- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to continue funding the Ending Homelessness Together action plan, and, if it is the case that it does not, what support it will provide to organisations to help prevent homelessness.
Answer
Scotland’s long term strategy for ending homelessness is delivered in partnership with local government, third sector organisations and the wider homelessness sector in Scotland. It requires commitment and investment by all partners on the actions each takes with the aim of ending homelessness.
Our £ 100 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund was established to transform the homelessness system between 2018 and the end of this parliamentary term. On top of funding provided through the local government settlement, we are investing £35 million in 2024-25 in specific action to end homelessness and reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation. As local authorities are our key partner for delivering our homelessness strategy, the majority of this funding will be allocated to councils.
In addition to this, the Ending Homelessness Together Fund resources a range of other activity, including the opening of Rapid Rehousing Welcome Centres each winter, which provides people at risk of rough sleeping with a warm, safe space and access to trauma-informed services to help them move onto more settled accommodation. It also provides third sector organisations with resource for administration by frontline and street outreach workers to support the immediate needs of people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness and/or rough sleeping.
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken to consider the number of (a) affordable, (b) social and (c) private homes that could be delivered on Scottish Government land should the estate be rationalised.
Answer
No analysis has been carried out in respect of housing or other specific future land uses for unquantifiable potential surplus land and estate disposals. The Scottish Government is required by the Scottish Public Finance Manual to demonstrate best value. In doing so, it continually keeps its estate requirements under review to ensure that staff have the right places to work delivering services to the people of Scotland. Where any Scottish Government owned land or estate is released all options for demonstrating best value in doing so are considered on a case-by case basis.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-23098 by Mairi McAllan on 8 December 2023, how many awards of each type of grant have been issued by each local authority to date.
Answer
Local Authority | Grant Type | No. of Applications approved by Local Authority |
Angus | Community Recovery Grant (£1500) | 175 |
Business Recovery Grant (£3000) | 31 |
Dundee | Community Recovery Grant (£1500) | 56 |
Business Recovery Grant (£3000) | 4 |
Aberdeenshire | Community Recovery Grant (£1500) | 5 |
Business Recovery Grant (£3000) | 6 |
Perth and Kinross | Community Recovery Grant (£1500) | 9 |
Business Recovery Grant (£3000) | 0 |
The promotion and distribution of the Recovery Grants is the responsibility of the Local Authorities.
Local authorities are still working to promote these grants and are providing Scottish Government with regular updates.
The above figures were provided by the Local Authorities to Scottish Government (8 January 2024).
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of any projects funded through the Recycling Improvement Fund to date showing the (a) expected tonnage increase in recycled material and (b) funding allocated to each project.
Answer
The following table provides a breakdown of the projected tonnage and funding allocated to Recycling Improvement Fund projects for which tonnage increase is a direct impact. It should be noted that this list does not include all funded projects as recycling tonnage increase is not a direct impact for some projects, such as investments in vehicle technology to help local authorities to identify the most efficient collection routes and to capture data to improve service management and communication with residents.
Local Authority | Projected tonnage increase (tonnes per year) | Funding allocated |
Aberdeenshire | 4623 | £3,540,415 |
East Lothian | 3461 | £2,746,566 |
Fife | 2733 | £470,000 |
Highland | 473 | £205,965 |
Edinburgh | 9270 | £8,491,499 |
West Lothian | 1124 | £3,953,034 |
North Ayrshire | 220 | £74,535 |
Midlothian | 96 | £132,085 |
South Ayrshire | 10 | £89,535 |
Aberdeen City | 25 | £34,959 |
Aberdeen City | 1,727 | £933,668 |
Stirling | 568 | £234,035 |
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar | 91 | £840,138 |
Perth & Kinross | 1,250 | £2,532,548 |
Renfrewshire | 1,845 | £374,342 |
Glasgow | 10,139 | £21,202,000 |
Argyll & Bute | 416 | £891,945 |
Highland | 5,728 | £6,550,302 |
Clackmannanshire | 931 | £583,890 |
North Lanarkshire | 340 | £276,840 |
South Ayrshire | 122 | £166,090 |
Angus | 2,409 | £2,843,472 |
Midlothian | 1,537 | £2,322,042 |
East Ayrshire | 155 | £139,843 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 12.45 | £70,759 |
Edinburgh City | 10 | £19,000 |
Fife | 50 | £30,675 |
Falkirk | 390 | £149,207 |
Orkney | 4.96 | £4,875 |
Aberdeenshire | 67 | £37,095 |
South Lanarkshire | 258 | £150,000 |
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many people who applied for a free personal care package have not received one in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of people who have applied for free personal care packages but have not received it.
However, numbers of people who have received a personal care package are published as part of the latest statistical release on Free Personal and Nursing Care (2022-23) and are broken down by local authority area here: Supporting documents - Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
- Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the procurement process for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, what assessment it has made of the estimated cost difference to it between the direct award of a contract and a competitive tendering process.
Answer
No decision on the procurement route for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme has been taken as work on the Outline Business Case is ongoing. Ministers will update the Scottish Parliament once this work is complete and a decision has been taken.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it requested that any COVID-19-related
funding be returned to it by NHS boards in the financial year 2022-23, and, if
so, how much, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The Scottish Government did not request that any Covid-19-related funding be returned by Health Boards to Scottish Government in the financial year 2022-23. All funding available across the Health and Social Care Sector was used to support the Covid-19 efforts and move Covid-19 funding to business as usual to support the recovery from the pandemic.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take, beyond rent adjudication, to protect tenants in the period between the lifting of the rent cap on 1 April 2024 and the introduction of a national system of rent controls.
Answer
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 sets out that upon the ending of the emergency rent cap, we will introduce temporary measures to support an appropriate transition in order to prevent tenants potentially facing unmanageable rent increases from 1 April 2024.
Over and above this, it is important to bear in mind that prior to the introduction of the emergency measures, private tenants in Scotland already benefitted from some of the strongest protections in the UK. This included landlords only being able to increase rents once in a 12 month period, and the requirement that tenants’ be provided with at least three months’ advance notice of that increase, giving them time to prepare and make necessary arrangements where appropriate.
It is vitally important that tenants are made aware of both the temporary transitional measures that will be put in place, and existing rights afforded to them by the Private Residential Tenancy. Therefore, a key part of our work in advance of the emergency Act coming to an end, will be to raise awareness of those rights with private tenants as we support a transition away from the temporary rent cap and look towards the introduction of long-term rent control via the next Housing Bill.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 9 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether sportscotland continues to allocate any funding to support the development of a tennis centre at Park of Keir.
Answer
sport scotland’s provisional allocation of up to £5m for the development of a potential tennis facility at Park of Keir remains in place.
However, at this stage, a full application for a tennis facility at Park of Keir has not been received. Any decision on whether to make a capital award and the appropriate level of any award will only be taken on completion of a full application (as outlined in response to S6W-05651 on 20 January 2022).
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 .
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 9 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what objectives it set for any funding that it provided to Hayfield Limited in 2022.
Answer
The Scottish Government did not provide any funding to Hayfield Limited in 2022.