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Since 2011 the Scottish Government has supported individuals and businesses across Scotland with over £220 million of interest free loans to support the transition to zero emission vehicles.

In addition, the Plugged-in Communities grant fund has provided community transport organisations with grants worth almost £4 million to procure zero emission vehicles.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the future of its EV incentive schemes, with no final decision yet made.

The Scottish Government has commissioned a study which will look at EV adoption to-date and will model future demand across a number of scenarios. This study will help to inform the ongoing development of Transport Scotland’s strategic framework for the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and the development of charging infrastructure across Scotland.

In is anticipated that the SBA (Single Building Assessment) specification document will be published at the end of May 2024.

The Scottish Government has invested over £65 million to support the installation of over 2,800 public EV charge points across Scotland as part of the ChargePlace Scotland(CPS) EV charging network. As a direct result, Scotland has over 4,880 public EV charge points and the best provision of public charge points per head of population of anywhere in the UK, outside of London, and the most rapid charge points per head of population of any region in the UK.

Transport Scotland has also provided £5.7 million to support the installation of 18,861 domestic charge points and £10.8 million to support 1,432 higher powered workplace charge points, complementing the public network.

In addition, the Scottish Government published the Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network last year, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. This work is being supported through the £60m EV Infrastructure Fund(EVIF), where we are supporting local authorities across Scotland to work with the private sector to lever in the private investment needed to develop the EV charging network in Scotland at the pace and scale required to meet future demands.

It is right that developers make a contribution to remediating buildings that they developed, where they are able to do so, and we recognise that this contribution should be proportionate to profit. In England and Wales developers over £10m profit threshold have committed to meet all of the costs of remediating their buildings. In Wales developers under the £10m profit threshold will make a level of contribution to remediating their buildings reflecting their ability to pay. We are currently working with the sector in Scotland to explore the level of contribution that would be appropriate for developers.

We are working through our financial support options at pace to define how we can support those developers who cannot afford to pay in full for their remediation liability. We are committed to ensuring that our approach is proportionate to a developer’s ability to pay and are working with developers now to define the level of contribution that would be appropriate.

We are aware of the important role privately rented homes play as part of Scotland’s housing stock, and the wider pressures on this sector. We will continue to engage with the sector on our proposals, taking account of the wider environment in which it operates.

The recent consultation on a Heat in Buildings Bill included a proposal that a minimum energy efficiency standard could be met by installing a straightforward list of energy efficiency measures. Any homeowner who had installed these measures – or as many of them as are feasible for the type of home they live in – would be considered to meet the new standard. This final list of measures will be developed to prioritise those that have most impact for homes with the lowest amount of cost and disruption. This will provide a simple approach for landlords and other homeowners to follow, and to comply with the standard.

The Scottish Government has commissioned research through ClimateXChange to investigate the potential impact of the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill on the Scottish Housing Market. The scope of this project includes an investigation into the impact on the private rental market. As part of this project, researchers are conducting interviews with stakeholders from the property market, including from the rental sector. This research is currently being carried out, and findings will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government has invested significantly in vessels and key ports and harbours to support lifeline ferry connections. Shore side power upgrades across the lifeline ferry network are planned for the introduction of new and current vessels.

However, for those ports that are privately owned, decarbonisation measures or supporting infrastructure for vessels is a commercial decision for the port operators. The Scottish Government can work with ports owned by local authorities, and potentially Trusts, to explore potential solutions which are proportionate to the scale of operation and the vessels served.

The first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland began in September 2015, and closed to new applicants on 31 March 2023. The second phase of Warmer Homes Scotland was launched on 2 October 2023.

The following table shows the number of households who have received support through both phases of the Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) scheme in each financial year since 2015, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the problem of antisocial behaviour in our communities. Local authorities (as landlords) and Registered Social Landlords have a wide range of powers to deal with antisocial behaviour by their tenants that occurs in, or in the vicinity of the tenancy. A breach of tenancy conditions could ultimately lead to eviction as a last resort where the circumstances are sufficiently serious.

Social landlords as part of their requirement to meet the estate management and antisocial behaviour related outcome in the Scottish Social Housing Charter work in partnership with other agencies, to help to ensure as far as reasonably possible that tenants and other customers live in well-maintained neighbourhoods where they feel safe.

We recognise that no single approach will tackle all antisocial behaviour. Our national strategy is based on prevention, early intervention and positive diversionary activities. Police Scotland and local authorities lead on responses, using powers and options available to them to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour. We are committed to ensuring all agencies have the powers and resources needed to tackle antisocial behaviour and crime.

Scottish Government collects information on whether any member of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority slept rough:

a) during the 3 months preceding and b) the night before the application.

This data is collected from all local authorities as part of the Homelessness in Scotland statistical data collection. Annual totals of rough sleeping reported by applicant households, broken by local authority, are published in the main tables supporting the main annual publication, available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-2022-23/documents/

A document has been placed with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, bib number 64985, containing data related to the reporting of rough sleeping a) during the 3 months preceding and b) the night before the application, broken down by month of application and local authority, from April 2002 to September 2023.

Data is not available prior to April 2002 as this is when data collection began. The most recent data available goes up to September 2023.

The data collection defines rough sleeping as any member of the applicant household who has slept outside, in the open air (such as on the streets, or in doorways, parks or bus shelters) or slept in a building or other place not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations etc.).

Data is not gathered for any household rough sleeping who does not make a homelessness application to a local authority in Scotland.