Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government deliver assistance and funding to local volunteer groups for the procurement of electric vehicles, e-Bikes and associated electric vehicle infrastructure through the Plugged-in Communities and eBike grant funds. This scheme is administered on behalf of Scottish Ministers by the Energy Saving Trust (EST). Some of the groups provided assistance through this scheme may not be full volunteer organisations but will have volunteers and volunteer drivers.

Table 1 – Funding for Electric Vehicles and e-Bikes procured through Plugged-in Communities and eBike Grant Fund in each Financial Year since 2016.

The following two tables provide details of funding:

1. Awarded under various funding schemes to each of the local authorities for public EV charging infrastructure and to local authorities and other public bodies for public sector fleet EV charging infrastructure.

2. Awarded through the Energy Saving Trust to private businesses and domestic customers.

In addition to the figures in the Table 1, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Councils jointly benefited from a £5.3m grant to supporting public EV charging infrastructure through project PACE between 2019 and 2021, this resulted in the installation of 167 new charge points at 44 hubs across the region.

Table 1. Funding to Local Authorities

The Scottish Government does not hold data on how many GPs are able to send patients directly to diagnostic tests. GPs make appropriate clinical decisions based upon the individual assessment of patients, this includes referrals for diagnostic tests.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a just transition to net zero, putting people and communities at the heart of our approach. The Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, set out these aims and the accompanying equality impact assessment reviews how our energy efficiency delivery schemes support people through this transition. https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-buildings-strategy-equality-impact-assessment/pages/

The Scottish Government funds Home Energy Scotland (HES), a free and impartial advice service available for anyone wanting to improve the energy efficiency of their home. HES can be contacted across a range of channels and formats to ensure our advice and funding support services are widely accessible. This include web based enquiries, over the telephone, by bespoke email or private messaging on social media platforms, face to face at events or in people’s own homes. Help is available through the British Sign Language app, and HES has partnered with the translation organisation “Happy to Translate”. Similar support is available for business owners through our free and impartial Business Energy Scotland service.

We will also publish a new Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy this year to set out how we will work with wider trusted messengers, from a national-to-local level, to raise awareness and understanding of the heat transition with different communities across Scotland. This will include increasing promotion of our existing advice and support services to ensure people can access the right support, at the right time to meet their needs as they undertake energy efficiency improvements to their properties and a move to renewable heating. Delivery of public engagement in line with the upcoming strategy will be led and coordinated by our new national public energy agency, Heat & Energy Efficiency, which was established in a virtual form in September 2022 and currently operates in-house to the Scottish Government ahead of becoming a dedicated body by 2025.

In line with our commitment to bring forward a Circular Economy Bill in this parliamentary year, we will introduce a Bill ahead of summer recess. The Bill will be designed to advance a zero waste and circular economy by increasing reuse and recycling rates, and improving waste and recycling services.

We acknowledge the findings of the report and recognise the importance of providing the right support to families during the early years. Investment in prevention and whole family wellbeing is a key element of our commitment to keep The Promise. This includes training and support in trauma-informed and skilled practice for professionals and annual funding of £3m for embedding infant mental health work across Health Boards.

Young families are entitled to access co-ordinated support across services where need is identified. We are committed to delivering transformational change to improve holistic family support, so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time.

We have allocated £350m to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures this year, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households.

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS), our national fuel poverty scheme, is designed to help those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures in to individual properties. Individuals over 60 who had no working heating system or who are in receipt of certain benefits have been eligible for support through the scheme.

WHS is now closed to new applicants but a successor to WHS will launch in October 2023. Home Energy Scotland are currently taking applications for this scheme.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee and anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme provides support for all owner occupied households to install energy efficiency measures. All domestic owner occupiers in Scotland can apply to the scheme. Grant funding of up to 75% of the combined costs of measures up to a maximum £7,500 is available, with an additional £7,500 of funding available as an interest free loan. A rural uplift of £1,500 applies to the energy efficiency grant, this uplift increases the maximum limit of the grant to £9,000.

Funding is available via the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund for Social Landlords to apply for projects which will install energy efficiency measures across their housing stock. Pensioners who live in social housing will benefit from this investment, which also includes sheltered accommodation.

We are maintaining our £64 million investment in energy efficiency improvements this year, targeting areas with high levels of fuel poverty through our Area Based Schemes.

Transport Scotland has engaged with representatives from the Love My Bus campaign at Transform Scotland and will be promoting Scottish Bus Week as agreed in these discussions, including through social media engagement.

Transport Scotland has also undertaken close engagement with the bus industry to launch the Choose the Bus marketing campaign. The campaign seeks to promote the benefits of bus and encourage people to travel by bus more often. The campaign will be live across a range of advertising channels during Scottish Bus Week, including TV, digital, radio and outdoor.

The successor scheme to Warmer Homes Scotland will support those most vulnerable and most likely to be in fuel poverty. Any ‘low-income pensioner’ will be eligible for support, this includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee or anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme will create a much larger eligible group than that of the current scheme.

The answer to question S6W-17589 on 16 May 2023 provides further detail on steps taken to ensure that our schemes are accessible to all.

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