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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-26475

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to convene a further meeting of energy suppliers and consumer organisations to discuss support for vulnerable consumers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26472 on 5 December 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Whilst we currently have no plans for further summits, the Scottish Government continues to engage with individual energy suppliers and stakeholders as part of our commitment to advocate for the needs of Scottish energy consumers to the UK Government, Ofgem and energy suppliers. Should there be a need, the Scottish Government is open to holding such summits in the future.

Question reference: S5W-26474

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Consumers and Markets Taskforce has had with Citizens Advice Scotland regarding options for a unified priority services register across public authorities, agencies and utilities.

The Consumers and Markets Taskforce was created to provide Scottish Ministers with strategic advice on priorities and actions relating to consumer and market issues in Scotland. As its remit evolved, its focus moved to supporting the practical development of Consumer Scotland in order to ensure that the Scottish Government’s desire to better represent consumers and put them at the centre of policy-making could be realised. As this work has continued, The Scottish Government has also provided support to consumer advocacy and advice bodies to ensure that the needs of priority consumers are considered and acted upon and the needs of priority customers continue to be discussed in Ministers’ and officials’ direct engagements with energy suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-26456

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Ofgem on protecting consumers from higher bills as a direct result of energy supply company failures, where credit balances and unpaid renewables obligations are thereafter mutualised across other suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-26451

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask Ofgem to provide an estimate of the costs of energy supplier failure in Scotland, including (a) managing the supplier of last resort process, (b) covering the cost of consumer credit balances and (c) unpaid renewables obligations, since January 2018.

All legislative and regulatory powers regarding electricity and gas markets remain reserved to UK Ministers under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998, and, consequently, the Scottish Government does not currently have any devolved powers to direct actions in either market. However, we have a good working relationship with the UK regulator, Ofgem, and seek, within this limited context, to work closely with them and officials and Ministers within the UK Government to ensure that the electricity and gas markets work as well as can be achieved for Scottish consumers and to help Scottish Ministers to address fuel poverty and meet the needs of vulnerable customers. These issues also feature strongly in our ongoing discussions with energy suppliers as we seek to deliver against Scotland’s Energy Strategy.

We are currently considering Ofgem’s ongoing consultation on the Supplier Licensing Review, with a view to identify any further issues that may need to be highlighted as part of the Scottish Government response and wider efforts to ensure the best possible outcomes for Scotland’s energy consumers.

Question reference: S5W-26453

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will encourage Ofgem, through its Supplier Licencing Review, to ensure that energy suppliers guarantee (a) 100% of their credit balances and (b) government policy costs, should they fail through parent company guarantees, ringfenced cash or any other appropriate financial instrument.

Question reference: S5W-26454

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will seek reassurance from Ofgem that any new rules it is proposing to put in place under the Supplier Licencing Review will alleviate the moral hazard problem in the energy supply market where suppliers are able to use an uninformed line of credit in the form of customer credit balances.

Question reference: S5W-26457

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask Ofgem to provide an estimate of the average credit balance held by customers in Scotland for each energy supply company that has failed since January 2018.

Question reference: S5W-26455

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will seek reassurance from Ofgem that there will be no significant mutualisation of costs once its supplier licensing proposals have been finalised and implemented.

Question reference: S5O-03906

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it can do to support the re-establishment of the O2 ABC venue in Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-26490

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what bids it has received from Glasgow City Council, or the local authority's arms length external organisations, for support from the Ending Homelessness Together fund in each year since 2017.

We have not received any bids for funding from the Ending Homelessness Together Fund, which has been established to support transformation and transition as we deliver the changes set out in the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan.

However, the following table shows funding received by Glasgow City Council from the Ending Homelessness Together Fund since it was established in 2018-19.

Year	Amount	Organisation	Reason
2018-19	£301,000	Glasgow City Council	Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans development
2019-20	£1,332,000	Glasgow City Council	Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans implementation – Year 1

In 2018-19, £1.25 m was allocated to Corra Foundation from the Ending Homelessness Together Fund for distribution across the service providers operating in the five Housing First pathfinder sites, which includes Glasgow. A total of up to £6.5 m from the Ending Homelessness Together Fund and the Health Portfolio is being made available for the 3 year Housing First pathfinder programme.

In addition, the Ending Homelessness Together Fund has been used to provide funding to national organisations for Scotland-wide projects, some of which will benefit services in Glasgow.

Funding received for interventions specifically for Glasgow are shown in the following table:

Year	Amount	Organisation	Reason
2018-19 (April 2018)	£7,500	Simon Community Scotland	Flexible Emergency Funds* - Glasgow
2018-19 (Jan 2019)	£21,000	Simon Community Scotland	Flexible Emergency Funds – Glasgow
2019-20 (Oct 2019)	£25,000	Simon Community Scotland	Flexible Emergency Funds – Glasgow
2019-20	£140,000	Simon Community Scotland	Contribution to the Multi-Agency Health, Wellbeing And Home Hub for Glasgow
2019-20	£10,000	Simon Community Scotland	Outreach Contingency Fund to provide extra outreach shift at night on Glasgow and Edinburgh

*Flexible Emergency Funds are a facility available to frontline outreach staff to act immediately and directly in the interests of the person they are working with to prevent rough sleeping.