Chamber and committees

CHAS received £6m pa from 2016/17 – 2020/21. This was followed by a Programme for Government commitment in 2021/22 to “ensure provision of high-quality child palliative care, regardless of location, supported by sustainable funding of at least £7m per year through Children’s Hospices Across Scotland”.

Scotland’s Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in October 2021, outlines our ambitious programme that reflects the scale and the size of the challenge to reduce emissions from our buildings. Our commitment to allocate at least £1.8bn over this parliament will help kick-start growth in the market and support those least able to pay. This includes:

• At least £465m to support those least able to pay, delivered through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based schemes.
• £300m for Scotland’s Heat Network Fund.
• £200m Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, investing in a sector already leading the way in the heat transition.
• £200m Scottish Green Public Sector Estate Scheme, supporting leadership for energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation right across the public sector.

Of the £1.8bn allocated as part of the strategy , £154.8m has been spent to the end of January 2023.

The delivery of the Heat in Buildings Strategy will require a combination of both regulation and support. Our investment in support will be enhanced and gain momentum as we develop our package of regulation through our Heat in Buildings Bill and policy and as we work towards a dedicated Public Energy Agency in 2025.

Work is continuing on the different categories of support for the allocation of £366 million of funding in the for 2023/24 financial year. However, the broad expectation is that around 60% of this will be allocated to our schemes to deliver energy efficiency and zero emissions heating to homes with households at most risk of fuel poverty. The remaining 40% would be targeted at larger investment schemes that improve energy efficiency or installation of zero emissions heating in public sector buildings, social housing homes and towards installation and development of heat networks.

A number of steps have been taken to aid in the delivery aims of the HiBs’ programme. We are in the process of finalising the procurement of the successor to the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, with a potential spend over the next 7 years of £700 million. This is a significant component of the overall spend in the next 3 years. The continued development of robust Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies will help all stakeholders have greater insight to the likely deployment of different heat and energy efficiency solutions across different parts of Scotland. We are also making an increased investment in feasibility, advice and pre-capital support that will help to drive the implementation of projects at scale (e.g. public sector and heat network projects), which will see further acceleration in 2023. Finally, we are investing in raising public awareness of the heat transition and our schemes and we are committed to developing the Agency that will help accelerate take up in part through creating stronger, clearer identity and improving cross industry co-ordination. The Agency has already been set up in virtual form and now has resourcing in place to help start to create the momentum needed.

The HiBs' programme regularly publish reports to the Scottish Government website detailing projects that have completed or are underway within a number of the funded programmes. Reports have recently been published for the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme , Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Fund and Social Housing Net Zero Fund .

The SG has no plans to change the funding arrangements for adult hospices.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) under the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 to plan and commission services for their area using the integrated budget under their control, including palliative and end of life care services.

I replied to a similar question from the member on 3 November 2022 (S6W-11386) providing details from 1999-2000 to 2021-2022. I have included in the following table the information for 2022-2023 following the Spring Budget Revision.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06291 on 28 February 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

The Scottish Government does not hold information on work being carried out in either new or old housing developments to support bat conservation.

All bats in Scotland are protected under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 and therefore any development work, including housing, has to take into account the conservation and protection of the species and ensure that there will be no adverse impacts on their conservation status.

The level of local authority reserves from 2007 to 2022 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64019. Please note that the information you have requested is not available at individual local authority level prior to 2007.

The Scottish Government holds limited information on pension contributions and these are contained within the Local Financial Returns (LFRs). Data on LFRs is published as part of the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics.

Teachers

There are currently two occupational pension schemes for teachers in Scotland. These schemes are administered by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The SPPA is the definitive source of information on teachers pensions.

Non-Teachers

The Local Government Pension Scheme in Scotland is a funded, defined benefit, statutory occupational pension scheme. It's one of the main public service pension schemes in Scotland, serving more than 236,000 active members, over 140,000 deferred members and more than 169,000 pensioners and dependents.

The scheme is administered by 11 local government administering authorities. These are:

• Dumfries and Galloway Pension Fund
• Falkirk Council Pension Fund
• Fife Council Pension Fund
• Highland Council Pension Fund
• Lothian Pension Fund
• North East Scotland Pension Fund
• Orkney Islands Pension Fund
• Scottish Borders Pension Fund
• Shetland Islands Pension Fund
• Strathclyde Pension Fund
• Tayside Superannuation Fund

These eleven funds provide information on employee and employer pension contributions, as shown in the table below. The contributions cover all employers in the schemes, and this is broader than just Scotland’s 32 councils. It is not possible to separate out the individual local authority contributions in the data held centrally by Scottish Government.

Responsibility for public libraries sits with the relevant local authorities, and as such, this information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. However, Scottish Government officials work closely with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) to ensure that Ministers are kept aware of relevant local issues as they arise. Information provided by the Scottish Libraries and Information Council showed that no Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years.

Skills Development Scotland published quarterly statistics on the Employability Fund. The information you have requested can be found at the following website. Employability Fund | Skills Development Scotland