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The successor scheme to Warmer Homes Scotland will support those most vulnerable and most likely to be in fuel poverty. Any ‘low-income pensioner’ will be eligible for support, this includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee or anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme will create a much larger eligible group than that of the current scheme.

The answer to question S6W-17589 on 16 May 2023 provides further detail on steps taken to ensure that our schemes are accessible to all.

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

We welcome Scottish Women’s Aid and the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland’s Policies Not Promises report. It illustrates why the proposed new duty on social landlords to develop and implement a domestic abuse housing policy, as part of wider duties to prevent homelessness, is so important.

Social landlords play a crucial role in preventing homelessness and good intentions are not enough. There is good practice guidance already available to help social landlords and they must act now to support any tenants who are survivors of domestic abuse and protect their rights to stay in their home. I look forward to working closely with social landlords and other partners to ensure they improve their support and make a real, positive difference for women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

We have allocated £350m to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures this year, including £119m targeted at fuel poor households.

Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS), our national fuel poverty scheme, is designed to help those living in fuel poverty or at risk of fuel poverty through installing insulation and heating measures in to individual properties. Individuals over 60 who had no working heating system or who are in receipt of certain benefits have been eligible for support through the scheme.

WHS is now closed to new applicants but a successor to WHS will launch in October 2023. Home Energy Scotland are currently taking applications for this scheme.

The eligibility criteria for the Warmer Homes Scotland Successor scheme includes anyone in receipt of a passport benefit, including pension credit guarantee and anyone over the age of 75 with no working heating.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme provides support for all owner occupied households to install energy efficiency measures. All domestic owner occupiers in Scotland can apply to the scheme. 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. A rural uplift of £1,500 applies to the energy efficiency grant, this uplift increases the maximum limit of the grant to £9,000.

Funding is available via the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund for Social Landlords to apply for projects which will install energy efficiency measures across their housing stock. Pensioners who live in social housing will benefit from this investment, which also includes sheltered accommodation.

We are maintaining our £64 million investment in energy efficiency improvements this year, targeting areas with high levels of fuel poverty through our Area Based Schemes.

To deliver this commitment, the Scottish Government established the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) in 2021 to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community led regeneration and community wealth building. This includes the continued delivery of the £25 million per annum Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), support for Clyde Gateway urban regeneration company to help deliver their 20-year operating plan, and £140 million delivered directly to all local authorities over 5 years.

PBIP funding allocated to each local authority for the first 3 years of the programme 2021- 2023 is provided in the following table: It is up to each local authority how they allocate funding to specific projects, within the terms of the PBIP grant award and related criteria.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are responsible for managing all training provided to doctors in Scotland. NES ensure that all doctors receive high quality training in line with curricula that is set by the relevant Medical Royal College so that they are able to demonstrate that they have met all GMC curricular requirements, in order to practise independently as a GP in the UK.

All GP practices receive funding for protected time consisting of one session a month (usually within practice time) to allow GPs to maintain and develop their training and skills, and those of their practice teams. For GPs after their 3-year training, NES provide educational content related to gastroenterological conditions. There are also Practice-Based Small Group Learning modules (PBSGL) covering cancer and gastroenterology cases.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17397 on 9 May 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

A) I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17389 on 10 May 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

B) One of the factors taken into account when considering the timing of launch of the Deposit Return Scheme was feedback from stakeholders. Many large retailers, who are the main return point operators, had publicly stated that they wanted a delay to allow time for preparations for launch and have been supportive of the new launch date since it was announced.

Once the Deposit Return Scheme is launched on 1 March 2024 retailers acting as a manual return point will benefit from retail handling fees in Scotland which are significantly higher than those anywhere else in Europe. While the delay means that there will now be an additional six months until those fees can be charged, this will be offset by many costs not being incurred. In addition, to simplify the scheme for hospitality retailers, provision will be made to remove the duty to act as a return point for retailers where they sell the vast majority of their scheme articles for consumption on their premises.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01811 on 25 January 2023 which is available on the Parliament's website, the Official Report can be found here: Meeting of the Parliament: 25/01/2023 | Scottish Parliament Website

I am pleased to update that the Scottish Science Advisory Council published the ‘Use of Science and Evidence in Aquaculture Consenting and the Sustainable Development of Scottish Aquaculture’ report on 26 April 2023.

We acknowledge the findings of the report and recognise the importance of providing the right support to families during the early years. Investment in prevention and whole family wellbeing is a key element of our commitment to keep The Promise. This includes training and support in trauma-informed and skilled practice for professionals and annual funding of £3m for embedding infant mental health work across Health Boards.

Young families are entitled to access co-ordinated support across services where need is identified. We are committed to delivering transformational change to improve holistic family support, so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time.

We have no intention to introduce further changes ahead of the launch of the scheme. The Regulations contain provisions that require future review of the scope and operation of the scheme. It should be noted that for the Deposit Return Scheme to proceed the UK Government will need to agree to an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.