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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: S6W-05419

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has received on the legal compatibility of its plans to introduce licensing for short-term lets with plans, under discussion by the European Commission, to introduce a registration system for short-term lets across the EU.

Before the licensing legislation, or any other Government legislation, is laid at the Scottish Parliament, government lawyers carry out robust analysis to ensure that it is competent. For the licensing legislation, that means ensuring that the SSI is made within the parameters and powers of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

The licensing SSI also makes modifications to the 1982 Act itself, in order to give effect to the licensing scheme. This too was carefully considered in terms of whether the changes proposed were legally competent.

The tourist services – short-term rental initiative consulted on by the European Commission between September and October 2021 is still at an early stage and further details have not been confirmed. The consultation notes that the general proposal is for regulation, which would be in line with the approach we have set out in our legislation.

Question reference: S6W-05281

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many GP surgeries in each NHS board area provide dementia specialist nurse advice services to people with dementia and their families.

Question reference: S6W-05402

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much the implementation of its proposed regulations for short-term lets is expected to cost local authorities.

Question reference: S6W-05401

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether there will be any penalties for local authorities that fail to enforce planned regulations on short-term lets, and, if so, what these penalties will be.

Question reference: S6W-05413

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings its ministers have had with bed and breakfast operators regarding plans to regulate their sector alongside short-term lets.

Question reference: S6W-05400

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made to ensure that local authorities are prepared to meet the new duties to register, inspect and monitor short-term lets and bed and breakfasts in their area.

The Scottish Government has engaged widely with stakeholders and partners about the introduction of a licensing scheme for short-term let accommodation. Since January 2020, Ministers and or Scottish Government officials have had 13 meetings with representatives from different local authorities in Scotland. Details of these meetings, including when control areas were discussed, can be found in a recent Freedom of Information response at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100228791/ .

When deciding to designate all or part of an area as a short-term let control area, a planning authority must submit their proposal to Scottish Minsters for approval. We are aware the City of Edinburgh Council and Highland Council are currently progressing plans to designate control areas, in order to address pressures created by secondary letting, but these have not yet been submitted to Ministers for consideration.

A fundamental purpose of the scheme is to ensure basic safety standards are met in all types of short-term let accommodation across Scotland. It is therefore mandatory for operators and licensing authorities to abide by the scheme, which will help to ensure the safety of guests and neighbours. The Scottish Government would expect local authorities to act in compliance with their statutory duties if a licensing authority did not have a licensing scheme in place by this date, it could be subject to challenge. If a failure to comply with statute was successfully judicially reviewed, the Court of Session could order that particular action be taken to remedy that.

In 2021, we published draft guidance for licensing authorities, letting agencies and platforms to inform our consultation. We are now in the process of reconvening the stakeholder working group, which includes local authority representatives, to update and publish revised guidance to enable operators and licensing authorities to review their preparations for implementation.

The guidance sets out that we want licensing authorities to take a risk-based and proportionate approach that will enable them to sustainably recover their own costs associated with establishing and administering the licensing scheme within a ‘not for profit’ fee based structure. Section F of our updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) , published on 23 November, also provides further information about recovery of costs through fees.

In line with Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy, we have encouraged licensing authorities to work towards a digital first approach to administering the scheme. We have also encouraged licensing authorities to have paper copies of relevant information, and the application form, available upon request for people who cannot access them online and to provide support to access online services at their offices.

Question reference: S6W-05412

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it did not remove bed and breakfasts from regulations for short-term lets when these were introduced.

Question reference: S6O-00675

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding for local authorities it has allocated in its draft Budget to help tackle homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-05280

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes have been taken out of the social rent sector as a result of building safety issues in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-05284

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 17 January 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review how maternity wards can be made more family-friendly.

Family-centred care is at the heart of our maternity and neonatal strategy, the Best Start: A Five Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland . We expect all maternity units to take a flexible approach to the presence of partners, to provide a relaxed and supportive environment for care that promotes natural, person-centred childbirth, and to ensure that suitable accommodation and facilities are provided to enable families to stay together.