Chamber and committees

On behalf of the Scottish Government, Element Energy previously conducted analysis of the technical suitability of low-carbon heating technologies in Scottish domestic buildings. A copy of this report is available below.

Scottish Government (2020). Technical Feasibility of Low Carbon Heating in Domestic Buildings. URL: https://www.gov.scot/publications/technical-feasibility-low-carbon-heating-domestic-buildings-report-scottish-governments-directorate-energy-climate-change/

Low TemperatureAir Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) are deemed to be technically suitable for around 55 – 76% of homes currently existing in Scotland. If homes were to adopt measures to achieve Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C where technically feasible and cost-effective, then this share would increase to 75 – 77%.

The report also shows that electric storage heaters are found to be suitable for 82-100% of homes before energy efficiency measures are installed, and 95-100% after.

The HES Grant and Loan scheme also provides support for energy efficiency measures, which increases the number of homes able to install a zero direct emissions heating system. This includes 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.

Social Security Scotland has not been subject to any denial of service (DoS) attacks during the period between the 1st of May 2021 and the 30th of June 2023. During that same period, our security controls protected against 314,285 cyber events, the majority of which being attackers scanning our internet facing benefit systems to identify potential weaknesses.

The Scottish Government has recently published an interim evaluation report of the first year of the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding: Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF): year 1 - process evaluation - interim report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . It explores the work of Children's Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) and early evidence of implementation in respect of the funding administration, design and set-up of funded activities (from September 2022 to February 2023). Overall, CSPPs have told us that WFWF is beneficial and supportive for increasing holistic whole family support and scaling current models.

A full evaluation report of Year 1 will be available in early 2024. This will be based on evidence from annual Children’s Services Plan reports, and will explore children, young people and families’ experiences of family support services that have received WFWF, and the extent to which the short-term outcomes of the funding have been achieved.

In 2022-23, £33.5 million of Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) was provided by the Scottish Government to deliver transformational change to improve holistic family support so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time.

This includes £32m for Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) to build local service capacity for transformation and the scaling up of holistic family support in local areas.

The remaining funding in 2022-23 was provided to set up a package of transformational activity. This included establishing collaborative partnerships with three CSPPs to accelerate learning, setting up a Learning into Action network, funding the evaluation and research work for WFWF and funding 12 projects that are helping to transform how families are supported by taking a cross Scottish Government approach to system change.

£50m has been allocated for the WFWF in 2023-24.

As at 29th June 2023, the number of premises in Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency scheduled for connection through the Reaching 100% (R100) North contract is 2,206. A further 1,975 premises are eligible for a connection through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS). This is, of course, in addition to the 15,099 premises already connected to fibre broadband through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme.

Our online checker at www.scotlandsuperfast.com remains the best way for anyone to track the most up-to-date connectivity status of premises, including the most recent plans and indicative timescales for R100 contract build and eligibility for the R100 SBVS.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS records the number of training interventions delivered rather than the number of staff who have received the training. The diverse range of individuals who have benefited from these interventions include both operational staff and members of the senior leadership team.

SPS Trauma-informed training is linked to a range of learning and development interventions for SPS staff. As of 10 July 2023, SPS has delivered 2608 trauma-informed training interventions to staff.

The Prescribing Information System (PIS) holds information on medicines and devices dispensed in the community, and the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database (HMUD) holds information on medication provided in secondary care settings. Contraceptives are accessed and supplied by a variety of routes and the extent to which these supplies are captured within PIS and HMUD varies by type of contraception. For example, oral contraceptives are largely prescribed by General Practice and dispensed by Community Pharmacies and so are well recorded within PIS, whereas Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARC) are more commonly provided through secondary care managed services such as Sexual Health Clinics and so are better represented within HMUD.

Over-the-counter non-prescribed contraception will not be included in either dataset; Public Health Scotland holds no data on this.

Costs are provided in table 1 below. However, a meaningful measure of the number of contraceptives issued across all drug groups is not possible. The length of cover provided by one product unit of contraception can vary from one day (e.g., one tablet) to up to ten years (e.g., one intrauterine device or IUD). Whilst measures of quantity are available within PIS and HMUD, these are for indicative purposes only and cannot be practically used to compare the amounts of different types of contraception distributed.

Table 1: Cost of contraceptives issued in PIS and HMUD from 2018/19 to 2022/23, by BNF paragraph

While vouchers issued through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) can be used to connect individual properties, the scheme was specifically designed to allow vouchers in a community to be combined to extend available funding. Indeed, there are a number of examples of communities across Scotland – including Ardnamurchan within your own region – pooling together vouchers to deliver superfast broadband connectivity to a number of properties.

We also remain actively engaged with all 32 Local Authorities to ensure they are fully aware of any developments around the R100 SBVS, as well as other elements of the wider R100 programme. We hold quarterly meetings with a network of Single Points of Contact, and we also maintain a data portal that all Local Authorities can access to identify and support voucher-eligible properties.

(a) The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) considered the Scottish Police Federation’s (SPF) Deep Dive report in detail and was satisfied with the remedial actions which were planned and put in place by Police Scotland. The condition of the police estate remains a high priority for the SPA, and it continues to scrutinise Police Scotland’s plans for the delivery of improvements, which support the delivery of the Police Scotland Estate Strategy.

(b) Due to its rural location, and the distance to the nearest police stations, Police Scotland did not close Oban Police Station. Police Scotland did however implement an extensive programme of work to upgrade facilities. As a result of this work Police Scotland is confident that the works identified in the SPF report were completed and the standard across both the police station and the custody suite were significantly improved.

Following the publication of the SPF report, additional inspections have been introduced and further works have been carried out which involve close collaboration with Police Scotland’s Health & Safety Team, SPF and Union representatives. Police Scotland’s Health & Safety Team has confirmed that the improvement works meet health and safety requirements.

Given the age of Oban Police Station, Police Scotland has embarked on a programme of work which seeks to replace Oban Police Station, including a new custody suite.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) did not refer itself to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The SPA considered the Scottish Police Federation Deep Dive report in detail and was satisfied with the remedial actions put in place by Police Scotland. Since then, the SPA has approved Police Scotland’s Housing Strategy (2022) which aims to bring all of Police Scotland’s housing stock up to Scottish Government’s EESSH2 2032 standards over the next 3-5 years.

The condition of the police estate remains a high priority for the SPA, and it continues to scrutinise Police Scotland’s plans for the delivery of improvements, which support the delivery of the Police Scotland Estate Strategy.