Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-27361

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) police officers of all ranks and (b) civilian staff (i) were offered and (ii) accepted the option of compulsory redundancy following the reported announcement of police station closures in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Question reference: S6W-27360

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 23 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many police officers (a) were offered and (b) accepted voluntary redundancy following the reported announcement of station closures in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Question reference: S6O-03439

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the impact of the reported reduction in primary school music teacher numbers will be on children and young people.

Question reference: S6W-26820

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 May 2024

To ask to the Scottish Government what incentives there will be for landlords to comply with the new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regulations, in light of the reported current lack of enforcement by local authorities.

The Scottish Government is not proposing any change in requirements that landlords will have to comply with as part of proposed amendments to EPC regulations, and therefore is not aware of the need for any incentives to do so. It will remain a legal requirement for landlords advertising a property for rental to ensure that there is a valid EPC.

We have proposed reducing the validity period from 10 years to 5 years and so in these circumstances a landlord may have to update their EPC more frequently. As set out in our consultation on EPC reform in 2023, this will ensure the EPC provides a more up-to-date assessment for current and prospective tenants of a property.

As part of the wider reform of EPCs in Scotland, we are currently reviewing the EPC operational framework in Scotland. This includes a review of the current enforcement mechanisms in place.

The Scottish Government is currently considering responses to the consultation and as set out in our response to S6W-26036 we intend to publish our response to the EPC reform and Heat in Buildings Bill consultations at the same point later this year.

Question reference: S6W-26821

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 8 May 2024

To ask to the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards reviewing the operational arrangements of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), as committed to in its consultation on reforms to EPCs.

As set out in the Scottish Government’s consultation on the reform of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), we are now undertaking a full review of the operational arrangements for how the production of EPCs is overseen, and how the legislation is enforced in the property market. We are engaging with a wide-range of impacted stakeholders as part of this review process, and the findings of this review will inform our final decision on our approach to EPC reform.

Question reference: S6W-27005

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people who applied for a free personal care package died before they received one in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of people who have applied for a free personal care package, but have died before receiving it.

It is the local authority’s responsibility to assess each person and consider whether their needs call for the provision of social care services. Local authorities set their eligibility threshold based on local guidance, and it may not be consistent across local authorities. However, those at critical or substantial risk are more likely to receive them sooner, than those who are assessed as moderate or low risk.

Question reference: S6W-27012

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has undertaken, or plans to undertake, into the number of people who are "couch surfing" in each local authority area.

The Scottish Government collects information on the property type that the main applicant making a homelessness application to a local authority became homeless from. This includes a category for those who have been ‘long-term sofa surfing’. This is defined as where an applicant has been moving between homes for a period of six months or more. Where only one or two different homes have been used for most of the period, another appropriate property type should be selected e.g. friends or relatives.

This data is collected from all local authorities as part of the homelessness application (HL1) data collection. Annual totals of long-term sofa surfing, reported by applicant households, are published in the data tables accompanying the main publication Supporting documents - Homelessness in Scotland: 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Data is not gathered for anyone with experience of sofa surfing who does not make a homelessness application to a local authority in Scotland and for this reason the statistics do not necessarily cover the entire homeless population. Those people who are experiencing homelessness but who do not appear in official statistics are often referred to as ‘hidden’.

It is not currently possible to estimate the scale of hidden homelessness in Scotland because of known complexities in reaching this population group. We are collaborating with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) researchers who are carrying out research which has potential to improve data collection in Scotland and across the UK on hidden homelessness, information available at "Hidden" homelessness in the UK: evidence review - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) .

Question reference: S6W-27011

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has undertaken, or plans to undertake, into the number of people who are rough sleeping in cars in each local authority area.

The Scottish Government collects information on whether any member of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority slept rough:

(a) during the three months preceding and b) the night before the application.

This data is collected from all local authorities as part of the homelessness application (HL1) data collection. Annual totals of rough sleeping reported by applicant households, broken down by local authority, are published in the main tables supporting the main annual publication, available at Supporting documents - Homelessness in Scotland: 2022-23 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The data collection defines rough sleeping as any member of the applicant household who has slept outside, in the open air (such as on the streets, or in doorways, parks or bus shelters) or slept in a building or other place not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations etc.). As households making an application for homelessness assistance are not specifically asked to define what form of rough sleeping they experienced, no specific figures relating to numbers of people rough sleeping in cars are available.

Data is not gathered for any household or individual rough sleeping who does not make a homelessness application to a local authority in Scotland and for this reason the statistics do not necessarily cover the entire homeless population. Those people who are experiencing homelessness but who do not appear in official statistics are often referred to as ‘hidden’.

It is not currently possible to estimate the scale of hidden homelessness in Scotland because of known complexities in reaching this population group. We are collaborating with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) researchers who are carrying out research which has potential to improve data collection in Scotland and across the UK on hidden homelessness, information available at "Hidden" homelessness in the UK: evidence review - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Question reference: S6W-27015

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many houses for (a) nurses, (b) GPs and (c) police officers are owned by public services.

Question reference: S6W-27010

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many homes have been secured for key workers as a result of the £25 million funding scheme, and how much has been spent from the fund to date.

To date, four affordable homes were approved in Orkney under the demand-led Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund with no spend drawn down to date. We are currently working with local authorities to progress a number of proposals to support the delivery of more affordable homes for key workers through the fund. We are engaging closely with local authorities and others to promote the use of the fund and to bring forward proposals where there is an identified requirement.

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