Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-33839

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 31 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many tenancy deposits were unclaimed at the end of the tenancy agreement in each year since 2021-22, and what action it takes to promote the uptake of deposits.

The requested information is detailed in the following table:

Financial Year	Increase in unclaimed deposits from previous year	Total number of unclaimed deposits
2021-22	862	12,912
2022-23	988	13,900
2023-24	6,297	20,197

The total value of unclaimed deposits in the requested financial years can be found in our previously issued response to S6W-33204 on 20 January 2025. 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.

In reference to the increase of number and value of unclaimed tenancy deposits in 2023-24, Scottish Government received notification from one of the schemes in August 2023 explaining that they had reviewed the criteria used to report on unclaimed deposits. This has resulted in a fluctuation in their figures with a corresponding increase in the total number of unclaimed deposits amongst the three schemes.

Each of the three schemes may calculate unclaimed deposits differently, as an unclaimed deposit is not currently defined in law. Provisions within the Housing (Scotland) Bill will create a legal definition of when a tenancy deposit can be considered unclaimed, ensuring there is consistency in all three schemes figures if the Bill is approved.

The tenancy deposit schemes have taken a number of active steps to reunite unclaimed deposits with former tenants and have recently shared best practises amongst each other. The Scottish Government intend to take forward additional changes to support tenants to reclaim their deposit at the end of the tenancy. This includes providing more information to tenants about unclaimed tenancy deposits to raise awareness of the issue and to be clear about what would happen if they don’t reclaim their deposit, as part of implementation of the measures in the Bill.

Question reference: S6W-33278

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government, as it may relate to Scotland, on introducing a permanent ban on prepayment energy meter installations.

Energy policy (including pre-payment meters) is mostly reserved to the UK Government, which means the Scottish Government has limited powers to intervene.

It is important that consumers are able to choose the most appropriate and manageable way of paying for their energy, and prepayment meters can, under certain circumstances, play an important part in providing flexibility and choice to households and businesses.

The Scottish Government has therefore not called for a permanent ban on the installation of prepayment meters – while strongly supporting the ban on forcibly installing meters for certain vulnerable customers.

We continue to call for more targeted support for vulnerable consumers, including those on prepayment meters, who are in greater risk of increased debt or self-disconnection.

Question reference: S6W-33277

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many households it estimates currently use prepayment (a) gas and (b) electricity meters in Scotland.

The Scottish House Condition Survey provides a snapshot of the Scottish housing stock in each survey year including the construction age and built form of Scottish domestic buildings. Within this it provides estimates of the number of dwellings with a prepayment meter for gas or electricity.

The most recent estimates of households with a prepayment meter are from 2023, and are presented in the following table:

Table 1: Number of PPM meters by type (000’s)

Meter type	Total number of households
Electricity only	116
Electricity and gas	186
Gas only	19

Total	321

Notes

1.Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2.Source Scottish House Condition Survey 2023.

3.The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates which lie at the midpoint of a confidence interval which depends primarily on sample size. A statistical tool for calculating 95% confidence intervals around these estimates can be found at Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Question reference: S6W-33276

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 29 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it currently offers to individuals who use prepayment energy meters and are at risk of disconnection.

Energy policy (including pre-payment meters) is mostly reserved to the UK Government, which unfortunately means that the Scottish Government has limited powers to intervene.

We continue to call for more targeted support for vulnerable consumers, including those on prepayment meters, who are in greater risk of increased debt or self-disconnection. This includes the urgent introduction of a social energy tariff mechanism as a much needed safety net for priority consumers.

The Scottish Government established a social tariff working group last November, bringing together stakeholders to co-design a deliverable social tariff policy, and we have committed to providing the outputs to the UK Government as soon as possible

Question reference: S6W-33790

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address any issues related to lower energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings in (a) homes in rural areas compared with homes in urban areas and (b) older homes compared with newer builds.

We provide uplifts in our heat in buildings delivery schemes to help meet additional challenges faced by homeowners in rural and island communities.

The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan offers an uplift of £1500 to the grant funding available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands.

The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in rural and island areas.

Both our Area Based Schemes and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in more remote areas, of 11% in rural areas and 22% in remote rural/island areas.

We will work with Historic Environment Scotland, and other key stakeholders to find the best solutions for older and more traditional buildings. We are considering the development of an assessment tool which could provide owners with information on the types of heating systems and energy efficiency measures appropriate for traditional buildings or those with protected characteristics.

We published a Government Response to our consultation on Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) reform on 21 January. We will lay regulations later this year which will push ahead with reforms to the infrastructure and assessor market operational framework for EPCs.

Question reference: S6W-33789

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to invest in (a) mobile and (b) other modes of training for heat pump installation in rural areas, to increase local expertise, tackle any disparities experienced in rural areas, and remove any barriers to improving energy efficiency.

We are committed to supporting Scotland’s workforce develop the skills needed for the clean heat transition. We have invested in a mobile training centre, launched in August 2023, for heat pump installation to ensure training is equally available across all locations. We also support clean heat installers through our Low Carbon Skills Grant which funds heat pump training in colleges across Scotland. It allows heating and plumbing apprentices to include heat pump training modules as part of their qualification at no additional cost to their employer. A number of colleges with likely rural catchments have delivered these modules.

Question reference: S6W-33791

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 27 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many rural households (a) applied for and (b) received the additional £1,500 funding uplift available for (i) energy efficiency and (ii) clean heating under the Home Energy Scotland Grants and Loan Scheme, in 2024.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme offers a rural uplift to households in remote rural and island areas, as well off-gas accessible rural areas, in recognition of the higher installation costs often faced by these households. The uplift is automatically applied to qualifying applications at application stage, where the value of measures applied for is greater than standard grant amounts.

The following table shows the number of applications received where at least one measure qualified for the rural uplift, and how many applications were fully paid in the 2024 calendar year.

	Energy Efficiency (i)	Clean Heating (ii)
(a) Applications	122	1,635
(b) Fully Paid	66	1,212

If an application received the rural uplift for both the energy efficiency and clean heating grants, they will be counted once under each heading.

In addition, as applicants have 9 months to install the measures and claim their funding, the fully paid category is not a subset of the applications. Fully paid figures will include applications from 2024 and also preceding years. In contrast, some applications received in 2024 will not be paid out until 2025.

Question reference: S6W-33210

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how many buildings have been identified to date as having (a) safe and (b) unsafe cladding.

I refer the member to the answers given in S6W-31234 on 25 November 2024 and S6W-32253 on 9 January 2025. 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.

In addition to those earlier answers, I can advise that we currently have Single Building Assessments (SBAs) underway for 13 government-led entries on the Cladding Remediation Programme pilot. We expect to receive the reports of these assessments during the first quarter of the year.

We have also commissioned an independent review of all pilot entries as part of our commitment to ensuring they are on an appropriate pathway to assessment. We will commission further SBAs for any buildings that this review finds to also require government-led assistance.

We recently set out our strategic priorities for cladding remediation during 2025 in the answer given in S6W-32849 on 6 January 2025. These include the development of two new schemes for assessment and remediation, as well as working with partners to develop a clear picture of the position across sectors in Scotland. We will be publishing a renewed plan of action in March that will set out how and when we will be delivering these priorities.

Question reference: S6F-03736

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2025

To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking to address concerns regarding waiting times in A&E departments, following reports of a mother having to wait 50 hours for medical care at University Hospital Wishaw.

Question reference: S6W-33204

Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 20 January 2025

The figures requested are as follows:

1. In the 2021-22 financial year, there were 12,912 unclaimed deposits, totalling a value of £3,306,695.

2. In the 2022-23 financial year, there were 13,900 unclaimed deposits, totalling a value of £3,660,948.

3. In the 2023-24 financial year, there were 20,197 unclaimed deposits, totalling a value of £5,419,255.

In reference to the increase of number and value of unclaimed tenancy deposits in recent years, Scottish Government received notification from one of the schemes in August 2023 explaining that they had reviewed the criteria used to report on unclaimed deposits. This resulted in a fluctuation in their figures with a corresponding increase in the total unclaimed deposit value pool amongst the three schemes.

Each of the three schemes may calculate unclaimed deposits differently, as an unclaimed deposit is not currently defined in law. Provisions within the Housing (Scotland) Bill will create a legal definition of when a tenancy deposit can be considered unclaimed, ensuring there is consistency in all three schemes figures if the Bill is approved.

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