Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03192 on‎ 4 October 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government will publish the final Heat and Building Strategy in due course, which will set out next steps in its delivery following the recent consultation; this included our intention to publish a public engagement strategy which is essential to supporting the delivery of this Government’s decarbonisation agenda.

An independent review of the go-live date for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme was conducted in June this year. We are considering its findings and I will provide an update to Parliament and businesses shortly.

Annex A of the draft Heat in Buildings Strategy contains over one hundred actions. Not all actions represent separate budget items or specific deliverables. Accordingly, the information below sets out timescales, status and expenditure across broad groups of actions and specific programmes. Further detail will be published in our finalised Heat in Buildings Strategy.

Delivery schemes

• We have allocated a record £50 million for Warmer Homes Scotland and £64 million for our local authority-led Area Based Schemes this year.
• We have increased the cashback available to home and building owners on measures to improve efficiency and install zero emissions heating, and will replace the cashback with a grant scheme in 2022/23.
• We have announced at least £95 million of capital funding for our Scottish Green Public Sector Estate scheme, this year investing at least £10 million.
• We have launched a second £30 million call through the ‘Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund’, and committed to keep the fund open with up to £100m available over the course of this Parliament.
• We will invest at least £400 million over this parliamentary session in large scale heat and energy efficiency projects, including providing support for zero carbon local and district heat networks, and large scale heat pumps. This scheme will provide both capital and project development support.
• Through our CARES programme, up to £5.25 million has been made available for this financial year to support community and locally owned energy. A further £3 million has also been made available to support the upgrade of fragile grids, recognising the distinct challenges faced by island, rural and remote communities.

Working with the energy sector

• In partnership with Ofgem and Scotland’s gas and electricity network companies we have published the Principles for the Development of Scotland’s Gas and Electricity Networks.
• We continue to work with electricity network operators through our Heat Electrification Strategic Partnership, and to work with gas network operators to develop the evidence base on gas decarbonisation.
• The Scottish Government provided £6.9 million support to the H100 project, helping to evidence the role that hydrogen can play in decarbonising heat.
• The Heat Networks (Scotland) Act was unanimously agreed by the Scottish Parliament, and we are developing the secondary legislation provided for by the Act. We have introduced a 90% relief from non-domestic rates for new heat networks run from renewable sources, and extended the existing 50% relief for heat networks to 2032.
• We will refresh the Energy Strategy in Spring 2022.
• We are partnering with Scottish Renewables to undertake a ‘Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project’.
• We will respond to the forthcoming Heat Pump Sector Deal Advisory Group’s recommendations once they are finalised.

Regulation

• We have committed to phasing out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers, in off gas from 2025 and in on gas areas from 2030, subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas.
• We have made a commitment that where technically and legally feasible and cost-effective, by 2030 a large majority of buildings should achieve a good level of energy efficiency, which for homes is at least equivalent to an EPC Band C, with all homes meeting at least this standard by 2033.
• We will introduce primary legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that provides the regulatory framework for zero emissions heating and energy efficiency, and underpinning powers to support this transition and ambitious programme

Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies

• We have developed a methodology and guidance for the production of Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategies and Delivery Plans.
• The LHEES pilots programme completed in April 2021 and an evaluation is underway, synthesising learning across three phases. We have commissioned a National Assessment to create a central resource that local authorities can draw on.

Consultations

In addition to the consultation on the draft Heat in Buildings Strategy we have consulted on:

• Scottish skills requirements for energy efficiency, zero emissions and low carbon heating systems, microgeneration and heat networks for homes
• New Build Heat Standard (scoping consultation)
• Home energy efficiency: equity loan pilot
• Domestic Energy Performance Certificates reform
• Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP): call for evidence

Since 2018 Scottish Government has invested the following amounts on expanding the public and non public electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Scotland. These figures includes support provided to electric vehicle owners to install home charging points and support provided to Local Authorities, businesses and other organisations. The figures below represent all chargepoints that we have supported some of which are not publicly available chargers and as such won't appear on the ChargePlace Scotland network.

1) 2018-2019 – £13,405,324.67

2) 2019-2020 – £15,796,625

3) 2020-2021 – £14,416,073.57

The shift to electric vehicles is an important part of responding to the climate emergency and improving air quality in our cities. To help incentivise this shift, we have since 2013 invested over £45 million in ChargePlace Scotland, Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 1900 publicly available charge points. Scotland is leading the way on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The latest figures show that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from almost 40 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to fewer than 30 in England, just over 20 in Wales and less than 20 in Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Government is aware of the issues facing city centre retail and related sectors as a result of the pandemic. The City Centre Recovery Task Force has engaged with external stakeholders, including those from the retail sector, to inform its recommendations. The work of the City Centre Recovery Task Force has been taken forward in tandem with development of a Retail Strategy, which focuses on the future needs of the retail sector in Scotland.

We will provide more information on all of our plans for action to help our city centres recover when we publish the recommendations of the Task Force this autumn.

Consultant Psychiatrists across NHS Boards

The latest quarterly NHS Workforce stats (published 7 September) provide a data snapshot of the number of consultant psychiatrists across Mental Health and Learning Disabilities (MHLD) services within NHS Scotland and in each of the NHS Boards.

As at 30 June 2021, there are 547.8* whole-time equivalent (WTE) Consultant Psychiatrists across all specialities in NHS Scotland. This is a 23.2% increase since September 2006. The number of WTE consultant psychiatrists across all specialities in each NHS Board as at 30 June 2021 are:

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03232 on‎ 4 October 2021 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03232 on‎ 4 October 2021 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Following closure of the Lowit Unit at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital in 2014, a programme of CAMHS redesign started in 2015. This included all services for children and young people with mental health issues being redesigned to support children aged 0-18 years.

During this redesign, the majority of staff were co-located in a new purpose redesigned CAMHS building funded by the Scottish Government. The remainder of staff are now based in Moray as part of a Hub and Spoke model of care. This includes Unscheduled Care and Tier 4 staff to support children, young people and their families. All Tier 4 patients are cared for by a Multi-Disciplinary Team, using a Care Programme Approach. The CAMHS service in NHS Grampian is now also part of a North of Scotland regional Tier 4 network with Tayside and Highland and in-patient beds can be accessed within the Young People's Unit, if required.

It is for individual Health Boards to ensure that they provide mental health services in line with the needs of their local population.

NHS Grampian is currently meeting the CAMHS Waiting Times target of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks, with compliance at 90.8% in the last quarter. Waiting times performance since the whole service redesign in NHS Grampian was completed shows the positive impact this has had on access and care.