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Scotland’s Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in October 2021, outlines our ambitious programme that reflects the scale and the size of the challenge to reduce emissions from our buildings. Our commitment to allocate at least £1.8bn over this parliament will help kick-start growth in the market and support those least able to pay. This includes:

• At least £465m to support those least able to pay, delivered through our Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based schemes.
• £300m for Scotland’s Heat Network Fund.
• £200m Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, investing in a sector already leading the way in the heat transition.
• £200m Scottish Green Public Sector Estate Scheme, supporting leadership for energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation right across the public sector.

Of the £1.8bn allocated as part of the strategy , £154.8m has been spent to the end of January 2023.

The delivery of the Heat in Buildings Strategy will require a combination of both regulation and support. Our investment in support will be enhanced and gain momentum as we develop our package of regulation through our Heat in Buildings Bill and policy and as we work towards a dedicated Public Energy Agency in 2025.

Work is continuing on the different categories of support for the allocation of £366 million of funding in the for 2023/24 financial year. However, the broad expectation is that around 60% of this will be allocated to our schemes to deliver energy efficiency and zero emissions heating to homes with households at most risk of fuel poverty. The remaining 40% would be targeted at larger investment schemes that improve energy efficiency or installation of zero emissions heating in public sector buildings, social housing homes and towards installation and development of heat networks.

A number of steps have been taken to aid in the delivery aims of the HiBs’ programme. We are in the process of finalising the procurement of the successor to the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, with a potential spend over the next 7 years of £700 million. This is a significant component of the overall spend in the next 3 years. The continued development of robust Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies will help all stakeholders have greater insight to the likely deployment of different heat and energy efficiency solutions across different parts of Scotland. We are also making an increased investment in feasibility, advice and pre-capital support that will help to drive the implementation of projects at scale (e.g. public sector and heat network projects), which will see further acceleration in 2023. Finally, we are investing in raising public awareness of the heat transition and our schemes and we are committed to developing the Agency that will help accelerate take up in part through creating stronger, clearer identity and improving cross industry co-ordination. The Agency has already been set up in virtual form and now has resourcing in place to help start to create the momentum needed.

The HiBs' programme regularly publish reports to the Scottish Government website detailing projects that have completed or are underway within a number of the funded programmes. Reports have recently been published for the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme , Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant Fund and Social Housing Net Zero Fund .

The Scottish Government has invested over £65 million in the ChargePlace Scotland Network that now has over 2,400 publicly available electric vehicle charge points, meaning that Scotland already has by far the greatest number of charge points per head of population than any other part of the UK outside of London. Last year the Scottish Government announced the £60 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund that aims to draw commercial investment in the public charging network across all parts of Scotland. Transport Scotland has already provided funding to Scotland’s local authorities to help them to work together to establish electric vehicle charging strategies and infrastructure expansion plans. These plans are identifying local and regional charge point needs, the investment requirements, as well as the best approaches to delivering collaborative investments with commercial charge point operators. A series of projects and investments will be announced over the course of this year.

The Scottish Government is aware of several high profile fuel thefts in the Highland area. However, the investigations into potential criminal incidents are a matter for Police Scotland.

Police Scotland has highlighted a number of ways individuals can attempt to minimise these incidents, including installing locking caps and ensuring tanks are difficult to access.

Anyone concerned about suspicious activity in their area should contact Police Scotland by dialling 101 or report incidents online.

An ALERT platform aimed at tackling a rise in thefts from construction sites and fuel thefts started on Wednesday 23 March. The protocol known as Construction Watch Scotland seeks to enhance awareness between construction and trade industries, as well as police, to ensure intelligence relating to criminal or suspicious activity at one location is quickly provided to others along with prevention advice.

Construction Watch Scotland has been devised in partnership by Police Scotland and Neighbourhood Watch Scotland. It follows a rise in the thefts of plant equipment, tools and stored fuel and is supported by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Secured By Design and Crimestoppers.

Further information can be found below

Construction Watch Scotland

The Energy Saving Trust runs the ebike loan programme on behalf of Transport Scotland. Interest free loans of up to £3,000 are available for standard ebikes and up to £6,000 for cargo or specially adapted bikes. Applications are subject to credit and affordability checks however those on fixed incomes are not excluded from the programme.

The Energy Saving Trust also receive funding to run a grant programme designed to increase access to ebikes in communities. Depending on need and location, there may be a programme available that offers short and long term access to an ebike and help to purchase one. Cycling UK and Cycling Scotland also run community programmes that can offer support. More information is available on these organisation's websites:

Cycling Friendly - Our Programmes - Cycling Scotland

Cycling UK in Scotland | Cycling UK

Home Energy Scotland advice network - Energy Saving Trust

The implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will boost household recycling rates across Scotland. The Official Statistics for household waste which report against the national household waste recycling targets will include DRS materials once it is implemented. We are aware that the current guidance to Local Authorities on calculating recycling rates may need to be reviewed as it pre-dates the DRS.

This is a matter for CalMac Ferries Limited, Scottish Ministers do not have a role to play and have not been involved in any discussions.

Throughout our programme of work to deliver the new Winter Heating Payment in Scotland, the Scottish Government engaged regularly with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and emphasised the need for data to be transferred as early as possible.

DWP were unable to provide the data required prior to 31 January. The Scottish Government and DWP have begun discussions about the feasibility of moving payments forward for future years.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has confirmed that the approach for Ukrainian students sitting exams in Scotland is consistent with the approach that is taken for all candidates for whom English is an additional language. Any candidates undertaking SQA external assessments who have English as an additional language may be allowed the use of a bilingual dictionary and have a standard extra time allowance of 10 mins for each hour of any assessment, subject to teacher assessment of the candidate’s needs. The use of the dictionary, and any additional time requested for using the dictionary, should reflect the candidate’s way of working in teaching and learning.

This approach is consistent with that taken by awarding bodies across the rest of the UK.

More widely, Education Scotland has provided resources to help schools and teachers support Ukrainian children’s mental health and wellbeing and to meet their learning needs.

Details of the current membership of Scottish Rail Holdings Board is available on Companies House via the following link:- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC548826

The Chief Executive Officer, Rail Business Director, Finance Director and General Counsel of Scottish Rail Holdings are normally permanent roles. The Non-Executive Directors of Scottish Rail Holdings Board were appointed on an interim basis to the 31 March 2023.

We have no current plans to legislate on (a) collection and reporting of data related to, (b) management of and (c) release of non-native gamebirds. However, as outlined in response to S6W-14758 on 1 March 2023, we plan to gather further information on the impact of non-native gamebird releases.

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