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: S6W-11531

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many adult children living with their parents would currently be counted as part of the parental household, under the housing need and demand assessment methodology.

Existing need within the Housing Need and Demand Assessment process (HNDA) can be informed by a number of factors. As local authorities are responsible for undertaking the HNDA, they are responsible for selecting what they consider to be the most appropriate count of existing need for their area.

Households where adult children live with parents are captured in the household projections prepared by National Records of Scotland (NRS). Household projections are based on past trends and any trend, upwards or downwards, in the incidence of adult children living with parents, will, along with many other factors that drive change in household numbers, be captured and projected forwards.

Question reference: S6W-11529

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in light of the lack of updated data sources for some of the indicators, what its position is on whether the input data available to local authorities and housing market partnerships, which is required to produce a housing needs and demand assessment, is sufficient to produce robust and credible outputs.

Local authorities, as both the statutory housing and planning authority, are responsible for assessing housing requirements.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) process seeks to use the best available data to reach robust and credible outputs.

The HNDA Tool which forms part of the assessment enables the use of quality assured recognised national datasets. The HNDA tool also provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers.

Any decision by a local authority to use local information should weigh the value of the data with sourcing, cleaning and inputting the data into the HNDA process bearing in mind HNDAs aim to provide a broad range of housing estimates rather than a single precision, or actual, housing estimate. The methodology used by local authorities should be included in the HNDAs allowing for transparency.

Question reference: S6W-11534

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) local authority and (b) housing market partnership areas have conducted household surveys in preparation for housing and need demand assessments and the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement.

The following local authorities conducted some form of survey work to support their Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) and Minimum All Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR) processes:

For the HNDA -

Local authorities are required to update their HNDAs every five years. In the latest round of updates during 2021 and 2022 eight local authorities updated their HNDA and these have been appraised by the Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA). Of these one, Argyll and Bute, undertook an HNDA Household Survey. South East Scotland authorities (City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, South Fife, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders) and South Ayrshire undertook some form of local survey work to inform parts of their HNDA. All eight authorities also used some form of local data to prepare their HNDAs.

Additionally, Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife) undertook a Primary Research Study, however, the appraisal process for this HNDA has not, as yet, been finalised.

For the MATHLR –

In total, five authorities used primary research to inform their MATHLR – Argyll and Bute and Tayside authorities (Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross and North Fife).

Draft National Planning Framework (NPF) 4 was accompanied by a , which provides an explanation on the proposed Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement (MATHLR), and for each authority area. Information provided by each authority to inform the MATHLR is also available online at:

Question reference: S6W-11532

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) overcrowded (b) concealed and (c) overcrowded and concealed households would currently be excluded from housing need and demand assessments, in accordance with the prescribed methodology, broken down by local authority area.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) Tool contains a default count of households who are both overcrowded and concealed. The Scottish Government's Centre for Housing Market Analysis (CHMA) also publishes separate counts of overcrowded and concealed households which local authorities may choose to use. Alternatively, local authorities may choose to use local information about overcrowded and concealed households using sources such as waiting lists or local survey work, where they can evidence that this is robust.

Specific details are published as bespoke separate documents, as follows:

Single count of overcrowded households and single count of concealed households (see Table 3)

Count of households who are both overcrowded and concealed (see Excel worksheet called ‘HoTOC’)

Question reference: S6W-11528

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in light of the lack of updated data sources for some of the indicators, whether it has tested the housing need and demand assessment process tool using primary data, and if this is the case, what primary data it has commissioned for that purpose.

Local authorities, as both the statutory housing and planning authority, are responsible for assessing housing requirements and set out priorities in their Local Housing Strategies.

The Housing Need and Demand Assessment Tool helps local authorities to access robust, quality assured data sets and to reduce the cost and complexity for local authorities in undertaking such assessments. The Tool is designed to use recognised national datasets and also provides flexibility to incorporate a variety of types of housing need where there is robust local information and evidenced policy drivers. Local authorities are able to augment this data with a range of additional sources including primary data where they have it.

Question reference: S6W-11533

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10687 by Shona Robison on 20 September 2022, and in light of the lack of updated data sources for some of the indicators, whether it will commission household surveys in each (a) local authority and (b) housing market partnership area to verify the methodology of the housing needs and demand assessment, as part of the preparation of the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) Minimum All-Tenure Housing Land Requirement.

Question reference: S6W-11773

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Elena Whitham on 10 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how it reconciles the answer to question S6W-10193 by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022, and the statements regarding "risks associated to electric car charging points in car parks" in the minutes of the meeting of the Cladding Stakeholder Group, on 20 July 2022, that the Scottish Government "explained they did not have a definitive position regarding this issue for now but that they were aware" and "they were not being complacent about this" and that "issues will be addressed", released under FOI/202200313906, and whether it will provide an update on its position on this matter.

The Scottish Government is working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and other stakeholders to look at current and future risks associated with electric car charging points and more widely, lithium batteries. SFRS has also implemented the Lithium-Ion Partnership Group to focus on this subject of which the Scottish Government is part of, and work continues to ensure the safety of our communities in Scotland from any potential emerging risks.

Question reference: S6O-01556

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the processing of appeals for the 2022 National Qualifications exams.

Question reference: S6W-11727

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is the case that it will establish a professional indemnity scheme for single building assessments surveyors and professionals, and, if it is the case, when work to establish such an indemnity scheme began, or will begin, and when it will be launched.

Question reference: S6W-11539

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-10193 by Shona Robison on 6 September 2022, regarding the single building assessment, what its position is on whether ventilated car parks under buildings may accelerate fire spread.