Chamber and committees

If you had some form of independent analysis of that specific proposal and how it measures up against what the Government is currently proposing, including pros and cons, that would be very useful for the committee.

I have another question that I hope does not fall into another area where you will say, “Well, that’s nothing to do with us.” The cost of fuel oil—or liquefied petroleum gas—is a massive issue, particularly in Scotland and particularly for off-gas communities, which are seeing price spikes and enormous volatility in the cost of fuel oil. To be honest, they have been seeing that for years, but particularly so at the moment. That is driving rural fuel poverty, often in homes that are very hard to heat and to retrofit.

If I can tempt you to say something on it, what is your thinking about regulation of oil and LPG? Does that need to be brought into the regulatory framework, or what might the options be?

As regulators, you have a duty to protect the short-term and long-term interests of energy consumers. Are you saying that you have no role in modelling or working out the impact of a policy such as that in relation to advising Government?

Do you think that, in 10 years’ time, we will have completely transitioned away from oil and LPG heating in rural areas and will have other options, such as biomass or high-temperature air-source heat pumps, or do you think that the situation will be sticky and that, in 10 years’ time, we will still have homes that are being heated by heating oil, which means that we will still have to regulate?

Is there an argument for revisiting those targets and, if there are supply chain issues, scaling up installation more rapidly over the next 12 months? Perhaps the roll-out could be targeted at consumers who are most affected by price increases.

Neil Lawrence talked about smart meters and consumers’ ability to move on to variable tariffs. Where are we with the roll-out of smart meters? Could it be significantly ramped up between now and October, or between October and when the price cap next goes up? Could a large number of households who have smart meters move on to variable tariffs, or is there still a low number of consumers who have found out that that is even a possibility, let alone had a smart meter installed?

I want to move on to the topic of demand management. We could spend hours on this, but I would like some succinct responses to the question. We have the Scottish Government’s 20 per cent reduction target, and the net zero targets, too. Where do you see different demand management tools sitting at local authority level and how should they be deployed? Let us start with Paul White.

Can that 20 per cent reduction target be met without some of these demand management measures or is some form of demand management going to be essential?

Ewan, do you have any brief points to add?

Thank you. Back to you, convener.

I want to ask Ewan Wallace about the consistency of the roll-out of charging infrastructure around the country. In my experience, it is excellent in areas such as Stirling and Dundee but very poor in Edinburgh, and that can build in range anxiety. What progress can be made in having consistent EV infrastructure roll-out? At the moment, we still seem to be in a phase in which the process is being led by local authorities that have a particular interest in the issue, that have sought pathfinder funding and that are forging ahead.