Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government condemns all incidents of religious persecution and the targeting of innocent people based on their beliefs.

The Scottish Government’s new Hate Crime Strategy was published on 24 March 2023. The strategy sets out a vision for a Scotland where everyone, including people of faith, live free from hatred and prejudice. The strategy was informed by those with lived experience of hate crime, including faith communities. A delivery plan, setting out immediate and longer term activity, will be published later this year.

In addition, the Scottish Government’s Faith and Belief Engagement Strategy for Scotland was published on 22 March 2023. It was developed in partnership with faith and belief organisations and makes a clear commitment to strengthen communication and collaboration with Scotland’s diverse faith and belief communities. It aims to enable fairer representation for minority groups and intersectional voices, and to further support community cohesion.

The Scottish Government tracks the participation of children between 8-10, 11-12 and 13-15 in sport via the Scottish Health Survey.

The Scottish Government does not track the participation of children aged between 10 and 15 in cultural activities.

The Scottish Government publishes details of all awards made from the Fund to Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords at https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-longer-term-resettlement-fund/pages/list-of-approved-projects/

In the 2022-23 financial year, the final outturn allocations to the schemes were as follows:

• Warmer Homes Scotland - £42.5 million
• Area Based Schemes - £41.7 million
• Home Energy Scotland - £22.4 million

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (‘the 2022 Act’) is emergency legislation and is intended to provide support to tenants through stabilising rents and providing additional evictions protections for a time limited period. The provisions it contains are temporary, with the ongoing necessity to review the measures to make sure they remain proportionate in relation to the cost crisis.

Whilst we are committed to taking forward longer-term reform to the rented sector, the 2022 Act would not have been an appropriate legislative vehicle to take forward more fundamental changes to the rented sector. Parliament agreed to an accelerated timescale for the Bill, recognising the urgency of the circumstances and the temporary nature of the provisions. More fundamental reforms would not have been consistent with that urgency and with the highly-focused scope of the Bill.

The 2022 Act ensured that the majority of tenants - including those who are part of a joint tenancy in an applicable private rented sector tenancy - are protected by the temporary emergency measures, by capping in-tenancy rent increases.

We remain committed to delivering a New Deal for tenants. As part of that consultation, we sought views on the existing approach to ending joint tenancies and any impact this is has on tenants to inform our considerations.

The Scottish Government have invested over £65 million in ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2500 publicly available charge points, over 90,000 member registrations and over 2.3 million successful charging sessions recorded in the last 12 months.

The figure of 7977 does not relate to ‘complaints’. This was the total of number of customer service tickets raised by the ChargePlace Scotland helpdesk over the 12 month period.

There are many reasons why a ticket can be raised, but these are not always a complaint and do not necessarily relate to issues which affect the operation of the charge point itself. If it relates to a ‘fault’, then that fault may be reported by more than one member of the public and this will also be reflected in the figures. Ticket and fault information are published monthly on the ChargePlace Scotland website for the general public to view.

In February 2022 we published research commissioned through the ClimateXChange (CxC) into direct, point-of-use greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with zero carbon heating technologies, including hybrid boilers ( Direct greenhouse gas emissions from low and zero carbon heating systems (ed.ac.uk) ).

In May 2021 we published an evidence review, commissioned through the CxC, of all aspects of the use of hydrogen to heat buildings ( Evidence review for hydrogen for heat in buildings (climatexchange.org.uk) ), including converting gas boilers to run on hydrogen.

We will continue to monitor the growing body of research commissioned by other bodies and factor that in to our own decisions concerning further studies.

Later this year we will publish our Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will work with stakeholders to increase public awareness and understanding of zero emission heating systems, the different technological options available and how to access advice and support.

This year we will also consult on proposals that might be included in a Heat in Buildings Bill and aim to set out further details of any planned new regulations. We want to hear from as many people as possible, across all areas of Scotland, on ways to help us ensure that we design the right protections and exemptions from the start – making sure the transition is just, fair and effective.

Home Energy Scotland (HES), administered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the Scottish Government, is a domestic advice service that acts as a single point of access for free, bespoke, impartial advice on energy efficiency, renewable heating and fuel poverty support in Scotland. HES provides in-depth support to householders on low and zero emissions heating technologies, other domestic renewables and more complex energy efficiency improvements. In the new calendar year we plan to launch a new national marketing campaign to promote action amongst potential early adopters of heat pumps, directing people to find out more through contacting our HES service.

Our Let’s Do Net Zero marketing campaign will support this by highlighting carbon emitting heating systems as being a major contributor to climate change and challenge myths associated with zero emission heating technologies, like heat pumps, to increase consumer confidence.

Legislation relating to the efficiency of heating systems such as gas central heating is set out via Ecodesign and energy labelling product standards legislation which is reserved to the UK Government. The UK Government has recently consulted upon proposals to further improve the efficiency of gas boilers ( Improving boiler standards and efficiency consultation (publishing.service.gov.uk )) which closed on 31 March 2023. In addition, heating systems should be installed in line with latest buildings regulations as detailed in the Domestic building services compliance guide .

The Scottish Government also wants to ensure that current and prospective building owners and tenants have fuller information on the efficiency of heating systems as part of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This will provide homeowners and tenants with more information on the energy performance of their home, alongside the reserved UK Government Ecodesign regulations, which ensure manufacturers detail the efficiency of their products.

The Scottish Government published a consultation on EPC reform on 25 July 2023 and this is accompanied by workshops open to any stakeholder. In advance of this, we engaged extensively with industry regarding the proposed reform of the EPC rating system. For more detail I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19032 on 26 June 2023.

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

In March this year the Scottish Government ran a marketing campaign using TV, radio and digital media platforms to promote our newly launched Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grants & Loans scheme. There has been strong demand for the updated scheme – during the campaign we saw a 23% increase in applications compared to the previous month, with over 3000 grant and loans offered through the scheme across Scotland since launch.

We will continue to deliver an awareness raising campaign that builds on this early activity. Plans are in place for further national marketing activity to commence in January 2024 until mid-March 2024. This nationwide campaign intends to target those who currently have the highest propensity to take out a heat pump. Promotion will be bolstered by further activity under our Let’s Do Net Zero marketing campaign, which will highlight carbon emitting heating systems as being a major contributor to climate change.

The Energy Savings Trust, who manage the HES service on behalf of the Scottish Government, also regularly promote the Loans and Grants scheme through their own channels including digital promotion and work through the HES advice centre network.

Later this year we will publish our Heat in Buildings Public Engagement Strategy setting out how we will work with stakeholders to increase public awareness and understanding of zero emission heating systems, the different technological options available and how to access advice and support.