- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many repossessed dwellings have received an exemption from council tax in each month since May 2016.
Answer
The information requested is available as a snapshot at September each year as detailed in the following table.
Sept 2016 | Sept 2017 | Sept 2018 | Sept 2019 | Sept 2020 | Sept 2021 | Sept 2022 |
495 | 430 | 384 | 433 | 245 | 160 | 295 |
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many short-term let businesses currently operate in Scotland.
Answer
Since short-term lets as a category have not previously been subject to regulation, there are no official statistics on the size of the sector. However, there are a variety of data sources which can provide indirect evidence of how the sector has evolved in recent years, particularly with the growing prevalence of on-line platforms. This is discussed in Section B of our Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment: Short-term lets: business and regulatory impact assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Our licensing scheme will provide data on the number, type and location of short-term lets in Scotland. Licensing authorities must maintain a public register of applications for short-term lets licences which they are required to share with the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis. The Scottish Government will amalgamate licensing authority data to produce a national report. This national report on short-term let activity in Scotland will close a significant gap in knowledge that currently exists.
- Asked by: Willie Coffey, MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to meet the psychological support needs of teenagers and young adults, aged 13 to 24, with cancer in (a) the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency, (b) Ayrshire and Arran and (c) Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to S6W-12515 on 8 December 2022 which outlines the national steps taken by the MSN to ensure there is sufficient psychological support for children and young people with cancer. 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
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the evaluation of the Scottish Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme for GPs will be completed, and when the findings will be published.
Answer
The evaluation of the Scottish Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme for GPs or GP Speciality Training bursary (GPST bursary) was led by Scottish Government Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellows in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland (NES). The evaluation is expected to be completed by Spring 2023. The evaluation was instructed to inform policy consideration and was not conducted on the basis that it would in future become a publication. Nevertheless, once the evaluation is completed, consideration will be given to the publication of the final evaluation report.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it provided to local authorities to determine the short-term let licensing scheme fees, and whether it can intervene if it considers fees are unreasonably high in particular local authority areas.
Answer
Licensing fees must not be set at a level greater than the amount necessary to recover establishment and running costs. Guidance to licensing authorities on setting licence fees is contained within Chapter 3 of our short-term lets licensing guidance part 2: Supporting documents - Short term lets - licensing scheme part 2: supplementary guidance for licensing authorities, letting agencies and platforms - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Guidance sets out that licensing authorities are expected to have regard to minimising licence fee costs. It also encourages licensing authorities to offer lower fees for home sharing and home letting licences than for secondary letting. However, the exact fee levels are a matter for licensing authorities, and will likely depend on a number of factors such as volume of short-term let activity in their area, approach to physical property inspections and geography.
Licensing authorities must review their fees from time to time to ensure that revenue from fees remains in line with the running costs of the licensing scheme, as required by Paragraph 15(2)(a) of schedule 1 to the 1982 Act, as inserted by the Licensing Order.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many working groups have been established by (a) the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and (b) supporting ministers, in each of the last five financial years, broken down by the (i) total costs incurred in running these bodies, including expenses and (ii) number that have (A) formally completed their work and ceased to exist and (B) not met in the last six months but still exist.
Answer
The breakdown of the information requested is not held centrally the collation of this information would incur disproportionate costs.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of primary schools are signed up to the Daily Mile scheme, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation data zones.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold data broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, however, the data is set out below highlighting what percentage of primary schools are signed up to the Daily Mile initiative.
Aberdeen City | 38% |
Aberdeenshire | 40% |
Angus | 53% |
Argyll and Bute | 39% |
City of Edinburgh | 54% |
Clackmannanshire | 76% |
Dumfries and Galloway | 56% |
Dundee City | 86% |
East Ayrshire | 38% |
East Dunbartonshire | 39% |
East Lothian | 44% |
East Renfrewshire | 71% |
Falkirk | 37% |
Fife | 20% |
Glasgow City | 52% |
Highland | 51% |
Inverclyde | 41% |
Midlothian | 53% |
Moray | 29% |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | 86% |
North Ayrshire | 26% |
North Lanarkshire | 53% |
Orkney Islands | 32% |
Perth and Kinross | 50% |
Renfrewshire | 39% |
Scottish Borders | 25% |
Shetland Islands | 50% |
South Ayrshire | 77% |
South Lanarkshire | 23% |
Stirling | 34% |
West Dunbartonshire | 69% |
West Lothian | 52% |
- Asked by: Jackie Dunbar, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2022
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the final report containing the recommendations of the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) will be published, and what the next steps are.
Answer
The suite of final reports presenting the recommendations of the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) will be published on the Transport Scotland website on 8 December 2022. This represents a key milestone for strategic transport planning in Scotland. Setting out a 20 year framework for capital investment to drive the change we need to achieve the Scottish Government’s strategic vision and move towards Net Zero – the majority of the 45 recommendations contribute directly towards achieving emissions reduction.
This marks the culmination of over three years’ intensive work.
The evidence gathering and robust objective-led appraisal work feeding in to this review has been informed by stakeholder engagement from the very outset. The public have been provided with several opportunities for involvement, not least the three month statutory consultation on draft versions of the reports during January to April 2022. All responses to this have been carefully considered and used to inform refinement of the final recommendations.
The intention was to publish a Delivery Plan for these recommendations, alongside the final report. However, due to the current huge lack of certainty around available capital budget and fiscal policy over recent months, this has not been possible as yet. As such the Delivery Plan will follow in 2023, which will include more detail on prioritisation and delivery timescales, however, I am pleased to note that work is already underway on 38 of the 45 recommendations.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6T-00960 by Lorna Slater on 15 November 2022, in relation to the Minister’s statement on the figure relating to Scotland having 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential that "Ministers became aware of the issue on Tuesday 8 November [2022]", and in light of correspondence indicating that Scottish Government officials were aware of an issue with the 25% figure in October 2020, what investigations it has carried out to understand for what reasons officials were aware that the 25% figure was inaccurate prior to 8 November 2022 and did not alert Ministers, and what the outcomes were of any such investigations.
Answer
We have accepted that the 25% figure for offshore wind potential is dated. The figure has been used widely and was included in a UK Government report in 2013. In relation to the Freedom of Information requests associated with the These Islands report, we recognise that there was correspondence between officials about the use of the statistic in late 2020, and we are now undertaking a further examination of our records, alongside work to provide an updated estimate.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 December 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of the analysis reported by the NICE medical technologies advisory committee for England and Wales that states that a footwear device from AposHealth, to support people with osteoarthritis in their knee, may have the potential to save the NHS £1,958 per patient, with the cost of the footwear estimated at £875 per patient.
Answer
The Scottish Government are awaiting publication of the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) before deciding their next steps in relation to whether we ask the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to review and adapt the guidance for NHS Scotland. The draft guidance by NICE medical technologies has an expected publication date of March 2023.