Chamber and committees

You have thrown the question back to me; I throw back to you the point that you have rejected nuclear generation without knowing whether you can deliver 25GW of wind power.

To move on, you said in response to Mark Ruskell that demand reduction through energy efficiency measures will offer the greatest opportunity to alleviate the effect of increased energy bills. Will the Scottish Government programmes that you are running deliver improvements at the necessary scale and pace to have an impact on consumers by this winter?

You are talking about 25GW by 2030.

Yes. How many civil servants in the Scottish Government have been specifically assigned to fuel poverty alleviation?

I will come back on those points later.

Indeed.

My question was whether there will be the required impact on consumers by this winter, which is when we need the impact.

But what are you doing?

My final question is for Teresa Bray. A recent report by the Existing Homes Alliance suggests that—I am paraphrasing, so correct me if I am reflecting it wrongly—people are concerned that, if they install a heat pump, they will then see a district heating system coming down the track and think, “I’ve invested £20,000 when I could have waited.” As a result, they are reticent to make such an investment. If what I have said is a correct reflection of your report, how can those uncertainties be addressed? Do you see a role for local authorities in that regard?

Earlier, you called for targeted support from the UK Government, but, of course, the VAT cut or the windfall tax that you mentioned would not be targeted. The committee has heard that fuel poverty and domestic policy in this area are devolved, and your solution is to get money into people’s pockets. In 2021, you had a fiscal transfer of £12 billion, which is about £2,210 extra per person in Scotland. Given that you disagree with a wait-and-see approach, what is your Government doing with that extra money to get money into people’s pockets?

Cabinet secretary, you said right at the start of this evidence session that cross-departmental work is being done to recognise the crisis. I have recently seen reports of a number of civil servants in the Scottish Government being assigned to specific projects. Can you tell the committee how many civil servants have been specifically assigned to fuel poverty alleviation?