Parliamentary questions
Pauline McNeill
2,364 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
31 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to take to reduce the number of people living in fuel poverty.
Answer · Angela Constance: Tackling fuel poverty has always been a priority for this Government and we are using all the powers within our control to achieve this. We have allocated over £650 million since 2009 and we will make available half a billion pounds over the next four years…
31 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to tackle the reported shortage of accessible housing.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: As part of our promise to build a fairer Scotland, the Scottish Government is committed to increasing the number of accessible homes across all tenures. Local authorities are required by law to prepare a local housing strategy supported by an assessment of ho…
31 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to fund all academic research in Scotland into disability that is reliant on EU funding if the UK leaves the EU.
Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Scotland is an active and valued partner in European research collaborations and while the UK Government’s guarantee on Horizon 2020 funding is welcome as far as it goes, it fails to recognise what we would otherwise have received as continuing members of the…
31 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to matching all European structural funding that supports projects that assist disabled people in Scotland if the UK leaves the EU.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The UK Government has recently offered guarantees on EU funding to cover, in full, the payment of all EU funding contracts for structural funds projects that are entered into before the date that the UK proposes to leave the EU. The Cabinet Secretary for Fi…
31 Oct 2016 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to tackle any age discrimination against 17-and-18-year-olds.
28 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what mechanism is in place to ensure that mid-market rent landlords respond to Office for National Statistics data showing a fall in private rental prices in the 12 months to September 2016.
Answer · Angela Constance: The Scottish Government wishes to ensure that mid-market rent levels remain affordable to households on low to modest incomes. Landlords which have received Scottish Government support in recent years – whether in the form of grant funding, loan finance or fi…
28 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 can be used by local authorities to ensure that their rents reflect local rental market changes.
Answer · Angela Constance: The Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 (the 2016 Act) will enable local authorities to apply to Ministers to designate an area as a rent pressure zone where rents are rising too much, causing undue hardship to tenants and increasing the pressure …
26 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether people on lower incomes, who live in properties in council tax bands E to H, will be able to apply for support from the Council Tax Reduction Scheme prior to the implementation of its proposed council tax reforms.
Answer · Derek Mackay: The extension of the council tax reduction scheme for households on low income living in band E to H properties will come into force on 1 April 2017. Individual local authorities administer the council tax reduction scheme, so it is a matter for each Council …
26 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how long it will take to implement its proposed council tax reforms.
Answer · Derek Mackay: The Scottish Government has been working with COSLA, local authority revenue and benefits practitioners and their software suppliers since early June 2016 to ensure Councils will implement the reforms from April 2017.
26 Oct 2016 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for local authorities to be given greater fiscal autonomy to raise their own money and manage their local economies.
24 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03667 by Humza Yousaf on 24 October 2016, under what criteria in the ScotRail franchise a train can be cancelled.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: ScotRail expect all scheduled trains to run unless there are exceptional circumstances. There are two sorts of cancellations, planned and unplanned. A planned cancellation is one which might be required because of, for example, engineering work. Planned engin…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that properties used exclusively for short-term letting via platforms, such as AirBnB, should be treated as residential properties or as businesses.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: It is for owners of properties used for short-term lettings to ensure that they comply with all legislation that applies to their letting. This includes considering whether they are operating a business for tax purposes as defined by HM Revenue and Customs.
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the use of (a) planning policy, (b) housing legislation or (c) other measures to regulate short-term letting, such as (i) so-called party flats and (ii) via platforms such as AirBnB.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Legislation exists to deal with antisocial noise and behaviour in short-term lets and the local authority may deal with these matters using existing powers contained within Part 7 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004. In March 2011, the Scot…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to Inclusion Scotland to run the Access to Elected Office Fund, and whether this will run until summer 2017, as set out in its Programme For Government.
Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: We have provided £200,000 (2016-17) to support a pilot access to elected office fund in Scotland. This includes £40,000 for administration (including assessment and support). The Fund is available to pay for practical support, covering reasonable adjustments,…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether its £2 million Community Choices Fund will be an annual fund.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The Community Choices Fund was established in 2016-17 as part of the Empowering Communities Fund. Future decisions about the fund will be made as part of the budget settlement for 2017-18. Community empowerment continues to build across the whole of Scotland,…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether its £2 million Community Choices Fund is equal to 1% of local council budgets.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: The £2 million Community Choices Fund is not equal to 1% of local council budgets. The fund was launched in June 2016 to support Community Choices (otherwise known as participatory budgeting) in 2016-17 and £1.5 million was open to applications from public au…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many families have children who have received free school meals in each year since 2005.
Answer · John Swinney: Information about the number of families who have received free school meals is not held centrally. Information about the number of children and young people in primary, secondary and special schools, who were registered for and taking a free school meal is c…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03015 by John Swinney on 29 September 2016, what changes to the eligibility criteria it has introduced since 2007 to increase the availability of free school meals for children in P4 and above.
Answer · John Swinney: The criteria to qualify for free school meals is provided for in section 53(3) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. A number of changes have been made to the criteria since 2007 to help increase the availability of free school meals for children in primary 4…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many enquiries it has received from developers about the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: We have received 186 expressions of interest through Local Authorities in relation to the Housing Infrastructure Fund. We do not hold information on the individual developers for each project.
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which non-public sector organisations have made applications to the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Local Authorities have provided 42 expressions of interest for loan support on sites relating to non public organisations. Details of these organisations have not been submitted at this time. One loan has been agreed to date to the Grandhome Trust in Aberdeen.
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether all of the £50 million that has been made available to the Housing Infrastructure Fund for 2016-17 will be allocated for developments by the end of that financial year and, if not, whether the unallocated funds will be carried forward to 2017-18.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: We will look to optimise spend up to £50m however this will be dependent on the state of readiness of projects to move forward to draw down this financial year. There are no carry forward arrangements for uncommitted funds but we will aim to manage any unallo…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which (a) local authorities and (b) registered social landlords have made applications to the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Local authorities have provided 121 expressions of interest for grant support on Local Authority or RSL led sites. Details of the developing organisations have not been submitted at this time, however, expressions of interest have been received from the follo…
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many applications have been made to the Housing Infrastructure Fundand what the total value of these are, also broken down by how much each application was for.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: To date, 186 expressions of interest have been made to the Housing Infrastructure Fund. Of these, 19 proposals are at a stage of readiness to progress to a full application stage with a further one loan offer already issued.
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) loans and (b) grants from the Housing Infrastructure Fund have been agreed and what the total value of these are, also broken down by how much each payment will be.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: We have agreed one loan totalling £7.9m. The timing and amount of each drawdown payment will be reflect the completion of infrastructure works on the site by the contractor.
21 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the £50 million that has been made available to the Housing Infrastructure Fund for 2016-17 is reliant on the local authority strategic housing investment plans for 2017-18 to 2021-22 that are due for submission by 30 November 2016.
Answer · Kevin Stewart: Given the timing of the Fund relative to SHIP submissions in November 2016 and the availability of resource this financial year, Local Authorities were asked to provide initial views about priority sites to the Scottish Government ahead of formal SHIP submiss…
20 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides for 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training.
Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The Scottish Government is ambitious about its plans to increase youth employment and in our youth employment strategy we have set a target to reduce youth unemployment by 40% by 2021. Supporting 16 to 19 year olds who are not in education, employment or trai…
19 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a national integrated ticketing/smart card system to allow ease of access between transport systems and, if so, what the timescale will be for its introduction.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: An inter-operator, multi-modal smart card system is being made possible. The Scottish Government is promoting one compatible system across all modes, the "ITSO" system. Using one compatible system means integration can be delivered as each transport mode impl…
11 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential impact on the tourism sector, what plans it has to discuss with the UK Government regulating the use of online holiday home marketplaces such as Airbnb.
10 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what outpatient neuro-physiotherapy services are available to people in Glasgow who have experienced stroke.
Answer · Shona Robison: Neuro-rehabilitation for patients who have suffered a stroke is predominantly provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's community based stroke team which include physiotherapists who have specialised in stroke rehabilitation. This allows rehabilitation to b…
10 Oct 2016 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many care workers receive at least the living wage.
Answer · Shona Robison: We do not hold information on individuals employment terms and conditions. However, our commitment will enable all care workers supporting vulnerable adults to be paid at least the Living Wage. In this year alone we estimate that up to 40,000 workers, mainl…