Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30247 on 22 January 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Energy Savings Trust, which administers the Package, promoted the EAP both at national and local level and provides regular reports on marketing and community liaison activities. These reports do not analyse activity by local authority, but give examples of local organisations contacted.

Examples are given for the third quarter of 2009 of both national campaigns and the type of work that is undertaken at local level by the Energy Savings Scotland advice centres (ESSacs).

- A national television campaign ran from 18 September to 11 December, which was targeted at 73.5% of the TV viewing audience. It is estimated that the ad would be seen up to 12 times. This was reinforced with a national direct mailing campaign in October covering 106,000 households assessed as having a high probability of being eligible for stages 3 and 4 of the EAP.

- Each ESSac made phone calls to households who had previously contacted them for energy savings advice, to invite them to contact the Energy Assistance Package.

- Community Liaison Officers in the ESSacs undertook many different EAP marketing activities in 2009 including:

-presentations to stakeholder groups working with our target beneficiaries;

-exhibition stands at relevant conferences and events;

-leaflets sent to contacts within key stakeholder organisations, and

-letters sent to nurseries within schools.

- They also undertook national liaison activities, including MSP/MP constituency visits, presentations to national stakeholder groups, updates to service delivery partners, briefing with a national carer network to secure training for their information workers and leafleting across their members, and attendance at relevant national conferences where information was issued to delegates and led to further dissemination of information about EAP.

It is also possible to identify some activities specific to Shetland:

- A direct mailing was sent in late September to around 900 households in Shetland South Mainland, co-branded with the Shetland Amenity Trust. The letter invited people to complete a Home Energy Check questionnaire and promoted the EAP.

- On 23 October, an EAP advertisement was included in The Shetland Times'' four-page feature on Energy Saving Week.

- The Highlands and Islands Energy Savings Scotland advice centre (ESSac) has a dedicated Outreach Engagement Officer in Shetland. The ESSac has undertaken a range of activities to promote the EAP in Shetland:

-community advice surgeries;

-presentations to community councils;

-posters and leaflets in doctor''s surgeries throughout Shetland;

-discussions with key organisations in the area, including the local authority, insulation and heating system installers, and

-meetings with organisations that deal with the families with young children and older households (for example, a meeting with the Association of Pre-School Play led to an editorial piece in their Shetland-wide pre-school nursery newsletter).

The Energy Assistance Package checks the eligibility of each caller and identifies the individual types of help appropriate to them. It is therefore not possible to identify an unsuccessful application.

Local energy advisors guide the caller through a structured telephone interview. All callers are offered energy savings advice, usually based on a Home Energy Check that identifies ways in which their home can be improved. This is stage one of the package.

Where appropriate, callers are asked if they want to be referred to stage two for one or more of the following:

- income maximisation: either the Pensions Service or Citizens Advice Direct will call to check their entitlement to benefits;

- reduction in fuel bills: their electricity supplier will call them to check their eligibility for social tariffs and also may be able to switch them to cheaper payment methods.

If the caller is interested in stages three or four, the advisor asks various questions to establish whether the household is likely to be eligible for either or both stages.

Callers who are clearly eligible only for stage three are referred to energy suppliers for a Stage Three survey.

Advisors refer a caller for a stage four eligibility survey if it appears from the interview that the household is eligible. They are also instructed to refer for survey any caller who is unable to provide sufficient information to complete the questionnaire, dwellings where the energy efficiency rating is borderline, or dwellings that are too large to be assessed using the Home Energy Check.

At stage two:

the Pensions Service decides eligibility for pension credits according to the relevant regulations;

Citizens Advice Direct checks the eligibility of younger households for benefits and advises them how to apply, but it is up to the household to apply to the relevant agency, which decides eligibility (such as HM Revenue and Customs for tax credits, to Job Centre Plus or the Department of Work and Pensions for income support and other benefits, or to the local authority for housing benefit or reduction in council tax);

energy suppliers decide whether households are eligible for a social tariff according to their own guidelines.

At stage three:

the energy company decides whether measures can be provided with CERT funding;

some referrals to Stage Three do not result in installed measures, for four reasons: the household cannot be contacted, they cannot provide evidence of eligibility, they cancel their enquiry about stage three, or the surveyor finds that the house is not suitable for the particular insulation measures available for CERT funding.

At stage four:

the eligibility survey is a check against the requirements of the Home Energy Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as amended; it comprises a check of household eligibility and a building survey using Reduced data SAP, which estimates energy performance.

10% of households referred to stage four are not surveyed, because either the caller cannot be contacted to arrange a survey or they decide to cancel their enquiry.

Of the households rejected after an eligibility survey:

- over half cannot provide evidence of eligibility, although some subsequently provide proof and are accepted;

- the remainder are rejected because the dwelling is found not to be energy inefficient within the terms of the regulations, having a SAP rating of 55 or more.

The Energy Assistance Package is a demand-led programme targeted primarily towards fuel poor households.

Each month, fuel poverty officials review progress on the installation of heating system and insulations measures, both nationally and by each local authority. Statistics for stages one, two, and three and the overall number of calls, broken down by local authority are also reviewed. Any additional analyses are then requested as required.

Shetland has 0.4% of the Scottish population and at stage four, Shetland has had 0.4% of the total insulation, draughtproofing and heating system measures completed up to the end of December under the EAP. It also has 0.4% of the households where heating system measures are being progressed and should be completed by the end of the year. Nonetheless, I am aware of the high incidence of fuel poverty in Shetland, as described by the Scottish House Condition Survey and would seek to encourage a higher uptake to reflect this.

In population terms, it may appear that Shetland is under-represented in stages one, two, and three of the EAP and the total number of calls, with about half the expected numbers relative to the size of population. Shetland Islands Council (SIC) operates its own scheme to address fuel poverty and the ESSac is working with them to ensure the Energy Assistance Package and the SIC scheme complement each other and avoid overlap. I have asked the Energy Savings Trust to review fuel poverty work in Shetland by both the local authority and the ESSac and, if appropriate, to make further efforts to raise awareness of the programme in Shetland.

The consideration of all supporting documentation is an integral part of the project assessment process. All applications for grant are considered within the published framework and timescales for the assessment of applications. These timescales may vary due to the size and complexity of cases. Further details are available on the Rural Priorities website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/SRDP/RuralPriorities.

For information on the time taken between assessment rounds and the announcement of results, I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30514, on 15 January 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The scoring benchmarks under the Rural Priorities element of the Scotland Rural Development Programme are agreed by a national committee, in advance of regional assessment committee meetings, and are intended as a guide for the regional committees.

Regional committees retain the discretion, in exceptional circumstances, to approve cases below the threshold, or reject cases above the threshold, taking account of the full range of local circumstances.

Individual applicants can obtain information on request from their case officer, on scoring thresholds, and how their own case was scored.

To date we have not received any request to publish the national thresholds, but would be happy to do so.

We are not able to report average contract issue times for each region. We issue contracts for successful Rural Priorities applications as soon as possible after approval is given. The time taken to issue contracts can be affected by a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, the accuracy of the information provided by the applicant and changes to payment rates. In such cases, officials remain in contact with applicants to keep them informed of the situation.

Any applicant with concerns should speak to their case officer in the first instance.

The Regional Proposal Assessment Committee (RPAC) system only relates to the Rural Priorities element of the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). We endeavour to make decisions on RPAC recommendations as soon as possible after the final committee has sat. However, there are a number of internal procedures to be followed in order to collate and validate the accuracy of the figures before the recommendations can be considered. As the recommendations from all regions are considered by the Scottish Government within the same timescale, there is no regional breakdown of the figures.

The following table sets out, for each round, the date of the last RPAC meeting and the date of the formal announcement of the results.

RPAC (last day)	Announcement
26 August 2008	11 September 2008
31 October 2008	26 November 2008
9 December 2008	29 December 2008
26 February 2009	2 April 2009
14 August 2009	16 September 2009
27 November 2009	7 January 2010

 

In 2009, 113 applications were made by Shetland applicants for funding under the Rural Priorities element of the Scotland Rural Development Programme. Ninety-one of these included agri-environment options.

(a) 63 proposals with an agri-environment element gained approval, either in full or in part.

(b) 28 proposals had their agri-environment element rejected.

There is no specific recommendation or requirement in the guidance for the Rural Priorities element of the Scotland Rural Development Programme regarding the arrangements for any bridging loan that may be necessary.

Ultimately it is for applicants to provide adequate evidence that sufficient match funding is available to enable the project to go forward.