Chamber and committees

The number of households who have received assistance to purchase under the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme can be found in the attached Affordable Housing Supply Programme out-turn reports and data.

More homes: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government does not record if homes are new build or existing homes.

There is approximately 400MW of solar PV operational in Scotland, equating to 3% of total operational capacity.

As of 2020, there are at least 60,000 domestic level solar PV installations in Scotland with a capacity of just over 200MW, and around 8000 solar thermal installations.

Of the remaining operational Solar PV, approximately 12,000 of these are community and locally owned PV installations. With around 3500 community and locally owned solar thermal projects, these are typically found across housing associations, public sector, communities and other charitable organisations.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data on commercial or ground mounted only solar PV schemes.

There is approximately 350 MW of solar capacity in pipeline in Scotland, including 32MW in planning, 44MW under construction and 281 awaiting construction, representing 2.25% of the overall renewables pipeline in Scotland. This will take the total capacity of both installed and pipeline of solar in Scotland to in the region of 750MW.

Discussions are ongoing regarding the proposed distribution of the Financial Transactions available for 2022-23. We plan to continue to support the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, but allocations have not yet been agreed for the full use of these funds.

The name of the short-life group was the Materials Shortages Working Group.

The purpose of the group was to examine where the immediate shortages were most acute and to identify opportunities to remove barriers and build capacity within Scotland. The minutes for this group were not published.

The group was set up in June 2021 and met a total of 12 times with the final meeting taking place on Tuesday 28 September 2021.

A letter summarising the key findings from the Materials Shortage Working Group’s work was sent to the Economy and Fair Work committee on 25 January 2022 and has been published on the Scottish Parliament website. Details of this letter can be found in the following link.

Construction Materials Shortages Working Group | Scottish Parliament Website

These figures are based on the latest advice from SAGE’s Environmental Modelling Group, which monitors evidence from a wide range of authoritative sources. Our guidance is reviewed as scientific advice develops.

The figures used are aligned with those used in guidance issued by the Department for Education in England and the Welsh Government.

The Department for Education has undertaken a review of air cleaning devices likely to be suitable for use in schools, and associated costs, to support a centralised procurement strategy. This information was therefore utilised to assist in building up our cost assumptions.

Only a small number of local authorities in Scotland have to date chosen to utilise air cleaning devices, in a very small number of problematic spaces as a temporary measure.

Tourism, planning and housing officials have worked closely together on the development of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 and Town Country Planning (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. The policy area taking the lead will depend on the specifics of each case.

However, generally the short-term lets policy team within the Directorate for Housing and Social Justice are responsible for matters relating to the short-term lets licensing scheme and control area regulations, which fall within my portfolio remit.

The overall responsibility for tourism businesses and tourism strategy remains with the tourism policy team within the Directorate for Economic Development, which fall within the remit of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 were made today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 5) Regulations 2022 (“the Amendment Regulations”) amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the Principal Regulations”) and will take effect on 28 February 2022.

The Amendment Regulations remove from the Principal Regulations the provisions in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine certification scheme. In particular, these Regulations:

• remove the requirement for persons responsible for certain premises to operate a reasonable system for checking that persons on, or seeking to enter, their premises are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, have received appropriate test results, or are otherwise exempt from the requirement to demonstrate that they are fully vaccinated.
• remove the requirement for certain premises to prepare a compliance plan describing how their systems will operate and other measures in place to prevent or minimise the spread of coronavirus.
• remove the requirement to treat information as confidential, and;
• remove supplemental provisions in relation to licensing for certain premises.

The Regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2022/74

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is now closed to new applications and there will be no further awareness raising of the loan. However, tenants can still seek support for pandemic related rent arrears through the Tenant Grant Fund, which is non-repayable and being delivered through local authorities to prevent homelessness.

The example scenario used to generate overall costings for the up-to-£5m funding was developed with input from the Scottish Futures Trust, and drew on the costings that had already been developed for the Business Ventilation Fund with input from the expert Covid-19 Ventilation Short Life Working Group.

As was made clear in the letter to the Committee, an undercut of a door was only one element of the example set of remedial measures used to calculate the up-to-£5m fund. The other elements that formed part of the example were temporary use of an air cleaning device and installation of small mechanical ventilation units.

Inclusion of the potential for a door undercut in the example is fully in line with expert advice. This makes clear that undercuts (small gaps at the bottom of a door) allow air pressure to be equalised on each side of the door, to ensure that additional force on one side does not make the door difficult to open. This includes cases where the pressure increase caused by mechanical ventilation systems – another key element of the example scenario – could impair the normal safe operation of a door. It was for this reason that this element was included in the example scenario.