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Through the work of the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) which I chair the Scottish Government is keen to see renewed focus on construction quality, including regulatory compliance, which will improve life-cycle value to clients and productivity of the industry.

The CLF meets bi-monthly with trade union, construction industry and government representatives collaborating on driving progress on the Construction Recovery Plan, which contains a range of practical actions to support the sector. As part of the transformation sub group of the CLF, work is ongoing on an action to gather and disseminate lessons from construction quality improvement initiatives and issue guidance on maintaining focus on construction quality and regulatory compliance during economic downturn. Another action is to establish the infrastructure to take forward and accelerate the work of the Construction Quality Improvement Collaborative.

We are working with the UK Government to explore how the proposed New Homes Ombudsman scheme provided for in the UK Building Safety Bill could operate in Scotland. We will continue this engagement to try to achieve a scheme that works for Scotland and respects the devolution settlement to ensure that buyers can purchase new-build homes with confidence and be assured that any problems relating to quality will be resolved effectively and efficiently.

In relation to the Building Standards system and to improve compliance with the building regulations, a consultation on proposals on the introduction of a new Compliance Plan Manager role, the definition of high risk buildings and penalties and enforcement was issued on 11 November 2021 and closed on 9 February 2022. Raised standards in this respect would be to ensure buildings meet the minimum building regulatory standard.

Further advice can be obtained from consumeradvice.scot which is a free consumer helpline funded by the Scottish Government.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate. The precise details regarding the number of spaces where this approach has been used to manage specific ventilation issues is not held by the Scottish Government.

There is no such proposal.

As was made clear in the letter to the Committee, an undercut of a door was only one element of the example set of remedial measures used to illustrate the appropriate level of overall additional funding that might be needed to tackle problematic spaces. The other elements that formed part of the example were temporary use of an air cleaning device and installation of small mechanical ventilation units.

Local authorities are fully aware that they should undertake any remedial work in line with Scottish Government guidance on ventilation and expert input.

Yes, every learning, teaching and play space in Scotland was assessed by local authorities last term.

However, we and our local authority partners recognise the importance of continuing this work and guidance has been updated to advise that every learning, teaching and play space should be monitored at least one full day every week.

A discount rate of 3.5% over a 25-year period was used to calculate the Net Present Value for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is now closed to new applications and there will be no further awareness raising of the loan. However, tenants can still seek support for pandemic related rent arrears through the Tenant Grant Fund, which is non-repayable and being delivered through local authorities to prevent homelessness.

The number of households who have received assistance to purchase under the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme can be found in the attached Affordable Housing Supply Programme out-turn reports and data.

More homes: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government does not record if homes are new build or existing homes.

There is approximately 400MW of solar PV operational in Scotland, equating to 3% of total operational capacity.

As of 2020, there are at least 60,000 domestic level solar PV installations in Scotland with a capacity of just over 200MW, and around 8000 solar thermal installations.

Of the remaining operational Solar PV, approximately 12,000 of these are community and locally owned PV installations. With around 3500 community and locally owned solar thermal projects, these are typically found across housing associations, public sector, communities and other charitable organisations.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data on commercial or ground mounted only solar PV schemes.

There is approximately 350 MW of solar capacity in pipeline in Scotland, including 32MW in planning, 44MW under construction and 281 awaiting construction, representing 2.25% of the overall renewables pipeline in Scotland. This will take the total capacity of both installed and pipeline of solar in Scotland to in the region of 750MW.

Discussions are ongoing regarding the proposed distribution of the Financial Transactions available for 2022-23. We plan to continue to support the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, but allocations have not yet been agreed for the full use of these funds.

Tourism, planning and housing officials have worked closely together on the development of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 and Town Country Planning (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. The policy area taking the lead will depend on the specifics of each case.

However, generally the short-term lets policy team within the Directorate for Housing and Social Justice are responsible for matters relating to the short-term lets licensing scheme and control area regulations, which fall within my portfolio remit.

The overall responsibility for tourism businesses and tourism strategy remains with the tourism policy team within the Directorate for Economic Development, which fall within the remit of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy.