Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) provides interest-free loans and grant funding to improve the energy efficiency of homes in Scotland.

Funding is available in the form of interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback for eligible renewables measures, 40% cashback for eligible energy efficiency measures and in the form of grants through our Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty scheme.

Funding is available to all households who meet the eligible criteria.

To further support households to make their homes greener, HES also provide:

• free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
• the Green Homes Network which allows households to find out about the experience of others who have already installed measures; and
• the Renewable Installer Finder Tool which helps households find installers and suppliers in their area.

Under the HES Loan and Cashback scheme, homeowners can borrow up to £17,500 for a total of two renewables measures (attracting up 75% cashback). For energy efficiency measures, loans of up to £15,000 is available (attracting up to 40% cashback).

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) is the Scottish Government’s national fuel poverty scheme, designed to make homes warmer for those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures into individual properties.

Home owners and private rented sector tenants struggling to heat their homes may benefit under the Warmer Homes Scheme. Heating measures are available to those in receipt of certain benefits and who are pregnant or with children under the age of 16 years.

Full details of both schemes can be found on the Home Energy Scotland website.

COPFS collates data based on reports to each Procurator Fiscal (PF) office, not by local authority area and so, based on geographic proximities, for (a) South Ayrshire the relevant PF office is Ayr and (b) East Ayrshire, the data is based on reports received at PF office Kilmarnock.

COPFS can provide the number of charges reported to COPFS and of those, the number that were convicted. A further breakdown of charges convicted excluding any with a disposal of prison sentence has also been provided.

Although most charges were prosecuted with the majority convicted, others resulted in no conviction or no further action and a number are still live and ongoing.

Other charges received an alternative to prosecution such as diversion to social work department or referral to children’s reporter or were marked “no action” for example, in cases where there was insufficient admissible evidence.

The information requested is provided in the following table: -

We are committed to a Just Transition, reducing emissions from our homes and buildings in a way that leaves no one behind. Planned actions that will support a wide range of households, including young families, to invest in home renewables and make sustainable lifestyle choices include:

• Introducing a standalone grant through the Home Energy Scotland support scheme, giving young families and other households more flexibility to tailor support for home renewables to their needs
• Collaborating with a range of partners through the Green Heat Finance Taskforce on innovative mechanisms needed to ensure an affordable transition to zero emissions heating, for example, ‘heat as a service’ models
• Developing a specific Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy that will increase awareness and understanding of the heat transition and the benefits it can deliver.

Heat in Buildings Strategy: https://www.gov.scot/publications/heat-buildings-strategy-achieving-net-zero-emissions-scotlands-buildings/

The NTC locations are:

Golden Jubilee, Clydebank – Eye Centre and Surgical Centre

NTC Forth Valley – Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert

NTC Fife – Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy

NTC Highland - Inverness

NTC Grampian - Aberdeen

NTC Tayside – Perth Royal Infirmary

NTC Ayrshire & Arran – Carrick Glen Hospital site

NTC Lanarkshire – Cumbernauld

NTC Lothian – St John’s Hospital

NTC Lothian Eye Centre – Edinburgh Royal Infirmary campus

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to reaching net zero by 2045. The decarbonisation of our infrastructure will be central to this goal.

Our five-year Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021 includes details of around £26 billion of major projects and national programmes with more to be confirmed in future years.

The Plan delivers our National Infrastructure Mission and sets a long-term vision of infrastructure supporting an inclusive, net zero carbon economy in Scotland.

The £26 billion pipeline of major projects and national programmes includes almost £9 billion for environmental sustainability and the transition to net zero emissions, including over £280 million to support 18,000 hectares of forestry and restoring peatlands.

The NHS and Public Health Scotland provide support to expectant mothers for a healthy and safe pregnancy. Currently, the Committee on Toxicity has been supporting Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition by conducting a large scale risk assessment of the maternal health issues associated with legacy pesticides such as hexachlorocyclohexanes, endosulfan, and other organochlorine pesticides; and the plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA).

Additionally, The Scottish Government have legislated to end the supply and manufacture of the single use plastic items most commonly found littered, as set in the Programme for Government 2021-2021. The new regulations on single-use plastics are coming into force on 01 June 2022.

The Scottish Government is supporting organisations across Scotland to tackle the climate emergency. This includes, a further £1 million this year for the continued rollout of Green Growth Accelerators to support local authorities to develop low carbon projects and deliver £100 million over the next five years to help businesses via the Green Jobs Fund. Bespoke advice and support for businesses is also available through the enterprise agencies, Zero Waste Scotland, Business Gateway and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. We are also supporting workers to engage in a just transition through the £100,000 we have provided for union capacity building. Our framework of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns is also enabling communities to engage in collective climate action.

In alignment with the clinical model, there will be no HDU or ICU beds within the NTC.

We provide a wide range of antenatal support to help reduce the effects of poverty. For example, Best Start Foods provides pregnant women in receipt of benefits, with £18 every four weeks. To improve the nutrition of pregnant women, we provide free vitamins and are working, on a UK basis, to introduce mandatory fortification with folic acid. We provide £2.3m annually to NHS Boards to implement the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework (2011) and we have agreed standards with them to ensure early access to antenatal services where fetal growth, smoking/alcohol use, diet and maternal wellbeing is monitored.

In relation to (a), (b) and (c)(i), the Care Inspectorate does not hold data in relation to care homes that have closed. However, the number of adult care home services in the public, private and third sectors which have had their registrations cancelled in each of the last five years is in the following table: