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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-07611

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 March 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to strengthen the landlord registration scheme in order to identify the beneficiaries of private rented sector properties, including owners who are registered in tax havens.

There are currently no plans to use landlord registration to identify beneficiaries of private rented sector properties. The purpose of landlord registration is to ensure the owner is a fit and proper person to let houses and that the properties meet certain safety requirements. We are, however, looking to review this system and identify opportunities for strengthening the registration regime, and would encourage respondents to our New Deal for Tenants consultation to highlight examples of how that strengthening might be done.

Question reference: S6W-07370

Asked by: Karen Adam, MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the number of people aged 25 to 64 who have been educated at tertiary level in Scotland, and how this compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

The OECD provides data on the percentages of populations with tertiary education in OECD countries. Latest data for 2020 show the percentage of the 25-64 year old population in Scotland with tertiary level education is 55.7%. This compares to 43.4% for Wales and 49.4% for the UK as a whole. Data for England on its own is not available though it is for the English Regions, which is set out in the following table.

Percentage of 25-64 year olds with tertiary level education, 2020

Regions of England	%
North East England	38.1
North West England	44.0
Yorkshire and The Humber	41.4
East Midlands	43.8
West Midlands	43.1
East of England	44.6
Greater London	68.4
South East England	51.8
South West England	47.2
Source: OECD Statistics, 2020

https://stats.oecd.org/

Of the regions of England, only Greater London has a higher proportion of their 25-64 year old population educated with tertiary level education than Scotland does.

OECD defines tertiary education as comprising International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) levels 5 (short-cycle tertiary education), 6 (Bachelor’s or equivalent level), 7 (Master’s or equivalent level) and 8 (Doctoral or equivalent level).

Question reference: S6W-07432

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has provided to Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd since January 2020 on applying the Fair Work Framework to the vessel procurement process for Islay.

Question reference: S6W-07427

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06722 by Lorna Slater on 7 March 2022, what its position is on whether creating an incentive for producers to switch from using plastic packaging to using glass packaging would be a negative outcome.

Question reference: S6W-07446

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce an independent residential park evaluation and grading system to prevent park owners from rating their own sites.

Question reference: S6W-07445

Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce legislation establishing an arbitration service at local authority level for residential park owners.

Question reference: S6W-07408

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ash Regan on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is taking action to reduce pressures on family courts by supporting other forms of dispute resolution.

The Scottish Government believes that where appropriate family cases should be resolved outwith court. A number of forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are available in family cases, including mediation, arbitration, collaborative law and family group decision making.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Relationships Scotland who provide a number of services, including family mediation.

The cost of family mediation may be funded through the Scottish Legal Aid Fund, where a person who is in receipt of legal aid is referred by a court.

Section 23(1) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 requires the Scottish Ministers to set up a scheme to make assistance available so that individuals can meet the costs of alternative dispute resolution procedures in certain cases such as those dealing with contact and residence for children.

Work has progressed in this area, but the provision will take time to implement. Two reports on the Scottish Ministers’ progress between 1 October 2020 and 31 October 2021 on implementing provisions in the 2020 Act on ADR have been published:

Question reference: S6W-07430

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd’s announcement on 11 March 2022, whether it will make an assessment of workers’ rights at Cemre Marin Endustri’s shipyard in Altinova, Turkey, during the 10-day standstill period.

Question reference: S6W-07362

Asked by: Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the most recent data for the number of affordable homes per head of the population in Scotland, and how this compares with (a) England and (b) Wales.

Across the 4 year period to 2020-21, Scotland has seen an annual average of 15.6 affordable homes delivered per 10,000 population. This is 62% more than the 9.6 homes per 10,000 in England, and 71% more than the 9.1 homes per 10,000 in Wales. Over the same time frame the annual supply of social rented housing per head of population in Scotland has averaged 10.8 homes per 10,000 population, over nine times the 1.1 homes per 10,000 population in England.

Comparator figures for the current financial year 2021-22 are not available yet. The Scottish figures for 2021-22 will be published in June this year but the other UK financial year figures might not be published until later in the year, and as some of these are financial year rather than quarterly, it is not possible to calculate within-year comparisons.

Question reference: S6W-07429

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 March 2022
Current Status: Answered by Lorna Slater on 31 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-06722 by Lorna Slater on 7 March 2022, whether it has considered any international evidence in relation to the potential impact of the inclusion of glass in a Deposit Return Scheme on the willingness of producers to switch from using glass packaging to using aluminium or plastic packaging.

We have drawn extensively on international evidence in the design for our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Where there has been a movement away from glass in other countries, this is usually attributable to a range of factors e.g. a movement towards increased use of refillables. Evidence suggests that where product or format switching has occurred in other countries with DRS, it is rare that this can only be attributed to DRS. As the answer to question S6W-06722 sets out, we do not consider that there will be extensive switching away from glass due to our DRS.