Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-29353

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will publish details about the future of the Help to Buy scheme.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights, Mr Alex Neil, launched the Help to Buy (Scotland): Affordable New Build Scheme and the Help to Buy (Scotland): Smaller Developers Scheme on 21 January 2016. The scheme is now open for builder registration and applications will be accepted from 1 March 2016. Further information on scheme criteria has been published on the Scottish Government website.

Question reference: S4W-29368

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 29 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support house (a) buyers and (b) builders.

We have a strong record on housing matters across all tenures from rental to home ownership. Since 2007 we have encouraged housing supply, maintaining higher build rates in both affordable and private housing than the rest of the UK. We have exceeded our target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes in this Parliament to own or rent and we have invested £305 million to 2015-16 to support the private sector through the Help to Buy (Scotland) shared equity scheme, including the £30 million Help to Buy (Scotland) Small Developments scheme (intended to support further small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) participation and provide more homes across urban, rural and small town Scotland). Our efforts have also helped all buyers by maintaining price inflation of only 1% since 2008 unlike the average increase of 21% in England. The last published data showed that the average household spent just under 10% of their income on housing costs in Scotland and this has remained constant since 2007.

In Scotland we expect the private housing market to operate wherever it can without government intervention. However, we do intervene where there are significant market challenges. We have committed to build a further 50,000 affordable homes during the next parliamentary term, if elected, as well as continue with our current initiatives for low cost home ownership. We recently announced a further £195 million to a successor help to buy scheme which will support both buyers and builders over the next three years.

We also intervene to create conditions to help the private sector to operate effectively working with a range of public and private sector partners to meet the actions in our published Joint Housing Delivery Plan for Scotland. This includes actions such as ongoing work to unblock stalled sites; supporting SME builders; encouraging expansion of supply in the institutional private rented sector as well as broader actions including reviewing the planning system and our action on Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S4W-29453

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the availability is of (a) 2G, (b) 3G and (c) 4G mobile phone coverage in each local authority area.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on mobile coverage by technology type at local authority level. As part of its 2015 Connected Nations report, Ofcom – the UK telecoms regulator – published a detailed table of mobile coverage statistics (premises, geographic and road), by technology (2G, 3G and 4G) at local authority level. This data is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/connected-nations2015/Mobile_Local_Authority_2015.zip.

Question reference: S4T-01299

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 25 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding how it could assist in accommodating 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children.

Question reference: S4W-29229

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 22 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reviewing whether the SQA exam timetable should be revised to accommodate Ramadan.

Question reference: S4O-05483

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools and children in local authorities that do not receive Attainment Scotland Fund support meet the programme’s criteria.

Question reference: S4W-28964

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 8 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04702 by Alex Neil on 28 October 2015 (Official Report, c. 19), what changes to the fuel poverty target it has made in light of the external factors that have developed since 2011.

Question reference: S4W-28967

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 8 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04702 by Alex Neil on 28 October 2015 (Official Report, c. 19), what additional scenarios it has modelled for measuring fuel poverty other than the notional inflationary increase in fuel prices since 2011.

Other than the notional inflationary increase in fuel prices since 2011, the Scottish Government has modelled two additional scenarios.

If housing stock conditions and household incomes had changed as observed by the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS), but fuel prices had remained at their 2002 levels in real terms (i.e. if they had only increased since 2002 in line with the rate of inflation), then the fuel poverty rate for 2013 would have been around 11% instead of 39%. This analysis was published in the Progress Report on the Scottish Fuel Poverty Statement 2002

(http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0046/00466608.pdf).

If housing stock conditions and household incomes had changed as observed by the SHCS, but fuel prices had remained at their 2002 levels in real terms (i.e. if they had only increased since 2002 in line with the rate of inflation), then the fuel poverty rate for 2014 would have been around 9.5% instead of 34.9%. This analysis was presented to the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum when they met on 16 December 2015.

Question reference: S4W-28962

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 8 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-28781 by Margaret Burgess on 14 December 2015 and S4O-04702 by Alex Neil on 28 October 2015 (Official Report, c. 19), whether it has ruled out a reassessment of the 2016 fuel poverty target in light of the UK Spending Review.

Question reference: S4W-28965

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 8 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-04702 by Alex Neil on 28 October 2015 (Official Report, c. 19), whether meeting its statutory target "as far as is reasonably practicable" has always been its approach to eradicating fuel poverty and, if so, whether the underlying meaning of that phrase has changed in light of the external factors that have developed since 2011.

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