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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S4O-03154

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the NHS Lothian board.

Question reference: S4F-02015

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the Audit Commission report, An overview of local government in Scotland 2014.

Question reference: S4O-03033

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what contribution it considers that housing can make to tackling poverty.

Question reference: S4W-19830

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have had energy efficiency measures installed under the affordable warmth scheme, broken down by type of measure.

Some 1,500 households are reported by energy companies to have received installations in the period to end January 2014. Measures installed include: gas boilers, full gas central heating systems, heating controls, loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. The Scottish Government will publish a fuller breakdown by measure once this has been provided by all energy companies participating in the Affordable Warmth scheme.

Question reference: S4W-19843

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Housing (Scotland) Bill will include provisions relating to energy efficiency measures as common works by householders.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill amends the powers of local authorities to require home owners to carry out work on homes that are below tolerable standard, and this includes homes that lack satisfactory thermal insulation. The Bill also includes a provision to enable local authorities to pay missing shares where a majority of home owners agree common works under the Tenement Management Scheme, and this can include works to install insulation.

Question reference: S4W-19842

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when the Regulation of Energy Efficiency in Private Sector Homes working group will present for consultation draft regulations to improve the energy efficiency of existing private sector housing.

Question reference: S4W-19839

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill will make it easier for local authorities to engage local SMEs as installers for the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland initiative.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 3 October 2013 will establish a national legislative framework for sustainable public procurement that supports Scotland’s economic growth through improved procurement practice. It will help tackle unnecessary inconsistencies for suppliers doing business with the public sector and will help ensure that doing business with the public sector can be simple, transparent and more accessible to suppliers, especially SMEs.

Funding for the area based element of our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS) is distributed to local authorities. It is for them to determine the most suitable means of procuring the work. However, as part of the criteria for accessing HEEPS funding we are clear that projects should support the local economy as much as possible. Councils are requested to provide details on how their proposed schemes support local economic activity, small businesses and provide opportunities for apprenticeships. This information is considered as part of our assessment of requests for HEEPS funding.

Question reference: S4W-19826

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it has engaged with stakeholders in Scotland to assess the impact of changes to the energy company obligation.

We have regular meetings with a range of stakeholders to discuss the energy company obligation (ECO) and to work closely with delivery partners on the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland. Stakeholders with whom we engage regularly include, amongst others: local authorities, registered social landlords, the National Insulation Association, energy companies, the Fuel Poverty Forum and its energy company obligation (ECO) sub-group. We also keep stakeholders up to date on ECO activity through our regular Scottish Government ECO newsletter and we encourage stakeholders to join the newsletter’s mailing list.

These contacts will inform our response to the UK Government’s consultation on their proposed changes to the ECO.

Question reference: S4W-19831

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have had energy efficiency measures installed under the energy assistance scheme, broken down by type of measure.

The following table shows the number of households whose installations have been completed (i.e. passed inspection) and for which the Scottish Government has been invoiced for both the Energy Assistance Scheme and stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package in the period April to December 2013. The Scottish Government will publish data for the full 2013-14 financial year in due course.

Installation type	Energy Assistance Scheme	Energy Assistance Package (Stage 4)	Total
Central Heating Systems	1697	3649	5346
Of which:
Gas	1591	2897	4488
Electric Dry	51	398	449
Oil	33	203	236
LPG	18	81	99
Solid Fuel	4	37	41
Air Source Heat Pump	0	25	25
Electric Wet	0	8	8

Insulation only (including mobile home insulation)	68	225	293
TOTAL	1765	3874	5639

Installations completed under stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package relate to applications made prior to 1 April 2014.

Question reference: S4W-19841

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on delivering the recommendations in A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland: 2013 Update.

Building standards officials are in the process of investigating the fifteen additional recommendations made in the 2013 update of the original 2007 Sullivan Report.

In announcing deferment of the next set of energy standards in building regulations until October 2015, I have already acted upon the first recommendation made by the panel under the ‘Eventual and Staged Standards’ topic.

At this time, the focus of officials and the construction industry has turned to the development of an ‘action plan’ in support of the 2015 standards, referred to in the fifth recommendation under the ‘Eventual and Staged Standards’ topic.