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The amount of time spent on the physical works for each building retrofit can vary and depends on a range of factors. Some of the factors which influence the time taken are: the building type; the types of work needed to improve the energy efficiency of the building; and the type of zero emissions heating installed.

Our workforce assessment, currently underway, will give insight into the drivers of the range of retrofit times and related workforce and skills needs across relevant sectors. In addition, working with industry, we will co-produce a Heat in Buildings supply chain action plan focussed on ensuring industry can deliver at the pace and scale needed.

Whilst the volume of peat used within the whisky industry is understood to represent around 1% of all peat extracted in Scotland, the Scottish Government does not hold figures for the amount of peat burned annually by the whisky industry to flavour malting barley.

On rare occasions, where patients require very specialist treatment that cannot be provided in Scotland, cross border transfers are used to facilitate care and treatment in other parts of the UK. Decisions about cross border transfers to specialist centres in other parts of the UK are a clinical decision that needs to be discussed and agreed with the involvement of the patient and their family, taking into account a range of factors.

We continue to make good progress with the delivery of the Mental Health Transition and Recovery plan, which was published in October 2020. The delivery of the plan is supported by our £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund which is being used to transform services and increase our focus on prevention and early intervention.

A range of activity is being progressed. This includes work to enhance Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and psychological therapies, the implementation of the Eating Disorders Review and further roll out of digital innovations developed in response to the pandemic. We are also expanding the support available within communities, including the provision of £21 million (2021-2022) and £15 million (2022-2023) via the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for grassroots community groups to help tackle the impact of social isolation, loneliness and mental health inequalities amongst adults. A further £15 million has been made available to local authorities to provide community mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people.

This activity will continue in 2022-23.

Due to the local elections period, it is expected that the national rail conversation will get underway after 5 May local elections. Decisions on a more definitive timescale will be arrived at when agreement has been reached with Trade Union partners and other interested stakeholders.

It is envisaged that the national conversation will engage a wide ranging group of stakeholders including passengers, regional transport partnerships, rail unions, disability groups, businesses and educational interests.

Transport Scotland officials are currently considering the details on the most effective and productive engagement programme to deliver the national rail conversation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland who want to work, including those receiving adult social care support, are able to access appropriate and flexible employability support.

We will continue to work towards our ambition to reduce the disability employment gap by at least half by 2038 as set out in the Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan. We will do this by supporting disabled people into employment , and ensuring that employers have the skills they need to recruit and retain this vastly underutilised pool of talent. We have reviewed current approaches to supporting disabled people with additional support needs into employment and will publish the findings by Summer 2022.

Through this plan we will work to ensure that our social care system delivers the right type and mix of support to help remove the barriers to work for disabled people.

Current models of care should afford flexibility to the individual to take up employment where possible subject to individual care needs being met. We are currently reviewing the guidance on Self Directed Support (SDS) to strengthen consistency and choice in the way social care is provided.

Going forward, we are committed to building on this as we work towards establishing a National Care Service to provide high quality, consistent and fair social care support across Scotland that enables people to achieve the outcomes they want to lead a full life.

The Energy Saving Trust maintains the Renewable Heat Database for the Scottish Government. The following table extracts domestic renewable heat installations over the period 2016-2020. Data for 2021 are not yet available. These data are derived from registrations under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, and as such likely underestimate the total number of installations due to lower coverage of new build homes.

The £150 cost of living payments are administered by local authorities. Councils have indicated that they are using the discretion we allowed to make payments as a credit to council tax accounts in the majority of circumstances to ensure delivery before the end of April 2022.

Where the support is delivered as a direct payment, local authorities have flexibility over how this is done. Our guidance does require councils to take reasonable steps to ensure recipients are not disadvantaged by the mechanism selected, including ensuring the recipient does not have to pay an administration fee to a third party in order to receive the payment.

The function of Scottish Water is to treat and supply high quality drinking water as well as to collect, treat and safely dispose of wastewater for those customers who are connected to the public water and/or wastewater network. To this end, Scottish Water has delivered significant levels of investment since its creation in 2002 and local authorities would not be funding and undertaking work which falls under the specific functions of Scottish Water. Local authorities have separate responsibilities in relation to private water supplies, any private water and waste water pipes which fall under their responsibility, some roads drainage and also for flood risk management. In areas where there are inter-linking responsibilities, some partnerships have been established between Scottish Water and local authorities, such as the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership and the Edinburgh and Lothians Drainage Partnership. In addition to this, Scottish Water has partnerships with local authorities, where appropriate, where there is an opportunity to develop and deliver innovative solutions, such as the Stirling district heating scheme and work being delivered through Clyde Gateway, among others.

Scottish Water would be happy to further discuss its partnership work with Local Authorities if the member would find that helpful.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold this information. You may wish to contact the Scottish Housing Regulator who collect a range of information from all social landlords as part of their Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter or individual Local Authorities.