- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Dorothy Bain on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what role the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
has in directing Police Scotland regarding the continuation or conclusion of
criminal inquiries.
Answer
I would refer to the answer provided in respect of S6W-36157 on 2 May 2025 as regards my role as head of the system of prosecutions in Scotland and direction of the police.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a breakdown of funding (a) allocated and (b) spent each year by the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund.
Answer
Scheme allocations are not routinely published, however, Ms. Martin wrote to the convener of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on the 28th of February 2025 detailing the 25-26 budget allocation across the Heat in Buildings Schemes, including an allocation for the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund. As many of our schemes, including the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, are demand-led, allocations may change within the financial year.
We publish an annual report of progress against our Heat in Buildings strategy. The most recent report was published in October 2024: Heat in Buildings: progress report 2024 - gov.scot. This included a breakdown of funding spent through the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund in FY23-24.
A full breakdown of annual spend and budget allocations for the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund is provided in Table 1.
Table 1. Annual spend and allocation figures for Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund
*reconciliation still ongoing so spend total is subject to change as projects complete
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many international students have accessed child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.
Answer
This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland from each NHS Board. This data does not contain specific information about the number of young people accessing CAMHS who are international students.
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to leveraging (a) private and (b) public
investment to support the offshore wind supply chain.
Answer
Our strategic investment of up to £500 million over five years is expected to leverage additional private investment of up to £1.5 billion in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to growing the offshore wind sector.
We are almost tripling our capital funding in offshore wind to £150 million in 2025-26. This strategic investment is being delivered through the Scottish National Investment Bank and our enterprise agencies, with public funds leveraging additional investment.
We welcome the commitment of developers to invest an average projection of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project across the 20 ScotWind offshore wind projects through the Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) process. We expect developers to honour their SCDS commitments, which were a condition of their being awarded Option Agreements.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many buildings it plans to provide green upgrades for under its decarbonisation programme, and what the average cost is projected to be.
Answer
To continue to provide the vital services that people need, our public bodies need premises located in our communities. Maintaining these buildings to modern standards – including, but not limited to, climate requirements – will mean ongoing investment in the public estate.
The Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Scheme is a demand-led scheme. Project costs will vary on a case-by-case basis depending on the project scale, measures proposed and location of the public sector building. Details of projects that have received funding to date are included in the following reports on the Scottish Government website:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-central-government-energy-efficiency-grant-scheme-form-and-guidance/pages/quarterly-reports/
https://www.gov.scot/publications/central-government-energy-efficiency-grant-scheme-progress-report/
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider working with NHS Scotland and NHS boards to ensure that standalone anti-stalking policies are introduced and embedded across the health service, for the protection of staff, volunteers, patients and visitors, in line with the findings and recommendations of the charity, Action Against Stalking.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes this report and will fully consider the Action Against Stalking report recommendations and will work in partnership to consider current policy and how recommendations may be taken forward.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that public money is not allocated to charities that act in breach of their impartiality obligations under charity law.
Answer
The Scottish Government can only comment on the funding we provide, rather than all ‘public money’. Any funding issued by the Scottish Government is done so in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, and Grant Offer Letters to all third sector organisations clearly set out the conditions for which the funding can be used.
Charities must act in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, which sets out that a charity cannot be set up to advance a political party. Any breach of obligations under charity law is for OSCR, who are independent of Scottish Ministers, to determine.
However, charities can and do undertake campaigning activity. The Scottish Government fully support the right of charities to campaign on behalf of those they represent and influence changes in policy.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many times each local authority has breached its legal duty to provide suitable accommodation for homeless people in the last five years.
Answer
The first table shows instances where local authorities are not able to fulfil their legal duties in offering temporary accommodation to households who make a homelessness application, annually for 2019-20 to 2023-24, and for the most recent six months April to September 2024.
Local Authority | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Apr-Sep 2024 |
Scotland | 4,585 | 595 | 715 | 450 | 7,955 | 7,545 |
Aberdeen City | 10 | 5 | 0 | <4 | <4 | <4 |
Angus | 5 | <4 | <4 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
Clackmannanshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 50 |
East Renfrewshire | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Edinburgh | 660 | 530 | 700 | 420 | 1,515 | 1,020 |
Falkirk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | <4 |
Fife | 50 | <4 | 15 | 25 | 140 | 140 |
Glasgow City | 3,830 | 55 | <4 | <4 | 6,270 | 6,320 |
Highland | 35 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 10 | 5 |
Midlothian | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 |
Renfrewshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 |
Scottish Borders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
South Lanarkshire | <4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 10 |
Stirling | 0 | <4 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 |
The second table shows instances where unsuitable temporary accommodation placements have been offered and taken up, annually for 2019-20 to 2023-24, and for the most recent six months April to September 2024.
Local Authority | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Apr-Sep 2024 |
Scotland | 2,060 | 2,345 | 4,790 | 14,275 | 20,230 | 10,780 |
Aberdeen City | <4 | <4 | 0 | 670 | 560 | 230 |
Aberdeenshire | 10 | 60 | 40 | 50 | 25 | 10 |
Angus | 5 | 5 | 10 | 30 | 35 | 40 |
Argyll & Bute | <4 | <4 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 15 |
Clackmannanshire | <4 | <4 | 50 | 125 | 170 | 85 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 230 | 670 | 470 |
Dundee City | 0 | 0 | 140 | 345 | 865 | 345 |
East Dunbartonshire | 5 | <4 | <4 | <4 | 10 | <4 |
East Lothian | 10 | 210 | 280 | 385 | 385 | 135 |
East Renfrewshire | 10 | 55 | 60 | 90 | 245 | 195 |
Edinburgh | 960 | 530 | 1,800 | 3,530 | 4,725 | 3,205 |
Eilean Siar | <4 | <4 | 5 | 5 | 10 | <4 |
Falkirk | <4 | 5 | 15 | 110 | 110 | 65 |
Fife | 5 | 265 | 755 | 690 | 675 | 325 |
Glasgow City | 790 | 460 | 770 | 6,155 | 9,075 | 4,660 |
Highland | 20 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 25 | 15 |
Inverclyde | 10 | 5 | 0 | <4 | 20 | 20 |
Midlothian | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 55 | 35 |
Moray | 0 | 15 | 0 | 115 | 145 | 85 |
Orkney | 0 | 0 | 0 | <4 | 0 | <4 |
Perth & Kinross | 0 | <4 | <4 | 15 | 0 | <4 |
Renfrewshire | 0 | 245 | 30 | 145 | 240 | 90 |
Scottish Borders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 0 |
Shetland | <4 | 0 | <4 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
South Ayrshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105 | 310 | 35 |
South Lanarkshire | 20 | 305 | 25 | 270 | 685 | 260 |
Stirling | 20 | 25 | 20 | 35 | 15 | 25 |
West Dunbartonshire | 45 | 20 | 15 | 150 | 260 | 95 |
Breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order occur when a household has spent more than seven days in unsuitable accommodation.
Figures on failures to accommodate and breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order are published on a six-monthly basis as part of the Homelessness in Scotland Statistics series.
Notes:
Local authorities are not presented in the tables where they have zero instances across all time periods.
For disclosure purposes, figures are rounded to the nearest 5, apart from 1,2 and 3, which are rounded to '<4'.
Households can have multiple failure to accommodate and/or unsuitable temporary accommodation placement records and so may appear multiple times in the tables.
Data source: Scottish Government, HL3 Homelessness statistics
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to (a) partial and (b) total public ownership of offshore wind energy generation to support the offshore wind supply chain.
Answer
A national public energy company that is involved in large-scale energy generation would only be possible in an independent Scotland where we had full powers over the energy market and full access to borrowing. The Green Industrial Strategy sets out how the people of Scotland will see maximum benefits from Scotland’s energy transition, including identifying Scotland’s wind economy as one of the five opportunity areas.
We are investing up to £500m over five years to anchor our offshore wind supply chain in Scotland and are almost tripling our capital funding to £150 million in 2025-26.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Equality Impact Assessment reports relating to their work, whether any charities that face having their funding reduced by statutory funders should be (a) consulted in the drafting of the report and (b) given sight of the report prior to any decision being made.
Answer
We must conduct an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) at the earliest stages of developing new policies or revising existing ones. This includes strategies, legislation, guidance, frameworks, training, funding, reviews, and any other activities that affect people. The EQIA process requires evidence gathering to understand and assess the potential impact of policy decisions. This evidence gathering can include public consultations and lived experience discussions with those organisations and members of the public to understand and assess any potential impacts.
Regulation 5 of these Scottish Specific Duties is particularly relevant to EQIAs, as it requires the assessment of all new and revised policies and practices for their impact on the three Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) needs, as well as the publication of these assessment results within a reasonable timeframe and in an easily accessible manner.