Chamber and committees

As set out in the answer to S6W-22369 on 1 November 2023, it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to be involved in a commercial arrangement between two private businesses.

A range of financial support is provided through Social Security Scotland. This includes Funeral Support Payment, a one-off payment providing support to low-income families in receipt of a qualifying benefit, including self-employed parents, for a baby stillborn after 24 weeks or who died after birth.

These families may also be eligible for Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment up to £707.25. If the parent is in receipt of Scottish Child Payment they will receive payment equivalent to the value of entitlement in the 12 weeks prior to the child’s death.

An agreement is in place between Scottish Government and COSLA that local authorities in Scotland will not charge burial or cremation fees for children aged 0-17 or stillborn babies.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for assessing and evidencing housing need and demand, and setting out through local housing strategies and local development plans the housing requirements for their area. We have committed to delivering 110,000 high quality, energy efficient affordable homes by 2032 and work closely with a wide range of housing partners including local authorities, to ensure the delivery of homes to meet the housing needs of communities across Scotland. The Minister for Housing engages regularly with Homes for Scotland to discuss a wide range of issues and most recently met on 7 November.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission publish estimates and forecasts of the number of people receiving payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance. The Scottish Fiscal Commission do not publish estimates and forecasts for the number of people receiving payments by area within Scotland. In their May 2023 publication it was forecast that a total of 29,000 people will receive payments in the financial year 2023-24.

Social Security Scotland publish statistics for the number of historic payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance by Local Authority. Statistics for 2023-24 are not yet available.

Table 1: Number of payments for Child Winter Heating Assistance made in Winter 2022-23 by Local Authority area

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, for the first time, will combine rural specific workforce and service development, with research and evaluation into one National Centre.

The Centre’s initial focus is identifying and promoting approaches that improve rural and island primary care recruitment of staff including: increasing skills of remote and rural GPs and other practitioners to ensure there is the workforce capacity to deliver care close to home, develop further support networks and career development opportunities for rural practitioners and to support development of skilled mixed workforce teams.

Work has already begun on two key pieces of work, improved support and training for remote and rural dispensing practices and developing supervisory training hubs.

Through the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme, the Scottish Government currently provides up to £8,000 in interest free loan funding for private residential homeowners to upgrade single glazing to double glazing or to install secondary glazing. Homeowners can also currently access up to £4500 in interest free loan funding for insulated doors. Replacement of single glazed windows can also be supported through our Area Based Schemes where this provides value for money.

Housing Associations can apply for grant funding from the Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund for the installation of energy efficiency measures that deliver both carbon savings and reduction in fuel bills for social housing tenants. These measures include double and triple glazing and insulated doors. The fund is making at least £200 million available to registered social landlords (RSLs) to help install zero emission heating systems and improve energy efficiency in social housing during this parliament.

Should a business or commercial landlord be recommended improvements for their windows and doors through the Business Energy Scotland advice service and meet the eligibility criteria for the SME Loan and Cashback scheme, they could be eligible for between £1,000 - £100,000 interest free loan and up to £20,000 in an energy efficiency cashback grant. Making the total amount of Scottish Government funding available for these measures to be £120,000.

Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1441 of 31 August 2022 amended Commission Regulation (EU) 546/2011 as regards specific uniform principles for evaluation and authorisation of plant protection products containing micro-organisms. It did not amend Commission Regulation (EU) 546/2011 as regards bees principles.

The Health and Safety Executive, as the UK regulator, closely monitors EU developments. Regulatory changes at GB level are considered in line with our domestic governance structure. The UK National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides , which outlines the UK approach to minimise the impacts of pesticides, will be published this year.

Yes, the SQA is being replaced with a new qualifications body as part of the Scottish Government’s wider education and skills reform programme.

As part of the process of replacing the SQA, the Scottish Government has opened a consultation on the provisions in the Education Bill. The consultation is seeking views on the establishment of a new qualifications body that will replace the SQA, along with views on changes to education inspection in Scotland. The consultation is open until 18 December.

The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 requires licensing authorities to maintain and publish a public register of short-term let licences on their website, or other website established for that purpose. The register is required to include a note of the kind and terms of each licence granted by the licensing authority, as well as other information set out in paragraph 13 of Schedule 2 of the Licensing Order.

Licensing authorities are also required to share content of their public register with the Scottish Government on a quarterly basis for statistical analysis purposes. The Scottish Government publishes a quarterly statistical return on short-term let licensing applications. The first return was published on 31 August 2023 covering the period from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The second return for the period 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023 was published on 20 November 2023. We expect the return covering the period up to and including 30 September 2023 will be published in early 2024.

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. Within this it provides estimates of the number of dwellings with a prepayment meter for gas or electricity.

The 2022 SHCS returned to full in-home surveying in April 2022, and we expect to publish the key findings as National Statistics in February 2024 which will include updated figures for dwellings with prepayment meters.