Chamber and committees

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland was responsible for meeting the costs of bringing the giant pandas to Scotland in 2011. The Scottish Government made a financial contribution of £42,722.17 towards the planning, delivery and marketing of an arrival event.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10483 on 21 September 2022. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10483 on 21 September. 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 .

The Scottish Government remains committed to finding and implementing a solution to address the landslip risks at the Rest and be Thankful as quickly as possible. I fully recognise the impacts on the local community and businesses and I can assure the member that work is being progressed as a key priority.

Following the identification of a preferred route corridor for the long-term solution, Transport Scotland is currently progressing the design of route options within that corridor. This includes essential data gathering including environmental surveys and, earlier this year, a £1.8M ground investigation was undertaken.

New technical consultants have been appointed to take forward the next stages of design and assessment work, a contract expected to be worth approximately £25M.

I anticipate bringing forward proposals for the medium term solution by the end of this year and to announce a preferred route option for a long term solution by Spring 2023.

The contract to build two new vessels for the Islay routes was awarded to the Cemre shipyard by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited on 28 March 2022. Key activities at this stage relate to design work and procurement of major equipment, material, and service suppliers, all of which are reported to be progressing well and in line with agreed timelines and budgets. The scheduled delivery of the first of the two vessels is October 2024 and will enter service following sea trials and crew familiarisation. The second vessel will follow in early 2025.

The Scottish Government has no direct role in the provision of student accommodation. However, we are aware of the ongoing difficulties faced by students in accessing accommodation this academic year.

We are currently undertaking a review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) which will look at a number of issues, including affordability and supply and the findings from this report, along with findings from the New Deal for Tenants Report which considered similar issues in the private rented sector, will inform a student accommodation strategy for Scotland.

As required under Rule 9.3.2 of the Parliament’s Standing Orders, the Financial Memorandum was published to accompany the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill, introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 13 August 2020. This outlines the projected and anticipated costs of the scheme.

Although there is an appropriate level of scrutiny on administration costs of the scheme, managed through the Redress, Relations and Response Division of Scottish Government, it is important to note that, as outlined in the Statement of Principles , there is no fixed budget or limit to the number or amount of redress payments which will be paid by the Scottish Government. We are committed to giving financial redress to survivors, regardless of the financial contributions received, because it is the right thing to do.

Redress Scotland is an independent body, which is not part of Scottish Government and is monitored by the Redress Scotland Sponsorship Team, within the Children’s Rights, Protection and Justice Division.

Scotland has a varied building stock, with many different ages and types of properties. Homes are built with various levels of insulation, with many having altered the building fabric since construction (for example by installing double glazing). This makes defining a ‘non-retrofitted home’ challenging. The most consistent approach to comparing the running cost of a heat pump to the running cost of a gas boiler is to compare the relative cost of heat from each system, taking into account their differing efficiencies.

Under the recently announced Energy Price Guarantee, the unit rate of gas for the average consumer is 10.3 p/kWh, compared to 34.0 p/kWh for electricity. While estimates of the energy efficiency of heat pumps vary, air source heat pumps are typically considered to be two to three times more efficient than gas boilers. Therefore, we estimate broadly that a home with the average heat demand would face an estimated annual cost of around £1,900 using a gas boiler, compared to around £2,000 using an air source heat pump. This estimate is illustrative and subject to uncertainty. It is based on average household demand for heat and varies in line with assumed levels of gas and electricity prices, as well as the assumed efficiencies of the respective heating systems.

The Heat in Buildings Strategy proposes to set minimum energy efficiency standards alongside heating system change, so that the energy efficiency of our housing stock will be improved ahead of, or in tandem with, a zero direct emissions heating system being installed. This approach will reduce the running cost of zero direct emissions heating systems, such as heat pumps. We therefore don’t expect that heat pumps will be installed in properties unless the energy efficiency is at an appropriate level, which is currently being developed through external research.

Electricity policy and regulation is reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government is calling on the UK Government to take urgent action to rebalance gas and electricity prices such that the running costs of zero direct emission heating systems are more favourable compared with fossil fuel incumbents.

There is no target timescale for the time from an application being received by Scotland’s Redress scheme and it being processed through to being complete and ready to transfer to Redress Scotland, who are the non-departmental public body which assesses and makes decisions on redress applications. The reason for not having a target time is because each application varies in complexity, with survivors and applicants requiring differing levels of support to complete the application and a dependency on other organisations to complete the required verifications around care settings and any previous relevant payments made.

We are committed to ensuring each application is reviewed by case workers within six weeks of receipt. This process identifies if further information is required or if applications are ready to allocate to a named case worker to undertake the required verification checks, ahead of seeking applicant approval to send to Redress Scotland.

We have recently recruited additional case workers and have made changes to the operating model of the scheme to ensure there is an increased focus on the case working team contacting, offering support, and progressing the applications for all applicants. Applications are now allocated to a named caseworker when the application is largely complete and approaching the stage of being ready to send to Redress Scotland for consideration. It remains the case that priority for allocation is given to applicants with a terminal illness and those over the age of 68.

The most recent published figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is available at: Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and Ukraine Family Scheme: Visa data by age and sex of applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .This provides the sex breakdown by age grouping of displaced people from Ukraine who have arrived under the Super Sponsor Scheme.