- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 15 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what it regards as the maximum desirable occupation standards for rented accommodation.
Answer
The statutory definition of overcrowding is contained in Part VII of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987. Local authorities have various powers and duties in relation to overcrowded houses and their occupants, including carrying out inspections to identify overcrowded houses and taking levels of overcrowding into account in the preparation of local housing strategies.
The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 was introduced to protect tenants whose principal or only residence is a multiply-occupied house. Local authorities are responsible for identifying unlicensed HMOs and ensuring that conditions of licences are complied with, including the number of occupants allowed.
The Scottish Government is aware of concerns that some landlords may be evading HMO licensing requirements by claiming that properties are being let on a short term basis, and that tenants have principal residences elsewhere. In doing so, some landlords may be putting tenants at risk of overcrowding.
We will be considering the options for implementing new HMO provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 later this year. The issue of short term lets, and what types of accommodation require to be licensed under those provisions, will be part of our discussions with stakeholders.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 3 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has considered amending houses in multiple occupation legislation to include short-term holiday lets.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22158 on 30 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 1 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether holiday lets are liable for council tax and business rates.
Answer
Properties which are made available for letting on a commercial basis for 140 days or more in a year (or where the intention is to make them available) may be liable for business rates and if not, they will be liable for council tax.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much packaging for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile packaging as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much paper for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile paper as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much glass for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile glass as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new leasing arrangements for buildings occupied in Scotland by (a) non-departmental public bodies and (b) Executive agencies involved (i) new leases and (ii) renewals of existing leases in each of the last five years.
Answer
The information held within the Electronic Property Information Mapping Service (e-PIMS) over each of the five years shows the number of new lease arrangements entered into by non-core Scottish Executive bodies is as follows:
2004: 11
2005: 27
2006: 18
2007: 19
2008: 3.
A renewal of an existing lease is classified as a new lease and included within the above statistics.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new buildings it procured in each of the last five years and how many were (a) rented, (b) leased, (c) purchased and (d) acquired under some other finance mechanism.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22033 on 27 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
We do not hold information on whether buildings acquired are in fact newly built or new to the Scottish Executive. The core Scottish Executive has not purchased any new office buildings over the past five years.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new buildings were procured in Scotland by (a) executive agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies in each of the last five years and how many were (i) rented, (ii) leased, (iii) purchased and (iv) acquired under some other finance mechanism.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22033 on 27 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
We do not hold information on whether buildings acquired are in fact newly built or new to the Scottish Executive, its Agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Over the past five years only one newly built office building was purchased by a non departmental public body.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to identify peat bogs where peat depth is 50cm or greater and whether specific advice to land managers on the steps that they can take to prevent the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from such carbon stores is provided free of charge as part of the public goods advice programme operated by the Scottish Agricultural College and other government agencies.
Answer
The Scottish Government has commissioned a study to advise on the costs and benefits of a targeted national peat survey, and on the state of our current knowledge on carbon stocks tied into peatlands. The report is due to be published by the Scottish Government in April 2009 and will provide clear advice on the distribution of peat with a depth of 50cm or greater.
A new advisory activity covering climate change has been added to the Scottish Agricultural College''s Public Good Advisory service for 2009-10. This new activity will involve a range of initiatives to inform farmers and provide practical advice on steps they can take to mitigate climate change and its impacts, including measures to protect peatland and moorland from damage.
The Scottish Government also recently published a report on calculating carbon losses from wind farms on peatlands “ most of the advice contained within the report advises land managers how to minimise carbon losses from peat. This advice replaces earlier guidance developed by Scottish Natural Heritage and can be found at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/25114657/0.
In principle, restoration and re-instatement of peatlands may be ultimately beneficial in terms of carbon sequestration. However, uncertainty exists on the time taken for such sites to change from initial sources of methane, to become sinks of carbon dioxide. Given this uncertainty we will be seeking further evidence to allow us and our stakeholders to develop the best approach to this issue.
