Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20607 on 30 April 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to raising awareness and promoting understanding of public appointments with all groups in Scottish society through conferences, meeting and other events.

A comprehensive list of awareness events was not held centrally prior to 2013. However for the period 1 January to 31 December 2013, nine events were organised by the Scottish Governments Public Appointments Centre of Expertise (PACE). In addition we attended a further 20 events to raise awareness in the same period.

From 1 January 2014 to date we have organised two events and attended three organised by other organisations The events attended varied greatly and included, awareness sessions for public body chairs and internal staff dealing with public appointments, outreach covering all of those groups under represented on Scotland’s boards and participation and representation at conferences.

A list of the events organised by PACE in 2013 and 2014 are listed below:

2013:

Scottish Housing Regulator; to encourage applications from homeless people and those who had experience of engaging with public and private rented accommodation sector.

Seven awareness sessions for public body chairs and senior civil servants (Edinburgh) who sit on selection panels to promote improvements to the public appointment process and raise awareness of diversity on Scotland’s boards.

The Women on Board summit which was held to understand and identify the barriers to women in public life, attended by over 100 chairs of public boards, women of potential and critical friends.

2014:

An open day to encourage applicants to apply for the Dumfries and Galloway Health board chair appointment.

An awareness session for public body chairs and senior civil service who sit on selection panels (Glasgow) to promote improvements to the public appointment process and raise awareness of diversity on Scotland’s boards.

The Public Appointments Centre of Expertise are currently considering options on raising awareness of diversity issues by delivering training to selection panel members on unconscious bias. This is part of the on-going continuous improvement work currently underway as part of the programme of activity being developed by the Scottish Government, in conjunction with the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board and stakeholders.

The affordable warmth scheme was temporarily put on hold in March 2014. This is because energy companies are facing uncertainty over the way in which surplus actions under the Home Heating Cost Reduction Obligation will be treated whilst the UK Government is consulting on proposed changes to the Energy Company Obligation. The Scottish Government is working to clarify the position with each energy company, but expects to re-open the scheme in May 2014.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20560 on 29 April 2014. People who have already been referred to energy companies for an installation under the affordable warmth scheme are not affected. People whose referral was in preparation when the scheme was paused have been contacted by Home Energy Scotland.

People calling Home Energy Scotland since the scheme has been paused, and who may be eligible for assistance, can leave their details with Home Energy Scotland. Home Energy Scotland will keep in touch with them and will let them know of any developments on the affordable warmth scheme or of any other assistance from which they may benefit.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is clarifying with obligated energy companies what they are willing to offer under the affordable warmth scheme in light of the changes the UK Government proposes to make to the Energy Company Obligation. We hope to re-open the Scheme to referrals in May 2014.

At the time of temporarily putting on hold the affordable warmth scheme, there were 181 customers who were waiting for a referral. Those customers have all been contacted by Home Energy Scotland and advised that the scheme has been put on hold. Those customers have also been given advice on any other schemes for which they may be eligible.

The Scottish Government does not have access to the funding allocated by energy companies to the affordable warmth scheme nor any targets set by the companies for funding or number of people assisted. In 2013-14, the Energy Saving Trust made 8,139 referrals to the three energy companies participating in the affordable warmth scheme and, of these, 2,177 households have so far received an installation.

The Self-directed Support (Direct Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 detail circumstances where a family member may provide support. There are two exceptions to this family members rule:

a) Where the local authority determines that either the family member or the direct payment user is under undue pressure to agree to a family member providing support and;

b) Where the family member is a guardian, continuing attorney or welfare attorney with power to make decisions as regards the support to be provided through a direct payment

The second restriction was proposed during the consultation on the draft regulations.

There are no immediate plans to amend this set of regulations, however the Scottish Government, in partnership with organisations, is carrying out on-going monitoring and evaluation during the first year of implementation of the Self-directed Support legislation.

As part of this monitoring I have asked my officials to discuss this particular issue with PAMIS and Alzheimer Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s paper Pensions in an Independent Scotland and white paper Scotland’s Future, did not use dependency ratios to calculate pension costs. Instead, they explained, in some detail, the most relevant demographic challenge for affordability of state pensions in Scotland: lower projected growth in the working age population relative to the UK.

Recent studies from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research have concluded that demographic differences would have an insubstantial effect on pensions affordability between the rest of the UK and an independent Scotland.