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: S6O-03853

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how youth groups can access funds to buy community assets.

Question reference: S6O-03864

Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 31 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is committed to fully dualling the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen.

Question reference: S6O-03852

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards securing a long-term future for Ferguson Marine.

Question reference: S6W-30488

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations of Shelter Scotland and Engender's recent joint report, Gender and the Housing Emergency, what action it is taking to ensure that housing officers and front-line services undertake mandatory training on domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women.

Our code of guidance on homelessness is designed to give the best possible support to frontline practitioners in their work to prevent homelessness. It sets out the importance of staff training for homelessness officers, particularly in the requirements of the homelessness legislation, the code of guidance, anti-discrimination legislation and the relevant local authority's housing and homelessness policies.

More recently we have supported the development of a housing options training toolkit. The toolkit is a learning and development resource platform for housing officers and frontline staff to aid them in providing housing options advice, including to people experiencing domestic abuse.

Additionally, as part of the homelessness prevention duties within the Housing (Scotland) Bill, we will work with stakeholders and delivery partners to identify the training and guidance required to support relevant bodies to meet their new obligations.

Question reference: S6W-30490

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations of Shelter Scotland and Engender's recent joint report, Gender and the Housing Emergency, what action it is taking to provide appropriate, safe housing and accommodation solutions for women who have no recourse to public funds.

The previous UK Government’s No Recourse to Public Funds policy prevents local and national government in Scotland from being able to provide appropriate, safe housing and accommodation solutions for women who have restricted immigration status. It is not acceptable that people, including women are fleeing domestic abuse, face destitution or are forced to remain in unsafe conditions because of their immigration status. Scottish Ministers raised this issue repeatedly with the previous UK Government and will continue to engage with the new UK Government to urge change to these policy conditions.

The Scottish Government and COSLA continue to work together to deliver the vision and principles of Ending Destitution Together, to improve access to support and services for people who are subject to UK Government immigration policies, as far as is possible within devolved powers. During 2024-25, the Scottish Government provided £440,000 to Fair Way Scotland to enable the increased capacity of case workers across Scotland, supporting those who are risk of, or experiencing homelessness and destitution. This investment will help people exercise their rights to eligible public funds and access emergency cash support.

Question reference: S6W-30426

Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help mitigate Glasgow's reported affordable housing supply shortage, in light of the £78.7 million reduction in the funding being provided to the city through the national affordable housing programme.

The Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme allocation for Glasgow City Council for this year is £90.231m. This comprises the original allocation of £78.687m and the additional £11.544m made available as part of efforts to boost affordable housing supply by acquiring properties to bring into use for affordable housing and to help reduce homelessness. The funding made available to Glasgow City Council last year through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme was £103.683m, so this years funding represents a decrease of £13.452m. As well as the additional £11.544m made available to Glasgow City Council this year, the Council and Scottish Government officials meet regularly and will continue to work closely in order to maximise affordable housing delivery in the city.

Question reference: S6W-30378

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many eviction order applications from private landlords were (a) submitted to and (b) granted by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland in each year since 2019, broken down by the local authority area in which the property was located, for each local authority area in the West Scotland parliamentary region.

(a) The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) has published the number of applications for eviction received in their Scottish Tribunals Annual Reports. For ease of reference, this is set out in the following table.

Financial year	Received
2019 - 2020	1742
2020 - 2021	767
2021 – 2022	1251
2022 – 2023	2252
2023 - 2024	2687

(b) The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) are the relevant body in relation to processing eviction applications and determinations in Scotland. They are, therefore, best placed to answer how many eviction orders were granted in each year since 2019.

Question reference: S6W-30280

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of section 315(2) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, which local authorities have (a) applied to the Scottish Ministers for the dispensation of the making of byelaws with respect to accommodation for seasonal workers and (b) been (i) granted and (ii) denied such a dispensation, in each year since 1999; whether it will provide the dates on which any such applications were made by local authorities, and what equivalent information it has on any such applications made to the Secretary of State prior to 1999.

Question reference: S6W-30374

Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many children are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in each local authority area in the West Scotland parliamentary region.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Scottish Child Payment applications, payments and the number of children actively in receipt of the payment by local authority area.

As of 30 June 2024, the number of children aged 0-15 years actively benefitting from Scottish Child Payment in each local authority area relevant to the West Scotland parliamentary region were as follows:

Argyll and Bute – 4,100;
East Dunbartonshire – 3,770;
East Renfrewshire – 3,575;
Inverclyde – 5,375;
North Ayrshire – 10,395;
Renfrewshire – 10,545;
West Dunbartonshire – 7,165.

This information along with other local authority areas can be found in the latest Scottish Child Payment Official Statistics publication:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics.

The next edition of the Scottish Child Payment publication which will cover the period to the end of September 2024, is due to be published on 26 November 2024.

Question reference: S6W-30269

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 23 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the legal status is of seasonal agricultural workers housed in caravan accommodation on agricultural land, with regards to that accommodation.

The rights that a worker has in tied accommodation will depend on the type of tenancy or occupancy agreement in place. If an employer gives an employee accommodation as part of the job and the employee has to live there to be able to do the job, they may have a Service Occupancy agreement. Rights will depend on what is written in the employment contract and will depend on the individual circumstances of the case. However, if an employee has a Private Residential Tenancy, then they will have the same rights as a private tenant.