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Reducing emissions from our homes and buildings is one of the most important things we can do to help end Scotland’s contribution to climate change, and communities have a key role to play within this.

The Scottish Government’s £300 million Heat Network Fund offers capital grant funding for the rollout of new zero emission heat networks and communal heating systems, as well as the expansion and decarbonisation of existing heat networks across Scotland.

At the start of December, our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) launched the Community Heat Development Programme. This programme will work with eligible community organisations and groups of householders to help develop their ideas for locally-generated, low and zero carbon heat project ideas.

The UK currently faces a rapidly escalating cost crisis, an emergency on a similar scale to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential that the response from government at every level is commensurate, in scale and speed, to the nature and magnitude of the emergency.

We are using the powers we currently have and our finite resources to support businesses through the cost crisis, whilst also building a more resilient, sustainable, fair and prosperous economy. The Scottish Government will do everything in its power to help those affected by any forthcoming redundancies through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE).

The recently established Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) comprises senior business representatives, trades unions and industry groups. The ILG will deliver an increasingly sustainable retail sector, promote the delivery of all aspects of fair work across the sector and ensure those working in retail have the skills necessary to be successful.

This publication’s Supporting Documents include a spreadsheet file titled ‘General Practice recorded diagnoses’. Table 4 in this spreadsheet shows GP recorded diagnoses of neurological conditions, by sex and age, for each neurological condition shown . In some cases small numbers have been suppressed to help maintain patient confidentiality. Taking into account the suppression of small numbers, the approximate split of diagnoses for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is as follows: (a) Female – 69% (b) Male – 31%.

Please note that that this percentage breakdown draws on figures which do not cover the whole of Scotland. The general practices whose data are included represented 72.7% of registered patients at the time of the data extract.

All households occupying a new home warranted after 1 April 2024 will be impacted by the proposed prohibition on the installation of Direct Emissions Heating Systems, including gas boilers, from that date. We will publish details on the projected number of new build homes and conversions impacted by the Standard as part of our Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) which will be made available alongside the regulations in spring 2023.

Scottish Ministers take decisions on wind farm applications that are made to them under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. None of the eleven wind farm applications refused by Scottish Ministers over the last 5 years have been consented following a material change.

The Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) is owned by the GSC Charitable Trust, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Enterprise (SE). The Scottish Government is providing £5.5 million to SE to cover refurbishment work to GSC’s main buildings. A further £800,000 has been allocated to the work from SE’s budget. The work includes replacement of the titanium roof covering, installation of a new building management system and partial renewal of external glazing. The work does not include the IMAX Theatre.

Scottish Government officials continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that policy proposals for Split Payments are deliverable within the technical constraints of the DWP’s Universal Credit system. We have also carried out work with other external organisations and people with lived experience of Universal Credit to ensure the policy proposal is robust and meets the policy intent, which is to provide everyone in Scotland with access to an independent income and create barriers to potential domestic abuse or financial coercion.

The Scottish Government is not involved in provision or installation of smart meters. Regulation of energy markets is reserved to the UK Government and subsequently the smart meter programme is owned and led by them.

There are currently no rights for a prospective tenant at the point of signing a (a) private residential and (b) Scottish secure tenancy to request that a (i) credit and (ii) smart meter be installed in the property.

It would be for the account holder to arrange with the energy supplier to install the required equipment. In the majority of cases the account holder would be the tenant.

Smart meters have an important role to play in helping the Scottish Government achieve our aim of increasing energy efficiency across Scotland as well as helping consumers manage their spend on energy. At the recent energy summit chaired by the First Minister, we committed to working with partners to increase the number of households with smart meters in Scotland, with a focus on rural areas, by highlighting the benefits they can deliver in terms of both energy bills and energy efficiency. As part of this work, we will continue to call upon BEIS and Ofgem to take the necessary action to ensure all households eligible for a smart meter have the opportunity to install one in their home.

The £29.5 million funding to specialist research centres announced by UK Government on 12 December 2022 includes £12.5 million to be delivered through the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI). Edinburgh University hosts one of the 6 UK DRI Centres and is eligible to bid for this funding. In addition, £8 million of the research centre funding will be delivered through the National Institute for Health and Care Biomedical Research Centres (BRC's). While Scotland does not have direct BRC equivalents, officials from the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office have confirmed with Department of Health and Social Care officials that Scottish research teams can join BRC consortia to bid for this funding.

The NHS Research Scotland Neuroprogressive and Dementia Research Network is funded by the Scottish Government to deliver cutting edge clinical research in Neuroprogressive conditions and Dementia across Scotland. The network has been key to the delivery in Scotland of the UK-wide MND SMART Trial, with over 200 of the 400 total trial participants as of October 2022 enrolled in Scottish centres.

Scottish Ministers take decisions on wind farm applications that are made to them under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. No wind farm applications made to Scottish Ministers, under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, within the last two years have been refused. Two of the applications received within the last two years have been consented and three have been varied by Scottish Ministers. A further thirty nine have yet to be determined.

Wind farms that generate less than 50 megawatts of electricity do not require section 36 consent from Scottish Ministers but are instead determined by the local planning authority. Detailed Information on the determination of each wind farm application made, in the last two years, to local planning authorities is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The right to appeal certain decisions made by local planning authorities is an important part of the planning system. The vast majority of appeals are decided by an independent reporter from the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) of the Scottish Government. Of appeals referred to the DPEA in the last two years, seven have been refused, eleven have been allowed and three have yet to be determined. One appeal was withdrawn and a further three were found not to be within the jurisdiction of the DPEA to consider.