Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35774

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, whether it will guarantee access to mental health support for all children experiencing homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-35776

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, what steps it will take to improve data sharing between relevant public bodies in areas such as health, housing, homelessness and education, to help decision makers plan better services and improve outcomes for families experiencing homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-35777

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, whether it will end the use of hotel-like temporary accommodation for children.

Question reference: S6W-35775

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, how it will ensure that children are not forced to move schools when experiencing homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-35773

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, what steps are being taken to ensure that the reported 10,360 children in temporary accommodation have guaranteed access to primary care and dental services so that these children's needs are met while they continue to wait for a permanent home.

Question reference: S6W-35772

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, how it will work with local authorities to improve allocation policies and ensure that these take account of a child’s ethnicity and cultural background, age, disability, number of siblings, special educational needs and neurodivergence when providing temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S6W-35529

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 14 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding establishing a youth mobility scheme with the EU.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the UK Government to set out Scotland's priorities for the future relationship with the EU. We are clear that the UK Government should seek to agree a generous and wide-ranging youth mobility visa agreement with the EU. A youth mobility visa agreement will never replicate the benefits of freedom of movement, however, it will provide more opportunities for young people to live, work or study overseas. The UK already has reciprocal youth mobility agreements in place with 13 countries and territories and recent opinion polling shows strong support across Scotland for a UK/EU agreement.

Question reference: S6O-04456

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Question reference: S6W-35417

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it excludes the funding for any local authorities for the purposes of calculating average per person funding for local authorities as part of the policy, as stated in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, that each local authority receives at least 85% of the Scottish average revenue funding per head, and, if so, which local authorities; when they were first excluded, and for what reason.

The 85% funding floor is a key element of the needs-based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities each year.

Funding for all local authorities in Scotland is included in the calculation of the 85% Floor although the contribution of the three island councils and Argyll and Bute to the average calculation, is capped at 115%.

The capping adjustment has no effect on funding actually provided to those four authorities and it only applies for the purpose of calculating the average, in part to mitigate the risk that the Special Islands Needs Allowance (SINA) has a distortive impact on the calculation.

The capping adjustment has been in place since the 85% Floor was introduced in the 2012-13 Settlement (see Annex I of Local Government Finance Circular 11/2011).

Question reference: S6W-35419

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authority's per person funding would be below the 85% floor described in the Scottish Public Finance Manual if assumed council tax revenues were excluded from the calculation, and, if so, which local authorities.

Assumed council tax revenues are a key element of the needs-based distribution formula that is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities each year.

The inclusion of Assumed Council Tax in the overall distribution calculations reflects structural differences in the housing stock across the country and ensures that local authorities with a greater proportion of houses in band A to C are not disadvantaged, relative to those with a higher proportion of their houses in band E to H.

The absence of an Assumed Council Tax adjustment in the formula would disproportionately benefit more affluent local authorities. By way of illustration, for every £1 raised on a band D council tax bill, more affluent authorities receive 50% more income than the least affluent authorities. Including Assumed Council Tax in the settlement calculations is therefore a critical element of the needs-based distribution by ensuring that the impact of those structural differences are partially redistributed.

Excluding Assumed Council Tax from the 85% floor would remove this partial redistribution and would therefore be incompatible with the concept of a needs-based distribution methodology.

Distribution involves a complex and dynamic calculation with the impact on subsequent years being influenced by prior year calculations, primarily through the operation of the main funding floor.

If Assumed Council Tax were excluded from the calculation of the 85% floor, in the past five years, a hypothetical static analysis would indicate that Aberdeen City would have additionally been below 85 per cent in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and City of Edinburgh would have additionally been below 85 per cent in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.

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