- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any correspondence it has had with the UK Government and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency regarding the legacy of the Scottish Police Pension 1987 Scheme.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any impact in Scotland, what its position is on the finding of the UK Government consultation, Review of the ban on the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings, that hotels, hostels and boarding houses presented an “equivalent, or greater, sleeping risk” and as such should be captured within a ban on combustible façade material.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currently considering extending the ban on combustible external wall cladding to hotels, boarding houses and hostels. This will be informed by research and consultation, including relevant work undertaken by the UK Government.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul McLennan on 18 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will (a) publish the phase 1 research and (b) commit to publishing the phase 2 research carried out by the Building Research Establishment in support of the consultation document, Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed review of fire safety topics including Cameron House Hotel recommendations: Fire safety risks in traditional buildings used as hotels, review of current provision on fire suppression, combustible cladding and other issues.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the research, and intends to do this at the same time.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent programme, Disclosure: Kids on the Psychiatric Ward, which features Skye House in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 19 February 2025
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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).
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
