Chamber and committees

Table 1 shows the number of new build completions in Scotland fitted with zero emissions heating systems in the period 2016 to 2021. This includes all homes using electricity, biomass or connected to a community heating system as their main heating fuel type.

The answer to your question is outlined in the following tables. Please note, data for 2021-2022 Area Based Schemes are still being collected and will be published on the ABS webpage in due course: Area Based Schemes: annual final measures reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Warmer Homes Scotland

I reaffirm the answer to S6W-06416 on 25 February 2022, and in my letter of 6 May to you as convener of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee about the National Public Energy Agency. Specifically, as set out in the Scottish Government’s a Fairer, greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22, we made a commitment to create a dedicated National Public Energy Agency by September 2025. This is an ongoing area of work, and issues such as staffing and budget will be considered as the work to develop and design the Agency progresses over this parliamentary period.

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

As set out in our Part II consultation on the New Build Heat Standard (NBHS) ( New build heat standard consultation: part II - Scottish Government - Citizen Space ), the Scottish Government proposes that from 2024, new buildings must use zero direct emissions heating systems of the sort set out at section 2.2.1 of that consultation.

It is our intention for these regulations to be technology-neutral, to ensure developers have flexibility in achieving compliance.

The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research to establish the direct greenhouse gas emissions associated with all readily available low and zero direct emissions heating systems. A copy of this research is available here: Direct greenhouse gas emissions from low and zero carbon heating systems (climatexchange.org.uk)

Our Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project, published in June 2022, provided an analysis of the current scale of the existing workforce in Scotland trained to fit certain zero emission heating systems such as heat pumps. The report highlighted that there are no publicly available statistics regarding the total number of heat pump installers in the UK and Scotland, but estimated that there are around 500 trained heat pump installers currently active in Scotland, based on data from the Microrenewable Certification Scheme. The report highlights that other forms of zero direct emissions heating such as direct electric radiators can be installed by an electrician, without any specialist heating knowledge, and there were an estimated 22,000 electricians operating in Scotland in 2018.

Ultimately, sending employees on training courses to develop new skills is the responsibility of businesses in the supply chain and this will be guided by commercial drivers. However we have sought to support businesses by offering free heat pump training in Scottish colleges through our National Transition Training Fund, with over £470,000 funding to support over 500 college places since 2020. This support combined with our early signal of intent and consultation on the proposed NBHS standard has provided businesses with an opportunity to prepare their workforce for regulation.

There are no specific statutory minimum qualifications required to install zero direct emissions heating systems, however we have worked with industry to define the minimum skillsets and recommended minimum qualifications required to install a full spectrum of zero direct emission heating systems, and have published this as part of an Installer Skill Matrix .

We have worked to integrate this matrix into the certification schemes that underpin quality assurance in any public funded work, and we would encourage the private sector to also use this in any non-public funded works.

To date we have provided £164,700 capital investment in colleges in the North of Scotland for heat pump and thermal insulation training equipment, with further investment in the South of Scotland provided by the Scottish Power Green Economy Fund. According to the Energy Skills Partnership, there are currently 11 colleges in Scotland with capacity to train up to 120 heat pump engineers each month. Three new training facilities will come online later this year, taking capacity to 150 each month. We understand that this provision is capable of meeting existing levels of demand for training in the sector.

We are committed to working with the new build sector to ensure that our investment in skills and training matches the needs of the sector as demand grows in the future.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its final proposals for the New Build Heat Standard. This consultation will inform the final regulations which are expected to be laid during 2023 before coming into force in April 2024. Alongside those regulations we will publish a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment. This will set out estimated costs and benefits of the approach, including emissions reductions.

I understand that the UK Government’s e-scooter trials, which commenced in July 2020, are still ongoing in England. The first phase of analysis of the trials is now complete, and I understand that this will be published in autumn 2022.

Transport Scotland has still not received any data or analysis from the trials in England from the UK Government. My officials will continue to push for sight of this data.

Transport Scotland holds information on charge points registered on the ChargePlace Scotland network only and by local authority boundary and not by parliamentary constituency.

Across the local authority boundary areas that this constituency covers there were a total of 28 public charge points commissioned onto the ChargePlace Scotland network between 01 June 2021 and 31 May 2022.

Our approach, which includes our new £60m fund, is designed to attract private investment and create the conditions for the public network to be largely financed and operated by the commercial sector.

Since its launch in August 2020, the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has committed £15.3 million for the retrofit of 1804 Social Housing properties across Scotland. The fund offers grant support of up to 50% of the total eligible costs of the project, with the average amount of support provided per property being £8,300.

While pharmacy closures can occur, this on the whole represents a small proportion of the network and is often limited to a small proportion of the required model hours. The Scottish Government continue to work with all Health Boards and community pharmacies representatives who are responsible for the provision of local pharmaceutical care services to ensure that any challenges faced by community pharmacies in providing the safe and effective dispensing of treatments are discussed with the local Health Board to minimise impact and risk to patients. Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor.

The Scottish Government does not consider setting a nationwide target for sustainable deer populations to be the most effective method of meeting our Biodiversity Strategy targets for 2030. Our approach is to assess and identify priority areas where there is evidence of, or a high risk of deer damage, to ensure deer management efforts are focused and coordinated where there is the greatest need.

We set out our commitment to modernising Scotland's systems of deer management in response to the independent Deer Working Group and work is being taken forward as part of our new deer project. This project sits under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme Board and work is being taken forward via four workstreams focusing on: legislation; regulation; incentives; and operational delivery.