- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Rural Housing Fund has received any expressions of interest relating to projects in Fife, and, if so, how many.
Answer
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many houses have been built or renovated through the (a) Rural and (b) Islands Housing Fund in each year of its operation.
Answer
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been (a) allocated to and (b) spent by the (i) Rural and (ii) Islands Housing Fund in each year of its operation.
Answer
Answer expected on 26 June 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 12 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what performance reporting information it holds regarding the Home Energy Scotland service, specifically in relation to the transparency and accessibility of the customer journey for individual applications for grants and loans, and what opportunities are available for the public to review or track any such journeys.
Answer
The application, claim and repayment processes for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme are currently administered by Energy Saving Trust (EST) via a competitively tendered contract. EST report their performance to the Scottish Government monthly against set Key Performance Indicators, which is monitored closely.
The Scottish Government is working to collate new data which will provide more detailed analysis of average application and claim processing timescales to assess the impact of recent and future streamlining improvements. This will be published in the longer term once it has been assured for accuracy.
Applicants to the scheme are able to track their journey and progress at any point through the application and claims portal.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for Carer Support Payment that were completed in each month since it was launched took (a) between six and nine months and (b) nine months or more to process, expressed as a (i) total number and (ii) percentage.
Answer
Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on application processing times for Carer Support Payment as part of official statistics releases.
The latest statistics covering the period to 31 March 2025 were published on Tuesday 13 May and can be found at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics. It is important to note that, following a staggered pilot launch, Carer Support Payment was rolled out nationally on 4 November 2024.
Supplementary analysis, based on the latest published statistics, is provided in the following tables.
Table 1: The number of applications processed for Carer Support Payment by financial year and processing time.
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Total applications processed | | | |
Applications processed in 121-180 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 180 or more working days | | | |
Table 2: The percentage of applications processed for Carer Support Payment by financial year and processing time.
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Total applications processed | | | |
Applications processed in 121-180 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 180 or more working days | | | |
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications for Carer Support Payment that were completed in each month since it was launched took (a) 51 to 60, (b) 61 to 70, (c) 71 to 80, (d) 81 to 90, (e) 91 to 100, (f) 101 to 110, (g) 111 to 120 and (h) 121 or more working days to process, expressed as a (i) total number and (ii) percentage.
Answer
Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on application processing times for Carer Support Payment as part of official statistics releases.
The latest statistics covering the period to 31 March 2025 were published on Tuesday 13 May and can be found at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics.
Supplementary analysis, based on the latest published statistics, is provided in the following tables.
Table 1 - The number of applications processed for Carer Support Payment by financial year and processing time .
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Total applications processed | | | |
Applications processed in 41-50 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 51-60 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 61-70 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 71-80 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 81-90 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 91-100 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 101-110 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 111-120 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 121 or more working days | | | |
Table 2 - The percentage of applications processed for Carer Support Payment by financial year and processing time.
| | | |
Total applications processed | | | |
Applications processed in 41-50 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 51-60 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 61-70 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 71-80 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 81-90 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 91-100 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 101-110 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 111-120 working days | | | |
Applications processed in 121 or more working days | | | |
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many current vacancies there are in local authority planning services.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of vacancies in local authority planning services. The resourcing and staffing of planning services is a matter for individual local authorities.
Recognising the financial and capacity pressures on the planning system, the National Planning Hub is offering support to authorities including capacity and access to expertise to help them determine applications for renewable energy and housing projects.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many staff are currently employed in local authority planning services, and how many staff were employed in 2015.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of staff currently employed in local authority planning services.
However, each planning authority in Scotland has recently participated in the new National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF), which is being led by the National Planning Improvement Champion. The performance assessments for 22 authorities are available at: https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/products-and-services/planning-and-place-based-approaches/national-planning-improvement/national-planning-improvement-framework/improvement-action-plans-and-performance-assessments. The reports include information on the number of staff in individual authorities.
The Scottish Government recognises the financial and capacity pressures on the planning system and is taking forward a package of changes to provide authorities with additional resources. Planning fees were increased in line with inflation last December, and further changes are due to come into force this month. Through the National Planning Skills Commitment Plan, we are coordinating skills development across the planning sector in Scotland.
In addition, Scotland’s National Planning Hub is providing additional surge capacity and resource to help authorities to respond to current challenges, and to enable them to accelerate their activities this financial year.
We are also supporting an increase in planners coming into the profession, particularly through direct recruitment and training in our Future Planners programme, and a trebling of the planning bursaries we are offering this year.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average time taken for a decision to be made on planning applications is.
Answer
The average time taken to determine planning applications not subject to processing agreements for the first two quarters of 2024-25 in Scotland was as follows:
• for local developments: 11.1 weeks in Q1 and 11.9 weeks in Q2; and
• for major developments: 35.5 weeks in Q1 and 35.2 weeks in Q2.
Statistics for the average length of time to determine planning applications subject to processing agreements are not held centrally. For those applications, statistics are published on the number and percentage of decisions meeting the timescales agreed through processing agreements.
The average time taken to determine planning applications for Q1 and Q2 of
2024-25 for each local authority can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-application-statistics-2024-25-april-2024-september-2024/.
The planning application statistics for Q3 and Q4 of 2024-25 and the annual statistics are not yet published. These will be available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/planning-statistics/.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when the Future Farming Investment Scheme will be launched.
Answer
The First Minister announced on 7 February that around £14 million will be allocated to delivering the Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS). The proposals for the scheme are currently being finalised and the full details about the scheme and application process are expected to be announced shortly.
