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The Scottish Government has not made any assessment as each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately. Where they do not have the necessary staff or specialisms in-house to undertake their verification functions, they should resource them externally.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

The eDevelopment Programme finance model involves costs being shared, with the Scottish Government funding the capital investment in the technology and local authorities paying annual support and maintenance costs. Local authorities collectively will pay £71,000 during the current financial year for support and maintenance in relation to the eBuildingStandards.scot service.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about any other investment or costs to local authorities, in relation to their preparation for implementation of the service.

Building Standards went live in August 2016. All local authorities are our partners in the eDevelopment programme and have received online applications through the eBuildingStandards.scot.

Each local authority has their own business processes and their own level of digitisation of services. The introduction of electronic applications has involved substantial business transformation and modernisation of building standards services. For most authorities, this has required process change and some skills development to support the transition from largely paper-based processes to digital application handling.

We are monitoring uptake by service users, both nationally and by each local authority area, on an on-going basis. To date uptake had been far higher than anticipated with over 11,000 forms and applications being submitted through the service during the first three months.

We have noted that there has been a short-term dip in performance standards during the transition within some local authority areas, however performance is expected to improve with increasing familiarity with the new processes.

The Scottish Government has commissioned a number of research projects to consider the building standards fees structure and cost of verification by local authorities and has published the reports on the Scottish Government website.

1. Review the current Building Standards Fee Structure and Future Requirements (2011-12) Phase 1 report (March 2012); Phase 2 report (April 2012)

2. Review the current Building Standards Fee Structure and Future Requirements (2014-15) Final Report (March 2015)

3. Consider Proposed Changes to the Building Standards Fees Regulations and their Impacts (2015-16)Final Report (March 2016)

4. Model Changes to the Building Standards Fees Final Report (September 2016)

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately. They are subject to regular monitoring by Scottish Government which includes local authorities reporting the relationship between verification fee income and verification staff costs through KPO6 of the verification performance framework.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-05274 and S5W-05275 on 12 December 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I am currently reviewing the appointment process for verifiers from May 2017 onwards, however there are no plans for wider consultation on the matter. The review includes consideration of the results of the Scottish Government national customer survey under KPO5 of the verification performance framework.

Through the Town Centre Housing Fund, £2.55 million was awarded to six projects, bringing vacant and derelict town centre buildings back into use and providing 75 units for affordable housing across six local authority areas – Angus, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Fife, Clackmannanshire and Perth and Kinross.

Town Centre Housing Fund promotes town centre living, a key theme of our Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) through the provision of quality, affordable housing. The measures set out in the TCAP set the conditions and support activity across the wider public, private and community sectors to tackle the key issues in town centres across Scotland.

The Town Centre First Principle agreed by the Scottish cabinet and all Council Leaders asks that all investment decisions consider the impact on the town centre as a starting point.

Local authorities are committed to the verification performance framework that was introduced in 2012 and are subject to regular monitoring by Scottish Government.

Scottish Government commissioned Pye Tait Consulting to undertake an ‘Evaluation of the performance of local authorities in their role as verifiers’ and their report was published in March 2016. The independent research concluded that:

“In summary, whilst there has been substantial progress and investment in delivering a high quality and customer-focused building standards service since the last re-appointment of local authorities in 2011, there is still work to do to create the conditions for strong performance across all 32 Councils.”

The latest figures for Quarter 1 (April – June) of reporting year 2016-17 show that KPO1 ‘Average time to grant a building warrant’ for all categories is 66 working days. For KPO2 ‘The % of CCNPs for accepted completion certificates fully achieved by relevant person and verifier’ is 47%.

The performance figures for both these KPOs rely on others such as applicants and agents to respond timeously and appropriately.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 allows Scottish Ministers to appoint verifiers on such terms or limitations as they feel appropriate. They must have regard to qualifications; competency; accountability to the public; and impartiality before making an appointment.

I am currently reviewing the appointment process of verifiers from May 2017 onwards and propose to introduce an operating framework for verifiers. This will set out the key verification functions and cover integrity and operational resilience; building warrant and completion certificate processing; and maintaining records.