Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the report detailing offshore workers’ demands for a just energy transition and agrees that listening to and acting on recommendations from workers is critical to ensure a Just Transition.

We must ensure a fair and just transition for our skilled offshore workers and that is why we have provided £100,000 in funding to the STUC to ensure workers’ voices are at the heart of our just transition planning.

The recommendations provided within this report are being carefully considered as part of the work to finalise the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP).

Apprenticeship statistics are published on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website at Statistics | Skills Development Scotland . The statistics also include a breakdown of the number of Modern Apprenticeships by occupational grouping and a breakdown by framework for Foundation and Graduate Apprenticeships.

To note, SDS do not hold data on employer size.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19952 on 9 August 2023, lodged by Liam Kerr. 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 Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan scheme aims to decarbonise the way we heat our homes by helping with the costs of installing zero direct emissions heating systems (ZDEH) such as a heat pump and installing energy efficiency measures in homes.

Where a ZDEH has been installed, a solar PV system and battery storage can be used to generate and store some of the electricity required to run the system – reducing electricity demand and the running costs for the homeowner. A solar PV system and battery storage system would not support a household reducing demand for gas if it is installed in a home heated by a gas boiler. Solar PV and energy storage can reduce overall energy bills for consumers with other forms of heating such as oil and gas but they do not specifically contribute to reducing the energy required to heat homes.

Energy efficiency measures will reduce the energy required to heat a home, and reduces the running costs of any heating system. A home with gas heating can still apply to the HES scheme for grants and loans towards the costs of installing energy efficiency measures in their home because this would reduce the energy required to heat their homes.

From July 2022 to June 2023 there has been nine Scottish Government public health broadcasting campaigns that have used Linear TV, Broadcast Video on Demand and/or Radio.

Regular engagement takes place with the COSLA Environment and Economy policy board. Most recently this included presenting a paper to the board on 23 June providing an update on local authorities progress with their Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES). LHEES will provide area-based plans for decarbonising all buildings in a local authority area, including those owned by local authorities, in line with net zero commitments, which support and guide capital investment (both public and private) over the longer term. The cost of decarbonising local authority buildings specifically has not arisen as part of these discussions, but LHEES will set out what is required to achieve this when they are published by the local authorities. Local authorities are required to publish their first LHEES by the end of 2023, and this duty reinforces the wider duty on public bodies to contribute to the delivery of our national statutory targets to reduce emissions.

To support the decarbonisation of local authority buildings, the Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund has been launched in partnership with Salix offering up to £20 million in grants to support local authorities, as well as universities and arm’s-length external organisations to decarbonise their buildings. The funding forms part of the £200 million already committed to the public sector for energy efficiency and renewable heating over the next five years - part of the wider plan to spend £1.8 billion in this current parliamentary session on decarbonising Scotland’s buildings.

More widely, in our Heat in Buildings Strategy the Scottish Government committed to “work with COSLA to strengthen and integrate governance arrangements on heat and energy efficiency, to ensure effective delivery over the long term.” A liaison role was created in 2022 to provide capacity within COSLA to engage across the Heat in Buildings programme and embed a partnership approach. This resulted in the establishment of the Heat in Buildings Local Government Oversight group, which meets on a regular basis to provide a forum for dialog between relevant Scottish Government and COSLA officials on the Heat in Buildings programme and wider heat transition.

The number of support for learning teachers employed in state schools is shown in Table 1. The Scottish Government collects data on teachers through an annual census in September, so the following information refers to teachers employed in September rather than April.

These statistics include teachers in all sectors (Primary, Secondary, Special and Centrally Employed).

Table 1. Support for learning teachers in Scottish schools

As stated in response to S6W-19919, S6W-19920, S6W-19921 and S6W-19922 on 9 August 2023, the 2021 Heat in Buildings Strategy estimates the cost of decarbonising Scotland’s buildings at £33 billion. We will work in partnership with the wider public sector to fully understand the costs associated with transitioning to zero direct emission heating systems across the public estate.

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 has not stopped offering interest free loans for residential solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems. The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan currently provides grant funding of £1250 for the installation of each of these measures, with a further £4750 available as an interest free loan for each. This funding is available where these measures are installed alongside a renewable heating system.

Previously, the HES scheme also provided interest free loans for installation of solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems where not installed alongside a renewable heating system. For the reasons behind this decision, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19607 on 28 July 2023, lodged by Richard Leonard. 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

This update to the scheme was communicated directly to potentially affected applicants to the scheme, and notified on the Home Energy Scotland Grant & Loan web page, rather than through a press release.

There was no specific consultation on this decision, however the update to the scheme is in line with the priorities and principles which were set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy. We consulted on a draft of this Strategy in February 2021.

The terms of the scheme are clear that funding is available on a first-come first-served basis while budget lasts. Any advance announcement would have risked a surge in applications that could have overwhelmed the advice and application services, as well as resulting in a total value of applications which would have exceeded the available budget.

The following table provides a breakdown of measures installed and the number and value of grants and loans paid in full through the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme (formerly HES Loan and Cashback Scheme) for domestic properties in the Financial Year 2022-23.