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Scottish Ministers and Scottish Government officials frequently engage with a range of stakeholders involved in the rural off-gas heating market, both in direct meetings and as part of wider consultation events.

I hosted a series of roundtables on 6 August 2025 to discuss the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill at which a range of stakeholders were in attendance, including some representing rural and off-gas grid interests. These roundtables focussed on plans for the Heat in Buildings Bill and included discussion of how to overcome the challenges faced by some rural properties in transitioning to clean heating systems.

The then-Acting Minister for Climate Action, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, met with the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association, along with other representatives of the off-gas grid heating sector, on 26 February 2025. The discussion focussed on the role that renewable liquid biofuels may play in decarbonising heating in rural buildings. This is in addition to previous ministerial engagement on rural heat which has informed our approach to the Bill.

While not appropriate for most homes, bioenergy, including renewable liquid biofuels, is a low carbon, renewable energy source which may prove the best solution to decarbonising heating in some rural communities. We intend to ensure that sustainable bioenergy and biofuels remain an option for these communities, Heat in Buildings policy takes a technology-neutral approach so that building owners are able to choose the technology which is right for them.

We are currently consulting on proposals for a Heat and Energy Efficiency Technical Suitability Assessment (HEETSA). The consultation will remain open until 29 August 2025. The HEETSA will include a technical suitability assessment methodology that allows for the comparative assessment of different clean heat options in a property and provide information on when the installation of a system would not be suitable.

The Home Energy Scotland website has estimates on the potential annual savings from installing a standard air source heat pump where there is an existing oil or LPG boiler: https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/heat-pumps

We provide uplifts through 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 £1,500 to the grant and loan 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. And 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.

Heating oil and liquified petroleum gas supply chains and energy price regulation are reserved matters. We engage constructively with the UK Government on a regular basis.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the UK Government on a range of issues regarding Scotland’s fuel security and sites of national significance for Scotland such as Mossmorran. We are committed to ensuring that we support businesses as they seek to decarbonise and working collaboratively with the UK Government on these issues.

The responsibility for energy security is reserved to the UK Government and as is any contingency planning. However, the Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government on a range of issues to ensure Scotland’s needs are met.

The number of flaring events and their cumulative duration over the last three calendar years is shown in the following table

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have not issued any regulatory enforcement action, as defined in Table A of SEPA guidance on the use of enforcement action, against Shell UK Limited FNGL Plant since 1st January 2022.

The responsibility for energy security is reserved to the UK Government, as is any contingency planning. However, the Scottish Government works closely with the UK Government on a range of issues to ensure Scotland’s needs are met.

The most recently available Local Authority analysis from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) is from 2017 to 2019

Table 1 shows the estimated number of dwellings that use heating oil, or LPG as their primary heating fuel, broken down by Local Authority.

Table 1: Estimated number of households using LPG and Oil as primary heating fuel 2017-19.

The Core Scottish Government reports the following figures for waste generated by its operations across premises over the past five financial years:

• 2019-2020: 1,497 tonnes total waste , includes 92.76 tonnes of landfilled waste
• 2020-2021: 867 tonnes total waste, includes 128.94 tonnes of landfilled waste
• 2021-2022: 1,648 tonnes total waste, includes 136.72. tonnes of landfilled waste
• 2022-2023: 1,760 tonnes total waste, includes 69.28 tonnes of landfilled waste
• 2023-2024: 1,127 tonnes total waste , includes 58.61 tonnes of landfilled waste

No landfilled waste was sent to England during this period.

The Core Scottish Government does not forecast future waste generation. Waste data is reported retrospectively after the end of each financial year.

The Core Scottish Government remains committed to reducing all forms of waste across its operations and continues to implement measures to improve sustainability and resource efficiency.