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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-12687

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 12 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many dwellings have an unoccupied exemption from council tax, broken down by the exemptions provided for by Schedule 1 of the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Scotland Order 1997, as amended.

Question reference: S6W-12688

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) repossessed and (b) empty dwellings have an unoccupied exemption from council tax, and how many have had that exemption for (i) six months or more, (ii) 12 months or more and (iii) two years or more.

Question reference: S6W-12689

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many repossessed dwellings have received an exemption from council tax in each month since May 2016.

Question reference: S6T-01023

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 December 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that local government directors of finance have written to the finance secretary regarding an unprecedented £1 billion budget gap, and of COSLA stating that the current spending plans will lead to job losses.

Question reference: S6W-12633

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties have been (a) entered on and (b) deleted from the valuation roll in accordance with the Council Tax (Dwellings and Part Residential Subjects) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 since the regulations came into force, broken down by (i) assessor and (ii) local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not hold information regarding the reason(s) for the addition of a property to, or removal from, the Valuation Roll. The valuation of all non-domestic properties is a matter for the Scottish Assessors, who are independent of central and local government.

To note in addition, as there are more than 70 days left until the end of the financial year, properties which have not yet met the criteria set out in the Council Tax (Dwellings and Part Residential Subjects) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 may still do so before the end of the financial year.

Question reference: S6W-12420

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 5 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information is has on how many people are in receipt of (a) Adult Disability Payment or (b) Personal Independence Payments in Scotland as a result of COVID-19 or Long COVID.

Due to Adult Disability Payment being in the early stages of delivery, we have not commenced publication of statistics relating to clients’ specific disabilities or conditions. This information will be included in future statistical publications.

As of July 2022, the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment in Scotland for which COVID-19 or Long COVID is recorded as the client’s primary disability or condition was 307.

Question reference: S6W-12311

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government in which year each building in the high rise inventory was (a) constructed or (b) upgraded with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM), also broken down by ACM category.

Question reference: S6W-11958

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the £6 million of reduced Buildings Standards expenditure identified on page 23 of the Emergency Budget Review was originally assigned to.

The budget allocated to the Cladding Remediation programme is £400 million in total, this includes the £6 million identified in the Emergency Budget Review. The focus of funding in this financial year has been on expanding our pilot towards 100 surveys, surveys cost less than remediation but are a key commitment and an essential step before remediation work can start. There has been no impact on projects or on the overall budget.

Question reference: S6W-12292

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many proposals for projects to make use of the £50 million fund for bringing homes back into use it has received; for how long the fund will remain open for applications, and from which local authorities it has received proposals.

The Scottish Government £50m Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund was launched on 22 September 2022, and to date has received 21 enquiries from a mix of Council's and Registered Social Landlords. In terms of full applications submitted, four proposals have now come forward to the Fund, with others expected to follow in due course.

There is no formal closing date for the Fund, we are prioritising applications which deliver completed homes by 31 March 2023. Projects with homes completed in 2023/24 will be considered by exception.

In terms of the local authority areas where Scottish Government has received full proposals from, these are as follows:

Aberdeen City Council has been awarded up to £6.150m for up to 500 void properties on 28 October 2022.

North Ayrshire Council has been awarded up to £0.486m for up to 30 void properties on 6 October 2022.

Glasgow City Council - two applications from housing associations based within the Glasgow City Council area have also been received (with due diligence work currently progressing).

This does not include a pilot project, where we awarded £5m to North Lanarkshire Council for the refurbishment of up to 200 homes on 6 July 2022.

Question reference: S6W-11963

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the value was of its homebuyer support investments at the point of transaction for those investments that it still holds an equity stake, and what the current estimated value is of those equity stakes, broken down by scheme.

The value of the shared equity investment stakes is revalued annually using the Nationwide House Price index for Scotland. The following table shows the original capital invested together with the current valuation.

	Open Market Shared Equity/New Supply Shared Equity £m	Help to Buy £m	First Home Fund £m	Total £m
Capital invested at 31 March 2022	523.5	431.1	260.1	1,215.0
Revaluation at 31 March 2022	96.7	90.5	20.1	207.4
Current Estimated Value of Equity Investments	620.2	521.6	280.2	1422.4

Sept 2016	Sept 2017	Sept 2018	Sept 2019	Sept 2020	Sept 2021	Sept 2022
495	430	384	433	245	160	295

Not known	7
1950	24
1960	351
1970	138
1980	9
1990	8
2000	206
2010	35
2020	1