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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-10463

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many proposed (a) homes and (b) projects included in affordable housing supply programme grant applications that it has received have been (i) below and (ii) above benchmark, also broken down by baseline benchmark type, in each month since the new benchmarks were set.

Question reference: S6W-10468

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it recycles the funding received through sales and tranching up of first-time buyer and Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) support schemes, and what total amount of funding it has recycled in each year since 2010.

Since 2010-11 the Scottish Government has recycled all receipts raised from shared equity sales.

Recycled receipts in each year are as shown in the following table.

	Open Market Shared Equity £m	New Supply Shared Equity £m	Help to Buy £m	First Home Fund £m	Total £m
2010-11	1.969	-	-	-	-
2011-12	0.956	0.354	-	-	1.310
2012-13	1.367	1.037	-	-	2.405
2013-14	3.007	1.981	-	-	4.989
2014-15	6.271	5.125	0.171	-	11.567
2015-16	8.151	6.316	1.100	-	15.567
2016-17	9.979	9.860	6.608	-	26.447
2017-18	17.887	8.431	12.464	-	38.782
2018-19	22.236	9.921	22.817	-	54.974
2019-20	23.798	10.817	35.063	-	69.679
2020-21	23.253	9.197	37.519	0.062	70.032
2021-22	31.714	12.678	48.997	3.003	96.392

Question reference: S6W-10469

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) gains and (b) losses it has made on its equity shares through the (i) sales and (ii) tranching up of properties purchased through first-time buyer and Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) support schemes in each year since 2010, broken down by each scheme.

We do not hold information centrally on whether income from shared equity investments relates to tranching up or open market sales.

Providing the information requested prior to 2017 could only be answered at disproportionate cost. Following a change to the way we recorded shared equity sales from 2017-18 we are able to provide the information requested in the following table.

	Open Market Shared Equity £m	New Supply Shared Equity £m	Help to Buy £m	First Home Fund £m	Total £m
2017-18	1.069	0.416	0.659	-	2.144
2018-19	2.239	0.317	1.476	-	4.032
2019-20	4.060	0.412	2.453	-	6.926
2020-21	4.142	0.494	3.598	0.014	8.248
2021-22	6.812	1.035	7.355	0.277	15.479

Question reference: S6W-10769

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to bring forward Compulsory Rental Orders for long-term vacant properties.

Question reference: S6W-10687

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which indicators it currently uses for the housing and regeneration indicators, as set out in its housing and regeneration outcomes framework; on what date each indicator (a) was last updated and (b) is due to be updated, and what the status is of any work to update each indicator.

The Scottish Government published an update to the housing and regeneration outcomes indicators on 16 June 2020. The `Sources, Thresholds & Updates` tab of the master spreadsheet details dates that each indicator was last updated. This spreadsheet also shows each indicator that is used by the Scottish Government.

Work is underway to update indicators with the latest available data where available, and will be published before 9 November 2022. However, some data sources do not have available data for more recent years to allow for the associated indicators to be updated. This is for a number of reasons, including the impact from coronavirus and resulting restrictions, and other changes on data collection. Affected indicators will be detailed in the publication.

Question reference: S6W-10596

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many small and medium house builders involved in the affordable housing supply programme have become insolvent in the last year, and how many projects this has affected.

Question reference: S6W-10920

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many representatives of the mortgage lending industry it has met in 2022 to discuss the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property.

Scottish Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of the financial services sector, including lenders, to discuss a range of matters including measures to support households and businesses.

The Deputy First Minister met with the financial services sector (the quarterly Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FISGAD)) on 30 August 2022. Details of the membership of the Board can be found at https://www.gov.scot/groups/financial-services-growth-and-development-board/

Officials also regularly engage with UK Finance (representative body for the banking and Finance Industry). Details of UK Finance membership can be found at https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/

Attendees at such meetings vary according to representatives' availability.

Question reference: S6W-10686

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) unique households, (b) advice interactions, including advice provided to customers during telephone or email advice discussions and (c) low-income, potentially fuel-poor clients who were offered support Home Energy Scotland (i) has had capacity to support and (ii) has actually supported, in each year of its operation.

Please find data below for Home Energy Scotland advice interactions. Prior to 2013, fuel poverty was not a separate focus for advice services. Specific fuel poverty advice services figures are only available from 2013.

	2013-14	2013-14	2014-15	2014-15	2015-16	2015-16	2016-17	2016-17	2017-18	2017-18
	target	actual	target	actual	target	actual	target	actual	target	actual
Unique households	125,000	90,887	120,000	98,998	110,000	94,411	95,000	92,618	85000	93,962
Advice interactions	200,000	182,158	180,000	326,600	165,000	333,609	260,000	305,672	260,000	313,170
Low-income, potentially fuel poor clients offered support	55,000	49,404	55,000	45,932	55,000	43,148	55,000	33,322	35,000	31,598

	2018-19	2018-19	2019-20	2019-20	2020-21	2020-21	2021-22	2021-22	2022-23
	target	actual	target	actual	target	actual	target	actual	target
Unique households	87,500	89,018	87,500	92,681	77,000	90,468	120,000	114,392	132,000
Advice interactions	260,000	315,912	260,000	314,989	260,000	345,344	400,000	424,083	440,000
Low-income, potentially fuel poor clients offered support	35,000	30,920	35,000	38,737	35,000	46,369	36,000	42,092	44,000

Question reference: S6W-10597

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline.

We are not aware of any current difficulties affecting the immediate development pipeline related to insolvencies. We are unable to quantify the impact that the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline as for many projects until they are tendered we do not know who the house builder or construction company will be. Some local authorities and RSLs operate development framework agreements but we have not been made aware of any issues of insolvency affecting these frameworks. Scottish Government does not directly procure housing contracts. It is for Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities to procure construction delivery partners.

Question reference: S6W-10919

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of options that it discussed with representatives of the mortgage lending industry regarding the implications of the cost of living crisis for homeowners with mortgages on their property, and what the policy outcomes were of those discussions.

Oversight and regulation of mortgage lenders is a reserved matter, as a result the Scottish Government has no powers or authority to intervene in the operation of the mortgage market, nor control mortgage or general borrowing rates.

However, the Scottish Government is committed to using levers it has available to support households through the Cost Crisis. Scottish Ministers and officials regularly meet with representatives of the financial services sector, including lenders, to discuss a range of matters including measures to support households and businesses in Scotland and have committed to continued collaboration throughout the cost crisis to tackle the immediate challenges and address key underlying structural issues.