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The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually (based on a three-year average) from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS).

The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 are available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 .

As the 2020 SHCS was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and results from the 2021 External+ SHCS are not yet published and unlikely to be consistent with previous years, the 2017-2019 results are the latest available at Local Authority level.

More recent estimates of fuel poverty at a national level based on scenario modelling have been produced. These reflect the Energy Price Guarantee of £2,500 from April to June 2023 and the end of the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme with differing levels of additional support for various households. These estimates show fuel poverty increasing from 613,000 households (24.6%) in 2019 to 920,000 households (37%) by April 2023. This 50% increase in the number of fuel poor households will also be reflected across all local authorities in Scotland, albeit with some variation based on the characteristics of dwellings and households in each local authority.

The SHCS recorded households who reported receiving CWP in 2018 and 2019. As three years of data are needed to provide analysis at local authority level, this is not currently available.

At a national level, the SHCS estimates that about 10% of fuel poor households received CWP in 2018 and 2019, as shown in the following table. 2019 is the most recent year for which SHCS data is available.

Fuel poor households self-reporting receipt of CWP

Since becoming the first developed country to pledge funding for Loss and Damage at COP26, the Scottish Government and Ministers have actively sought to push the issue further up the global climate agenda. For example, in October 2022 the Scottish Government hosted a conference which brought together international representatives and practitioners to articulate best practice on addressing loss and damage. During COP27, the First Minister met with other governmental and organisational representatives, including Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Germany’s Special Envoy for International Climate Action Jennifer Morgan and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. The Minister for Environment and Land Reform also met with Ministers from Bangladesh, Ghana, Vanuatu and Malawi. Our COP27 outcome report has further details on the Scottish Government’s engagements and achievements at the UN conference. We are delighted that there is now over $300m of finance committed to address loss and damage and an international agreement for a Loss and Damage Fund.

However, we recognise we cannot lose momentum following this breakthrough. Since COP27, Scottish Government Ministers and officials have met with various other governments to better understand their plans for funding loss and damage, share lessons and urge both commitment of funding and rapid disbursement. For example, the Minister for Environment and Land Reform has discussed the issue with a Minister from North Rhine-Westphalia and will shortly meet and discuss it with a Minister from Ghana. At official level, the Scottish Government has met with representatives from UK, US and New Zealand. In addition officials have presented through subnational knowledge-sharing networks on loss and damage and climate justice. The Scottish Government will continue its convening role on loss and damage to platform best practice and to activate potential funders.

As part of this, the Scottish Government launched an extensive report on practical action to address loss and damage on 16 March at the online international Gobeshona conference hosted by International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. This report gathers, analyses and platforms case studies on existing action to fund and address Loss and Damage, building on the outcomes from the Scottish Government’s Loss and Damage conference. The report is be available online but the Scottish Government will make it specifically available to key governments (for example, those who are members of the UNFCCC Transitional Committee on loss and damage). With this report and our programming we are making the case internationally on the impact funding can have to support communities facing climate-induced loss and damage.

The review of the adaptations system has begun. Adaptations are an integral part of support for independent living for older and disabled people. The scope of the review is to identify and overcome the barriers to a streamlined and responsive system where adaptations are planned for, funded and delivered in a timely and appropriate manner.

Officials have met with a number of stakeholders and will continue engagement with the newly formed Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder Group to ensure all those who have an interest and those with lived experience are able to contribute to the review. As the review is ongoing the list of consultees has not been finalised.

The initial review findings and recommendations are expected in the Summer.

The Scottish Government is developing a new Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy, which aims to ensure that everyone in Scotland receives well co-ordinated, timely, and high quality palliative care based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers. We have appointed a National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care to drive this, supported by a Clinical and Practice Advisory Group and a wide-reaching Strategy Steering Group. The Steering Group is currently reviewing the information and evidence we have and need to develop the strategy, including mapping services and support across Scotland across all care settings including people’s own homes. We will develop a strategy that reflects what matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement, and are therefore also reviewing the information and evidence we have about people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care, and bereavement, in order to inform our strategy going forward.

The Scottish Government recognises that all recorded information relating to its business is subject to Freedom of Information law, irrespective of its format or the platform on which it is held. This includes any information held in or originally generated in WhatsApp or similar messaging apps.

The Scottish Government has previously released such messaging exchanges in response to Freedom of Information requests. However, to ascertain the number of responses which have included such exchanges officials would require to individually check every FOI response the Scottish Government has issued. For that reason, this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Scottish Government’s budget of £126m is available to grant recipients to draw down until the end of March 2023. This means that there is still time for spend to be incurred, including grant funding to our delivery partners which we may need to accrue for if payment hasn’t been made before the 31 March 2023. The final actual spend for the 2022-23 financial year will be known when the Annual Accounts are finalised.

Transport Scotland is working with the grant recipients to ensure as much of the maximum amount of grant funding available is drawn down before the end of the financial year.

Zero Waste Scotland are currently working with businesses from the initial round of applications and an announcement on the outcome will be made in due course.

Homelessness data collected by the Scottish Government is management information gathered by local authorities as part of carrying out their statutory duties in providing support to anyone in Scotland who is found to be unintentionally homeless/threatened with homelessness, and who is eligible for homelessness assistance, including students. Detailed information on occupation or student status of household members is not currently collected in the homelessness data returns.

The review of homelessness data collections is considering what changes need to and can be made to data generated by local authorities with the aim of bringing these up to date, improving consistency and better meeting user needs.

A public consultation on changes required for the homelessness data collections was carried out in Winter 2020. No responses were received from universities, colleges or the National Union of Students Scotland. Feedback on Scottish Government homelessness statistics can be provided to the homelessness statistics and analysis team at any time via their dedicated inbox homelessness_statistics_inbox@gov.scot.

Data gaps identified during the development of new homelessness data collection content will be considered as part of the review. Decisions on content will require a balance to be struck between asking local authorities to record any additional information, the resources this would require to implement, data quality and how much this would improve the overall monitoring of homelessness in Scotland.

In consultation with local authority data providers a review was felt to be valuable to ensure data collections were as up to date as possible, reflecting changes in homelessness legislation, terminology and policy. In addition, the review would aim to rationalise the collections by updating these to better reflect the data needs of the sector and data users.

Work is ongoing and we anticipate that a full review of existing content, development of new or alternative content and agreement on final content will be concluded by end 2024-beginning of 2025. This includes time to adequately research content, hold in-depth discussion with data providers and stakeholders to understand data requirements and feasibility of collection. The work will involve review of all relevant legislation and statutory guidance. The aim is to also build in an opportunity to share draft amended content publicly, with a final opportunity for stakeholders to provide feedback before content is fully agreed.

The range of powers include:

• Compulsory Purchase Orders - that enable local authorities and public bodies to compulsory purchase land or buildings.
• Provision within Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 for local authorities to issue a work notice requiring a home owner to bring a sub-standard home into a reasonable state of repair.
• Statutory nuisance provision within Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Public Health (Scotland) Act 2008 which can be used by local authorities and public bodies.
• The Council Tax (Variation for Unoccupied Dwellings)(Scotland) Regulations 2013 (S.S.I. 2013/45) – enables local authorities to vary the level of discount on certain homes that have been empty for more than 6 months and to remove the discount and charge a premium on certain homes that have been empty for 12 months or more.