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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-20460

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group; Final Report and Recommendations, whether the additional £2 million allocated in the 2022-23 financial year for rapid rehousing transition plans is new money.

Since 2019-20, local authorities have been allocated an annual share of £8 million from the Ending Homelessness Together Budget to support the implementation of their rapid rehousing transition plans. This is in addition to £2 million allocated in 2018-19 from the same budget for each local authority to develop a rapid rehousing transition plan, and £5 million in 2020-21 from the Winter Plan for Social Protection to help mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic.

The additional £2 million allocated in 2023-24 for rapid rehousing transition plans is new money. No additional rapid rehousing transition plan funding was made available in 2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-20459

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, what budget the additional £2 million in 2023-24 for local authority rapid rehousing transition plans is being allocated from.

Question reference: S6W-20461

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 17 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, how it will measure the success of any actions it has taken.

Homelessness in Scotland is a statistical bulletin published by the Scottish Government twice a year. This data provides quantitative evidence across a number of issues for homeless households, including applications, assessments, temporary accommodation and outcomes. We will use the annual and interim Homelessness in Scotland statistics as the key measure of the success of initiatives to reduce the number of households and length of time spent in temporary accommodation.

We will also work with the sector on the potential to develop an additional monitoring framework to provide more up to date data in between these statistical publications, balancing the need for information with the pressures on landlords.

Question reference: S6W-20454

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 16 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to widen the eligibility criteria for the Tenant Grant Fund.

The eligibility criteria of the Tenant Grant Fund was extended in September 2022 to enable local authorities to use the fund to prevent homelessness for households who had built up more recent arrears, including as a result of the cost of living crisis. National monitoring of this fund was completed in June of this year.

Any local authorities with remaining funds are no longer limited to the criteria of the fund, and can use any remaining monies in ways that best meet the needs of tenants in their area.

Question reference: S6W-20458

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 16 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, what specific actions it will take with (a) local authorities and (b) registered social landlords to help increase the number of allocations to homeless households.

We are in discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, COSLA and Shelter Scotland to agree how to increase the number of allocations to homeless households in the next two to three years to support our commitment to reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation. We welcome this positive engagement and we will report on the outcomes in due course.

Question reference: S6W-20457

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 16 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, what specific work it plans to undertake to increase the number of homes being changed from temporary to permanent homes.

The Scottish Government considers the conversion of temporary to permanent accommodation an effective measure to increase the number of social homes. We encourage local authorities to ‘flip’ a tenancy wherever the property is in the right location, and of the right size and type to meet the household’s requirements. Large scale flipping of tenancies can be particularly effective in areas where the greatest pressures in temporary accommodation are experienced.

In our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, we said that we will work with COSLA, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to develop national guidance to encourage more effective stock management by the end of this year.

Question reference: S6W-20456

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 16 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its report, Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: Final Report and Recommendations, what specific additional interventions it will make as part of its urgent action to reduce the number of void properties in the social sector.

As set out in our response to the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group recommendations, there are a number of reasons a property can become void. We will therefore work with each local authority, starting with the areas facing the greatest temporary accommodation pressures, on the solutions to accelerate void processing that are right for them.

We are in discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, COSLA and Shelter to agree what changes could be made in the next two to three years that would reduce the turnaround time for vacant social homes. We will confirm specific actions in due course, once agreed.

Question reference: S6W-20322

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 August 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19595 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2023, whether it will provide a breakdown of the types of cyber attack to which Social Security Scotland has been subjected.

It is not possible to give specific details of the types of cyber-attack Social Security Scotland has been subjected to. Doing so may provide information on the defences which protect the Agency’s systems. This information could then be leveraged in future attacks.

The vast majority of the cyber events monitored consist of attackers scanning Internet-facing benefit systems to discover potential weaknesses in the defences. Should any be identified, this can lead to further activity from the attacker to leverage this weakness. To date, the security defences have prevented all attacks from succeeding.

Question reference: S6W-20569

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-19559

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 July 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 31 July 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any other part of the civil service made use of social media to advertise for the recruitment of paid patient panels to make recommendations on serious health conditions, and, if this is the case, what methods of verification were used, in light of reports that its Clinical Priorities Unit used paid volunteers to make recommendations on treatment pathways for chronic pain, rather than formally diagnosed representatives.

This is a matter for the relevant part of the civil service. The Scottish Government does not hold information for other parts of the civil service, for example those that serve UK Government ministers.

Regarding recruitment and verification for the Scottish Government Pain Panel, there are generally no preconditions specified, except for the requirement to acknowledge and honour an individual’s expressed willingness to contribute to a particular process based on their personal knowledge of the subject matter. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a range of people and organisations can contribute to collective means through a variety of ways. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17660 on 19 May 2023. 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 .