Chamber and committees

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has supported over 13,000 social homes since its launch, investing approximately £70 million in energy efficiency and clean heat projects.

Our consultation last year on a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard (SHNZS) asked for views on proposals to require social landlords to improve fabric efficiency and install clean heating where it is technically feasible and cost-effective to do so.

The Scottish Government funds two programmes targeting households living in or at risk of fuel poverty, Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes. Since 2022 these programmes have adopted a `whole house retrofit’ approach based upon national retrofit standards (PAS2035 published by the British Standards Institution). Relevant improvements are installed based upon an individual assessment of the property; in line with technical and regulatory requirements (such as building standards); as well as to reflect the different needs and circumstances of householders.

Since 2022 the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme has delivered retrofit improvements to 8,507 households to this standard (WHS2).

Under section 2 of the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, the Lord President as head of the Scottish judiciary is responsible for "making and maintaining appropriate arrangements for the welfare, training and guidance of judicial office holders". Training is delivered through the Judicial Institute, under the direction of the Lord President.

It is for a court to reach a view about the appropriate terms of an order in a particular case based on the existing law and the facts and evidence before them.

There are protection measures available to a person at risk of future abuse by application to a civil court. These include an exclusion order to suspend the legal right of a spouse or civil partner and in some cases, a cohabitant, to live in the family home, for the duration the order is in place. Other conditions can be requested, including preventing a spouse or civil partner from coming within a certain distance of the home, or preventing the removal of any items from the home.

An exclusion order is temporary. It will end, for example, when a married couple divorce or when a civil partnership ends. An exclusion order does not affect who owns or tenants the home, nor prohibits future transactions with the property. Before applying to the court for an exclusion order, the person at risk must have the legal right to live in the family home, either as an owner or tenant or because they have occupancy rights as the spouse or civil partner of person who is so entitled. A non-entitled cohabitant can apply to the civil court for occupancy rights and seek an exclusion order.

The Scottish Law Commission are working on a project at the moment on civil remedies against domestic abuse: Scottish Law Commission :: Aspects of family law

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

SPS Women’s Strategy delivers a focus on both therapeutic and trauma informed environments for women in our care, and through individualised case management processes, women’s safety is managed in a way that is sensitive to their individual and gender specific needs and risks.

SPS’ person-centred approach and Women’s Strategy acknowledges that safety and wellbeing needs can be different for each woman, and traumatic experience can show that one woman’s feeling of safety and secure looks very different from another’s.

In practice our approach allows us to create an environment that promotes safety in a way that is sensitive to individual past experiences of distress, abuse and trauma.

Additionally, SPS are acutely aware of the Supreme Courts Judgement regarding the ‘biological definition’ of a woman and are currently considering any impact this may have on existing policies and operations.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government and is a matter for Higher Education Institutes and NHS Boards.

We are acutely aware of the risk tariffs on the UK and globally pose on Scottish businesses.

We have carried out initial analysis of trade statistics to understand Scottish exposure to US trade across key products and where that may differ from the UK economy.

The First Minister discussed the matter with the Prime Minister on 11 April and made clear urgent action should be taken to protect Scotland’s economic interests.

Throughcare services are in place to support individuals being released from custody to reintegrate into the community, which includes providing support with any accommodation needs. A new national voluntary throughcare service, Upside, with annual funding of £5.3 million from the Scottish Government, launched on 1 April 2025.

NHS Grampian were escalated to Level 3 of the NHS Support and Intervention Escalation Framework in January 2025 for financial management and position. The Scottish Government are providing specific tailored support to NHS Grampian in order to help stabilise the financial position. Alongside additional cost improvement programmes, the support package includes a dedicated financial support lead within Scottish Government who frequently meets NHS Grampian Executives challenge their financial position and trajectories and ensure the Board is on track to meet financial improvement milestones.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to helping the Scottish hydrogen sector develop. To help identify and better understand the barriers to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland we have established the Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum (SHIF) chaired by myself. It includes representatives from our electricity and gas network operators and a list of members is available on the Scottish Government website here Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum - gov.scot.

Expertise in hydrogen related planning has been identified as a potential barrier to timely determination of planning consents for hydrogen production development. The creation of a Planning Hub in Scotland was announced on 10 September 2024. This initiative is providing support to planning authorities to improve their skills and capacity to deliver planning determinations promptly. The initial focus of the planning hub has been to improve the pace of the consenting process for hydrogen developments.

The high cost of electricity has also been identified as a potential barrier to the deployment of hydrogen production in Scotland. This is a wider and complex issue.

The introduction of the Hydrogen Production Business Model (HPBM) Programme by the UK Government is a welcome step in incentivising the production and use of renewable hydrogen. However, the slow roll out of the programme has been identified as a potential barrier to deployment may be undermining investors’ confidence.

It is vital now that all efforts are made to support and to streamline the decision-making process for HAR 2 to allow shortlisted projects to move forward with urgency.

A lack of clarity on UKG decisions on the future of the gas grid and the UK-wide hydrogen network and hydrogen blending is also leading to uncertainty amongst investors and developers.

Many of the levers required to support the emergence of a flourishing hydrogen economy in the devolved nations are reserved to the UK Government, as highlighted above and so we will continue to work closely with the UKG to ensure that our collective vision for the development of the hydrogen economy is aligned, and the benefits are realised across all nations of the UK.