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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-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-14124

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government which fire stations are currently recorded as (a) lacking sufficient showering or toilet facilities, (b) lacking basic bathroom facilities, (c) lacking shower facilities, (d) lacking drying facilities, (e) lacking a water supply, (f) being in “poor or bad condition” and (g) held up at least in part by internal scaffolding, broken down by local authority area.

The facilities in place at the 357 fire stations in Scotland are an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. There are 14 stations that have been identified with defective roofing material requiring remedial action that are located in Crewe, Cumbernauld, Dalkeith, Galashiels, Hawick, Helensburgh, Huntly, Liberton, Livingston, Marionville, Milngavie, Portree, Stewarton and Tranent.

It is worth noting that the listed stations above were inherited legacy buildings which contribute to the Services capital backlog investment requirement.

Question reference: S6W-14198

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 when the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board will report on its findings and proposals.

Question reference: S6W-14056

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any new staff will be recruited in 2023 to support the delivery of the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and, if so, at what grades, and in what numbers.

Question reference: S6W-13982

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 provide 24-hour digital access to health and social care services through asynchronous communication with patients.

We are currently developing a variety of asynchronous communication pathways across health and care in Scotland. Digital health and care developments provide a form of asynchronous communication including the Remote Health Pathways Programme (including the use of Connect Me), My Diabetes My Way, Renal Patient View, Dynamic Scot and vCreate Neuro. Email can also be used in a range of different ways to facilitate asynchronous communication with patients and, depending on local priorities and circumstances, individual Health Boards and local providers of health services continue to implement asynchronous appointments.

The forthcoming Digital Front Door will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online. Over time people will be able to self-manage their conditions and communicate with their health and care providers through the application.

Question reference: S6W-13941

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has ceased publication of monthly reports on its expenditure over £25,000, since the last publication date of December 2021.

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-14273

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the recording and accuracy of data within the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in relation to warrants for entry.

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-14077

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13385 by Keith Brown on 9 January 2023, for what reasons it does not hold the requested information and what consideration it has given to doing so.

It is for Police Scotland to collect and hold relevant information on their workforce and it would be for them to respond to any requests for information in relation to serving Police Officers with a criminal record. You may wish to view Police Scotland’s web site in regards to the provision of information by that organisation, link attached https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/ .