- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 12 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether Single Building Assessments relating to all of the buildings identified as having (a) high pressure laminate (HPL) (96) and (b) aluminium composite material (ACM) (48) as part of their external wall system were commissioned on or before 1 September 2025, as indicated in its Cladding Remediation Programme Next Phase Plan of Action.
Answer
Substantial progress has been made by building owners in taking forward the commissioning of Single Building Assessments for these buildings, making use of the financial support available from the Scottish Government. In a small number of cases where building owners/factors are yet to engage in the Single Open Call process we are strongly pressing them to do so and considering what further action may be required. We will publish further information in due course on this cohort of buildings.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the University of Dundee and the Scottish Funding Council regarding the university’s financial situation.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with GFG Alliance, Liberty Steel and Alvance British Aluminium regarding the companies’ operations in Scotland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 3 September 2025
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 600 expressions of interest, which its Cladding Remediation Programme has received via the Single Open Call, relate to buildings that it was already aware may need an assessment or remedial work, broken down by the type of applicant.
Answer
Information on the number of expressions of interest submitted to the Cladding Remediation Programme via the Single Open Call by applicant type is now published quarterly on the Scottish Government website: An Official Statistics in Development publication - Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme update: Q2 2025 - gov.scot.
The ‘pilot phase’ of the Cladding Remediation Programme began in 2021, and was designed to identify a range of buildings to help inform the development of the Single Building Assessment (SBA) process. As part of this work, several buildings were assessed, and now require a ‘refresh’ to ensure assessments are in line with the SBA specification. This will not mean starting the assessment process again, as all existing information will be made available to the competent, qualified person carrying out the refresh.
The 107 buildings in the ‘pilot phase’ were put on a pathway to assessment, starting with pre-assessment checks made by an appointed fire engineer consultant. 51 were assessed as being out of scope of the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act, following a review by the appointed fire engineering consultants.
Of the 56 buildings within scope:
- 10 of the buildings have been taken on by the developer
- two were identified by the fire engineers as being low risk and not requiring an SBA
- 12 have had or are undergoing an SBA commission by Scottish Government
- 32 will require an SBA - these will now have the opportunity to be funded for assessment through the Single Open Call
The Scottish Government Cladding Remediation Programme is providing support to the 32 eligible buildings to apply to the SOC and is working with the applicants at pace through the SOC process.
The Cladding Remediation Programme is aware that expressions of interest have been submitted in respect of some of the buildings included in the information gathering exercises being conducted with Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords, which is referred to in the recently published Cladding Remediation Programme Next Phase Plan of Action (published here: Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action - gov.scot), as well as for other buildings in their ownership. However, until the information submitted as part of that exercise has been quality assured and validated it is not possible to identify how many of those have had an expression of interest submitted via the Single Open Call.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to extend its Cladding Remediation Programme Single Open Call beyond 30 September 2025.
Answer
The Single Open Call (SOC) has been incredibly successful in identifying buildings at risk within the Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification, with over 600 buildings, as of 30 June 2025, being identified for review. As confirmed in the Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action published 7 August 2025, funding from Stage One of the SOC has doubled to £20 million. The additional £10m funding will ensure that all eligible EOIs received by 31 December 2025 will be able to move forward. We strongly encourage all building owners and their representatives to continue to submit their buildings to the SOC ahead of 31 December 2025.
As well as enhancing funding for Stage One, the Cladding Remediation Programme: Next Phase Plan of Action also confirms the launch of Stage 2 of the Single Open Call. This will allow owners, or their representatives, to seek Scottish Government support for any required mitigation and/or essential cladding remediation works identified through the funded Single Building Assessment at Stage One.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the purpose is of the personal guarantee that it has from Sanjeev Gupta, as stated in its response to Freedom of Information request 202500455118.
Answer
There are commitments with the Guarantee and Reimbursement Agreement that require a personal undertaking from Sanjeev Gupta.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the information provided in response to Freedom of Information request 202500455118, whether GFG Alliance secured finance following the "critical date" of 5 November 2024.
Answer
It is well known that GFG Alliance continues to progress its global refinancing despite challenging market conditions.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 July 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 30 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the information provided in response to Freedom of Information request 202500455118, whether it has received the evidence and further information that it required from GFG Alliance on its global refinancing, and, if not, when it anticipates that it will receive this evidence and information.
Answer
The Scottish Government engages with the GFG Alliance at group level and local level on a regular basis to remain informed on the progress of their ongoing refinancing.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 11 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W- 38271 by Alasdair Allan on 12 June 2025, and in light of the commitment in its 2025-26 Programme for Government to simplify the Home Energy Scotland application process, when it expects the detailed analysis of average application and claim processing timescales relating to the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme to be published, and whether it plans to set a target date for publication of such analysis.
Answer
It is expected that data relating to the average application and claim processing timescales for the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme will be published later this calendar year.
No specific target date is currently set for the publication of this data.
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32419 by Fiona Hyslop on 17 December 2024, when it plans to publish an updated Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan.
Answer
An update to the Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan is currently underway and is planned to be published later this year.