Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-00636

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the business rates revaluation will have on the tourism and hospitality sectors.

As a result of the Assessors independent business rates revaluation the individual rateable value of any property in the tourism and hospitality sectors may increase, decrease or remain the same.

However, many thousands of premises in the sector will be amongst beneficiaries of the package of measures I have announced, which include:

The Small Business Bonus Scheme – which has already saved businesses more than £1.2 billion – will be expanded from April to lift 100,000 properties out of rates completely;

8,000 business properties will no longer pay the Large Business Supplement; and

The overall business rates poundage being cut by 3.7% to 46.6p.

Question reference: S5T-00277

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has downgraded its forecast of revenues from the residential element of Lands and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Question reference: S5O-00465

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 14 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its bill on a replacement for air passenger duty.

Question reference: S5W-05147

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities are sufficiently resourced to provide the building standards verification service.

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-05145

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) when and (b) how it will consult on the appointment of building standards verifiers.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 allows Scottish Ministers to appoint verifiers on such terms or limitations as they feel appropriate. It also allows any appointment to be made, varied or terminated at any time. Local authorities are appointed as verifiers until end the end of April 2017. I am currently reviewing the appointment process for verifiers from May 2017 onwards, however there are no plans for wider consultation on the matter.

Question reference: S5W-05146

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings of the recent report it commissioned from Pye Tait Consulting, Evaluation of the Performance of local authorities in their role as building standards verifiers.

Question reference: S5W-05148

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it measures the performance of building standards verifiers.

Question reference: S5W-05150

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of delays in obtaining building control consent on (a) the industry and (b) its housing targets.

Scottish Government has not made such an assessment but knows that delays may be due to local authority processing, the quality of the submitted plans, or delays in applicants submitted revised details. We are aware that Local Authority Building Standards Scotland who represent local authority building standards services in Scotland have examined this issue and provided the following information:

More than 330 housing development applications were submitted immediately before the October 2015 change in energy standards. As of 1 Dec 2017, 41% of these applications remain unapproved and are sitting with the housebuilder for action.

For the time taken to gain approval for housing applications, the verifier typically works on the application for 30% of the time; the remaining 70% of the time is down to the housebuilder producing essential information to allow approval.

Question reference: S5W-05149

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 12 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authorities have improved the quality of the building standards verification service since 2011.

Independent research undertaken for Scottish Government by Pye Tait Consulting and published in March 2016 concluded that:

“In summary, whilst there has been substantial progress and investment in delivering a high quality and customer-focused building standards service since the last re-appointment of local authorities in 2011, there is still work to do to create the conditions for strong performance across all 32 Councils”.

Question reference: S5W-05143

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 8 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under all (a) rural priority and (b) land management options applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013.

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Rural Priorities Scheme applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013:

Item	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Rabbit proofing fencing Total		£847,352	£1,475,565	£1,567,488	£585,325	£498,345
Stock fencing Total	£174,890	£6,241,183	£8,546,409	£8,582,754	£4,519,691	£3,867,097
Total	£174,890	£7,088,535	£10,021,974	£10,150,242	£5,105,016	£4,365,442

The amounts above show the value of the commitments contained on Rural Priorities contracts.

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Land Managers Options applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013.

Tell us your views

Chamber and committees