Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S5T-01840

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 October 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what resources it is allocating to address human trafficking and exploitation.

Question reference: S5W-25591

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support it will offer to local authorities when the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2017 is extended to cover all persons.

We recognise that there are some local authorities who currently rely on the use of bed and breakfast accommodation and we will work with these local authorities as we prepare to draft the legislation, and in the lead up to it coming into force, to help them overcome any barriers they face and ensure they do not breach the Order.

The Scottish Government’s 2019-20 Budget will provide local government with an additional £298.5 million resource funding for day to day services and an increase of £207.8 million capital funding in 2019-20. As well as this funding increase councils had the flexibility to increase council tax by up to 3 per cent in real terms. Taken together with councils’ actual council tax increases they will have access to an additional £602 million (5.7 per cent) in 2019-20 compared with 2018-19.

However, the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of the revenue funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Question reference: S5W-25590

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the outcome should be when a local authority breaches the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2017.

Breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order are not acceptable. The Scottish Housing Regulator considers and engages with local authorities about breaches of the Order as part of their annual risk assessment process. On top of that, I have written to all local authorities who have breached the Order earlier this year, and I and officials have met with each local authority, to understand and help them overcome the barriers they face and help ensure they do not continue to breach the Order.

Question reference: S5W-25584

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when funding to local authorities from the Crown Estate Scotland will be allocated.

Further to my announcement on 29 September 2019 on the new funding arrangements for coastal community benefit, the total amounts from net revenue generated from the Scottish Crown Estate marine assets out to 12 nautical miles in 2017-2018 have been allocated to individual coastal local authorities. These total approximately £7.2 million and the amounts allocated to each coastal local authority in 2019/2020 can be found at:

The total amounts available to each coastal local authority under the allocation in 2019-2020 are based on a distribution method agreed with COSLA.

Question reference: S5W-25583

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of how its Rapid Rehousing Fund has been allocated, and how much each local authority has spent.

Local authorities were allocated £2 million in December 2018 to develop their rapid rehousing transition plan (RRTP) and £8 million in July 2019 to take forward year 1 implementation. Allocation of funding is provided in the following table.

Arrangements have still to be determined at this time on capturing how funding allocations have been spent.

Local authority	RRTP Development Funding (£2m)	Year 1 RRTP Funding (£8m)
Aberdeen City	£62,000	311,000
Aberdeenshire	£77,000	261,000
Angus	£42,000	172,000
Argyll & Bute	£30,000	95,000
Clackmannanshire	£30,000	103,000
Dumfries & Galloway	£34,000	143,000
Dundee City	£68,000	300,000
East Ayrshire	£30,000	119,000
East Dunbartonshire	£30,000	120,000
East Lothian	£40,000	160,000
East Renfrewshire	£30,000	76,000
Edinburgh, City of	£229,000	1,005,000
Eilean Siar	£30,000	34,000
Falkirk	£57,000	211,000
Fife	£124,000	524,000
Glasgow City	£301,000	1,322,000
Highland	£61,000	280,000
Inverclyde	£30,000	53,000
Midlothian	£32,000	141,000
Moray	£30,000	97,000
North Ayrshire	£44,000	187,000
North Lanarkshire	£96,000	389,000
Orkney Islands	£30,000	22,000
Perth & Kinross	£46,000	203,000
Renfrewshire	£43,000	186,000
Scottish Borders	£35,000	153,000
Shetland Islands	£30,000	31,000
South Ayrshire	£40,000	173,000
South Lanarkshire	£105,000	461,000
Stirling	£30,000	101,000
West Dunbartonshire	£63,000	265,000
West Lothian	£71,000	302,000

Question reference: S5W-25588

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the level at which a tourism levy is set will be a decision for individual local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-25586

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the decision on introducing a tourism levy will be made by individual local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-25587

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the use of the resources raised by a tourism levy will be a decision for individual local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-25585

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether a tourism levy will be in place by the end of the parliamentary session.

Question reference: S4W-30637

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 March 2016

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, in 2014, 21,000 people were employed directly in the low carbon and renewable energy economy in Scotland.

The first estimates from the new Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Survey were published by ONS on 9 December 2015 and provide regional estimates for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the number of businesses, turnover and full-time equivalent employees.

Comparable estimates for 2017-20 are not available.