Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-27028

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 15 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-26975 by Richard Lochhead on 24 April 2024, and in light of the UK Government’s publication, Project Gigabit progress update - April 2024, whether it expects Project Gigabit procurement covering Fife to launch throughout 2024.

The Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) have worked together to develop a number of potential Type A (local) and Type B (regional) Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland. The Scottish Government will lead delivery of these procurements, so that Project Gigabit and our own Reaching 100% (R100) programme can work together in Scotland.

A potential procurement in the Fife, Perth and Kinross areas has been identified as part of this process. It is expected that this procurement will launch later in 2024, so long as the Scottish Government is confident that there is the continued supplier interest necessary for it to succeed.

Question reference: S6W-27358

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on investing up to £30 million to support cancer waiting times improvements, as set out in its Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023-26.

Question reference: S6O-03405

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the ending of the Bute House Agreement will have on the Housing (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6O-03439

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 May 2024

TATSG

Question reference: S6W-26519

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many households received support through the Warmer Homes Scotland programme in each financial year of its operation, broken down by local authority area.

The first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland began in September 2015, and closed to new applicants on 31 March 2023. The second phase of Warmer Homes Scotland was launched on 2 October 2023.

The following table shows the number of households who have received support through both phases of the Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) scheme in each financial year since 2015, broken down by local authority area.

	Financial Years – WHS 1									WHS2
Local Authority Areas	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24		23-24
Aberdeen City	39	128	100	106	69	74	121	151	98		32
Aberdeenshire	60	224	175	141	114	85	181	191	155		25
Angus	34	130	93	89	68	48	117	136	124		32
Argyll and Bute	33	161	110	113	98	69	153	118	122		12
City of Edinburgh	60	284	285	219	188	165	346	394	272		75
Clackmannanshire	15	54	33	31	34	20	39	64	35		10
Dumfries and Galloway	65	209	227	170	140	90	187	184	179		32
Dundee City	57	193	211	136	100	108	175	202	132		47
East Ayrshire	41	113	93	67	89	58	133	113	64		46
East Dunbartonshire	25	80	68	60	69	60	112	80	80		36
East Lothian	22	71	54	57	56	34	65	106	82		20
East Renfrewshire	28	72	74	80	53	47	85	74	35		16
Falkirk	36	106	109	81	94	80	130	129	84		51
Fife	107	367	353	267	235	218	375	444	284		79
Glasgow City	138	450	461	418	373	367	620	534	293		168
Highland	82	493	358	270	225	155	261	254	211		48
Inverclyde	27	223	150	111	130	68	146	129	76		27
Midlothian	20	76	83	68	59	42	82	92	68		18
Moray	18	96	81	54	62	47	78	86	75		19
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	6	116	177	105	111	75	76	73	81		0
North Ayrshire	45	148	105	76	93	56	152	156	114		47
North Lanarkshire	87	338	273	247	263	247	387	374	216		131
Orkney Islands	6	35	39	35	28	17	33	35	45		0
Perth and Kinross	44	134	130	100	83	68	124	148	125		35
Renfrewshire	57	173	181	130	140	86	188	192	114		73
Scottish Borders	22	103	120	79	69	48	85	107	78		36
Shetland Islands	1	9	56	30	47	23	56	48	56		5
South Ayrshire	31	143	120	67	86	57	125	141	98		39
South Lanarkshire	88	338	319	189	236	234	373	387	190		88
Stirling	25	73	72	36	48	29	54	69	47		18
West Dunbartonshire	18	81	59	61	55	50	93	67	41		23
West Lothian	35	133	134	125	92	79	159	200	126		67
Grand Total	1,372	5,354	4,903	3,818	3,607	2,904	5,311	5,478	3,800		1,355

Question reference: S6W-05768

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government in what number of properties it estimates that interlinked fire alarms have (a) been installed and (b) not been installed.

Question reference: S6W-05767

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates have installed interlinked fire alarms prior to the law change on 1st February 2022

Question reference: S6O-03292

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what new financial support will be available to farmers and land managers to manage water, including to prevent flooding of homes.

Question reference: S6W-26042

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the funding to remove fees from secondary school music tuition, which was announced in 2021, whether it engages with local authorities on the level of music tuition that they provide, and, if so, whether it is aware of any reduction in provision since 2021.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with Local Authority Heads of Instrumental Music, COSLA and the Improvement Service to support and monitor the ongoing delivery of free instrumental music tuition.

The annual Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) undertaken by the Improvement Service and most recently published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

Question reference: S6W-26041

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a reduction in the provision of secondary school music tuition would breach the 2021 arrangement to remove fees from such provision.

There is no evidence of an overall reduction in the provision of secondary school music tuition. In fact the most recent Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.

The policy of free instrumental tuition has now been firmly established across all Local Authority Music Services. The Scottish Government continues to support local authorities to deliver free instrumental music tuition in schools, removing financial barriers to learning an instrument.

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