which will be published for the first time on 30 November 2022 but it will only be possible to accurately calculate the impact of different tax rates and supplements on individual sectors when final rateable values are published on 1 April 2023.

Of the 15 recommendations laid out in Cladding Remediation Gateway Reviews 0 (Strategic Assessment) October 2021 and July 2022, the October recommendations largely overwrite those from the July review. Of the eight recommendations from the July 2022 Gateway Review, all are on track and four out of the eight have been completed.

Not all 780 buildings on the high rise inventory will require assessment. Single building assessments are demand led and available on request for homeowners or their representatives should they meet the qualifying criteria.

The following table shows the number of properties, by local authority area, as shown in the Scottish Landlord Register for each month in 2022 to September 2022. In relation to the social rented sector there is no monthly data available. Figures on the new supply of social housing are published as part of Quarterly Housing Statistics that includes information on the number of completions for social rent each quarter. In addition, the Scottish Housing Regulator collects annually, stock data by local authority area as part of social landlords Annual Return on the Charter Statistical information | Scottish Housing Regulator , although the data does not contain stock gain or losses, only figures at year end.