Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-31418

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the evidence in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Remote and Rural Healthcare Inquiry, what steps it is taking to deliver more affordable homes for healthcare workers in rural and remote settings.

The Scottish Government remain committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 of which at least 10% will be in rural and island areas.

Up to £25 million is also being made available from our affordable housing supply programme budget over the period 2023-2028 in the form of the demand led Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund. The funding is available to support local authorities and registered social landlords to purchase existing suitable properties in rural and island areas for key workers where there is identified need.

We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places and it is for local authorities through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans to identify the type, location, size and tenure of homes required in their areas.

Question reference: S6W-31424

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Remote and Rural Healthcare Inquiry, what steps it is taking to repurpose vacant (a) local authority and (b) NHS properties for use as accommodation for healthcare workers.

Local authorities, as statutory housing authorities, working with The Empty Homes Partnership continue to tackle empty homes as a priority, bringing more homes back to use as warm, safe and secure permanent housing. Our investment of £3.7 million investment in the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership is making a real difference with almost 11,000 homes returned to use since 2010.

Social landlords (local authorities and housing associations) are responsible for the allocation of social housing. They must develop and publish allocation policies, within a broad legal framework for social housing allocations. Our Social housing allocations in Scotland: practice guide was published in 2019 and provides practical assistance to staff with responsibility for reviewing, monitoring and updating allocation policies and procedures to ensure they comply with current legislation.

Question reference: S6W-31432

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the role that third sector healthcare providers have in delivering services to patients in remote and rural settings, separate to services provided through NHS boards.

The Scottish Government does not hold a central assessment of Third Sector healthcare provision. We do however recognise the role of the Third sector in areas such as palliative care and published the draft Palliative Care Strategy – Palliative Care Matters for All – for public consultation on 2 October 2024. The consultation will close on 10 January 2025, and the responses will inform the development of the final Strategy, which we aim to publish in 2025.

Question reference: S6W-31425

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 25 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, Remote and Rural Healthcare Inquiry, in what ways it will work with (a) local residents, (b) property owners and (c) tourist accommodation providers to offer temporary accommodation to health workers on placement.

The Scottish Government’s approach to the planning and delivery of affordable housing is focussed on providing the right homes in the right places.

We remain committed to delivering 110,000 permanent affordable homes by 2032 with at least 70% for social rent and at least 10% in rural and island areas.

We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places and it is for local authorities through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans to identify the type, location, size and tenure of homes required in their areas.

Question reference: S6W-31441

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has (a) set out and (b) acted upon for consultation on the Rural Support Plan.

Question reference: S6W-31439

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what formal steps it has taken to develop the Rural Support Plan.

The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 requires Scottish Ministers to publish a five-year Rural Support Plan. The plan will build upon for the Vision for Scottish Agriculture and the Agricultural Reform Route Map and outline the phased transition from legacy EU CAP schemes to the new four-tier framework. The 2024 Act sets out the requirements for the plan including for engagement. Meeting these requirements is integral to the operation of the Agricultural Reform Programme, including through the co-development of future support with our rural partners and in the developing secondary legislation that will introduce changes. The Rural Support Plan will collate this information into a single strategic and coherent package, provide programme level input and ensure that the totality of measures is considered. Once the 2024 Act is commenced, the initial plan is intended to be drafted through 2025 and laid in Winter 2025, to reflect the published Route Map. The 2024 Act requires that the plan is laid before the Scottish Parliament, and published.

Question reference: S6W-31440

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Rural Support Plan.

Question reference: S6W-31442

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Monday, 18 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline any progress that it has made on establishing regional land use frameworks across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has supported four pilot regions in the development of bespoke Regional Land Use Frameworks (RLUFs). This work was taken forward through a co-development approach with a range of stakeholders. It tested a natural capital-led approach to identifying land use opportunities and priorities, whilst maintaining place-based principles to understand the potential for delivering mutual benefits to all land users.

This work covers the South of Scotland (Scottish borders and Dumfries and Galloway) The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Parks and the NorthWest 2045 region of the Highlands. More information on the individual RLUFs can be found at the links below:

South of Scotland region: Delivery & Strategies | South of Scotland Regional Economic Partnership
North West Highland region: Land+ Project | NORTHWEST2045
Cairngorms National Park region: Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan 2022-27
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park region: Read The Plan - Here. Now. All of us. - Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park

We are now working with the RLUPS to consolidate this learning in order to refine our understanding of the role that RLUFs could play in supporting/delivering land use change and informing wider Scottish Government policy.

Question reference: S6W-31468

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 21 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04853 by Mairi Gougeon on 14 December 2021, how many of the Fixed Penalty Notices issued since 25 January 2019 remain unpaid, and, of those, how many have been (a) referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and (b) proceeded in the courts, and, of any that resulted in convictions, what the (i) nature of the offence, (ii) value of the original Fixed Penalty Notice and (iii) court disposal was.

Since 25 January 2019 until 13 October 2021, the period covered by S6W-03688 on 29 October 2021 and S6W-04853 on 14 December 2021, there have been 19 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) unpaid prior to referral to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, compared to 93 paid. This makes a payment rate over the period of 83%.

The breakdown is as follows:

(a) 8 of the 19 cases were referred to the COPFS for consideration of prosecution; 2 of the 8 cases resulted in the original FPNs being paid after agreement with the Procurator Fiscal, ultimately resulting in 17 unpaid FPNs in total and;

(b) 4 of the 8 cases resulted in convictions and fines with the breakdown as follows:

	Offence	FPN Offered (£)	Court Disposal (£)
1	Breach of hobby fishermen regulations	2000	500
2	Non submission of statutory returns	2000	3000
3	Marine Protected Area incursion	4000	2000
4	Fishing gear offence	3000	2075

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

Question reference: S6O-04026

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many houses have been built in rural communities, as a direct result of funding from the Rural and Islands Housing Fund, since the fund was established.

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