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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-13966

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Near Me service.

Question reference: S6W-13980

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to enable patients to have more control over their health and care information since publishing its Digital Health and Care Strategy in October 2021.

The Digital Health and Care Strategy was further reinforced in November 2022 with the publication of the Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan . In addition, a Data Strategy for health and care is due to be published early this year, which was consulted on extensively throughout 2022. This included public consultation, including in relation to patients' use of their own health and care information.

One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. Data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.

Question reference: S6W-14037

Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) the UK Government and (a) other devolved governments regarding the (i) marketing, (ii) availability (including flavouring) and (iii) packaging of vaping and e-cigarette products.

Question reference: S6W-14252

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government on which dates the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has visited police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons in the North East Scotland region since his appointment in May 2021, and whether it will provide specific details of each visit.

Question reference: S6W-14174

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many dash camera systems on Police Scotland vehicles have been reported as either not working, broken, corrupted or defective in each year since 2013, and what the average time taken to replace or repair broken dash camera systems is.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as responsibility for the maintenance of Police vehicles sits with the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable. Police Scotland has confirmed that they hold a stock of replacement dash cameras which can be fitted to their vehicles should one develop a fault; dependant on the locality of the vehicle, type of equipment fitted and the type of fault, this can be done on the same day.

I have asked Police Scotland to write to the member with this information.

Question reference: S6W-14199

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Climate Change Committee’s assessment in its Progress in reducing emissions in Scotland – 2022 Report to Parliament that "Agroforestry and hedgerows offer the opportunity to increase carbon stocks on farms while allowing agricultural production to continue", and whether it will commit to producing (a) targets and (b) delivery reports for agroforestry and hedgerows.

We agree that agroforestry and hedgerows can be incorporated throughout agriculturally productive land, offering carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits. We support this through grants and the initiatives such as the Integrating Trees Network. The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) is the Scottish Government’s mechanism for providing targeted support to land managers to undertake specific actions on environmental management. Inclusive of contracts issued through the 2022 round of AECS, to date the scheme will have committed over £14.5 million to support the planting or replanting of over 678,000 metres of hedgerows.

In the Climate Change Plan update (CCPu), we committed to ambitious targets for tree planting, rising to 18,000 hectares per year by 2024-25. A range of different types of tree planting, including agroforestry and farm woodlands, contribute to this target which has reporting arrangements in place through the CCPu.

We are aiming to introduce a Natural Environment Bill in year three of this parliamentary session which will contain provisions to put in place statutory targets for nature restoration and a framework for setting, monitoring, enforcing and reporting on those targets.

Question reference: S6W-14186

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the current waiting time is for a power of attorney application being processed by the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland.

As at 23 January 2023, the Office of the Public Guardian are processing the following Power of Attorney applications:

Electronic (EPOAR) submissions received on 25 May 2022
Postal submissions received around 10 June 22

An expedited service is available for Power of Attorney applications that are to be processed urgently. Urgent applications will usually be processed within five working days.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13059 on 9 January 2023. 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

Question reference: S6W-14189

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many households do not have central heating, broken down by local authority area.

Data from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) provides estimates of the number and percentage of households with no central heating at a local authority level by averaging three years of data. The most recently available local authority data is for the 2017-19 period and is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Number and percentage of households with no central heating by local authority, 2017-2019.

Local Authority	No Central Heating ‎ (Number)	No Central Heating ‎ (Percentage)
Aberdeen City	1,000	1%
Aberdeenshire	2,000	2%
Angus	1,000	2%
Argyll and Bute	2,000	4%
Clackmannanshire	[c]	[c]
Dumfries and Galloway	2,000	3%
Dundee City	3,000	5%
East Ayrshire	[z]	[z]
East Dunbartonshire	[c]	[c]
East Lothian	1,000	2%
East Renfrewshire	[c]	[c]
City of Edinburgh	9,000	3%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	1,000	6%
Falkirk	2,000	2%
Fife	1,000	1%
Glasgow City	7,000	2%
Highland	4,000	4%
Inverclyde	[c]	[c]
Midlothian		1%
Moray	1,000	2%
North Ayrshire	1,000	2%
North Lanarkshire	[c]	[c]
Orkney Islands		2%
Perth and Kinross	1,000	1%
Renfrewshire	2,000	2%
Scottish Borders	2,000	4%
Shetland Islands		1%
South Ayrshire	[c]	[c]
South Lanarkshire	2,000	2%
Stirling	1,000	2%
West Dunbartonshire	[c]	[c]
West Lothian	[c]	[c]
Scotland	49,000	2%

Notes

1. Figures are based on a three-year average from the Scottish House Condition Survey 2017- 2019.

2. All numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000 and percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

3. The following symbols are used in this analysis: [c] indicates base sample too small to report (below 30 cases) or estimate representing 2 or fewer sampled households and [z] indicates no sample cases in this category.

It should be noted that at a Scotland level over the period 2017 to 2019, less than 2% or 49,000 of households were estimated to not have central heating in their homes. Given this low prevalence, robust estimates from the SHCS are not available for some Local Authority areas.

Data on homes with full central heating is published in the Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 Data Tables . These tables show that 96% of homes in Scotland had full central heating. A further 2% had no central heating (as shown in Table 1) and 2% had partial central heating. Generally a home is considered to have partial central heating if only rooms representing up to 50% of the floor area of the dwelling are heated from the main heating system.

The latest available local authority data is for the 2017-2019 period, as due to Covid-19, the fieldwork for the 2020 SHCS was suspended in March 2020 and did not resume. The methodology used in the 2021 SHCS was also impacted by Covid-19, with more details to be published in May 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13935

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many psychiatrists are currently in specialist training to work with children and young people.

Question reference: S6W-13914

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any plans it has to change the value of the rent cap in relation to private sector properties beyond 31 March 2023.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 is a key part of the Scottish Government’s help for tenants facing the impact of the cost crisis. The Act introduced a temporary rent cap and moratorium on the enforcement of evictions, along with increased damages for unlawful evictions – until at least 31 March 2023.

The Scottish Government has made clear it will retain and use the provisions in the Act only where they remain necessary and proportionate in connection with the cost of living crisis. This is demonstrated in regulations laid before the Parliament on 19 January which:

expire the rent cap provisions for the social sector on 26 February, so that it allows landlords to implement changes from the end of March; and also
suspend the rent cap provision for purpose-built student accommodation, recognising that new tenancies in academic year 2023-24 would not be covered by the Act as it stands in any case.

I also announced on that date - in light of the differences in how the social and private rented sectors operate and the clear economic evidence demonstrating the continued pressure being placed on private rented households due to the ongoing cost crisis - that the Scottish Government will bring forward regulations to extend the remaining provisions in Part 1 of the Act for a further 6 months to 30 September 2023, provided it remains necessary and proportionate.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Amendment of Expiry Dates and Rent Cap Modification) Regulations 2023 were laid on 27 January 2023 and, subject to the approval of Parliament, will mean that the rent cap for the private rented sector will continue, along with the moratorium on enforcing evictions - which will continue to apply across all sectors.

In order to ensure the provisions are proportionate, the Act gives power to vary the level of the rent cap. And whilst the focus of the emergency measures continues to be on protecting tenants, the Scottish Government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the cost crisis may also be experienced by some landlords.

The Scottish Government is of the view that it would be proportionate to raise the rent cap in the private rented sector to allow within-tenancy rent increases of up to 3%. Alternatively, landlords will continue to be able to apply for an additional rent increase based on an increase in prescribed property costs within a defined period and the maximum increase on this basis will be raised to 6% of overall rent in these specific and limited circumstances. The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Amendment of Expiry Dates and Rent Cap Modification) Regulations 2023 reflect this proposal.