Chamber and committees

The following table sets out Scottish Government funding offered to the SSN Secretariat since 2018-19:

The Scottish Government does not have plans to produce a joint net zero delivery framework with local authorities. We continue to support public sector leadership on the climate emergency through ongoing engagement with key bodies such as the Sustainable Scotland Network, Scottish Leaders Forum, COSLA, Environment and Economy Leadership Group and the Scottish Cities Alliance.

The Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plans include proposals and policies to deliver Scotland’s emissions reduction targets and the updated Climate Change Plan, published in December 2020, sets out a framework for all sectors of society to contribute to our journey to net zero including the role that local authorities and other parts of the public sector must play. This is supported by a legislative framework for local authorities delivery of net zero, where local authorities are required to report annually on their climate duties. Looking ahead, we have committed to publish our next Climate Change Plan in the first half of this Parliament.

Our homes and workplaces account for around a fifth of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions. We can and must make very significant progress towards eliminating these emissions over the next decade and reduce them to zero by 2045.

As set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we see a limited role for bioenergy in domestic heating, in line with advice from the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

Warmer Homes Scotland provides heating systems and insulation measures to enable these systems. Warmer Homes Scotland does not provide fuel to customers and, where a heating system technology allows for a choice of fuels, the scheme cannot influence the customer’s ongoing choices. Scottish Government has no plans to reintroduce LPG heating systems to the list of measures available under Warmer Homes Scotland.

COBR is shorthand for the UK Government Civil Contingencies Committee that is convened to handle matters of UK national emergency or major disruption. COBR ministerial meetings are described as COBR (M).

The Scottish Government can only report on COBR meetings we are invited to attend by the UK Government. The following table sets out the COBR meetings that the Scottish Government was invited to and which Scottish Ministers attended during 2021.

As confirmed on 14 January 2022, the Scottish Government has offered financial backing of up to £80 million from the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF) to help the Scottish Cluster project accelerate its development.

As set out in our Climate Change Plan Update 2018-2032, £80 million of funding from the EETF will be directed to projects supporting the development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) transport and storage network that will further enable negative emissions technologies (NETs) projects to develop in Scotland. This is the basis on which the figure of up to £80 million was developed.

The Scottish Government first offered this financial backing to the UK Government in a letter dated 12 October 2021 (i.e., prior to the UK Government’s announcement of Track-1 clusters on 19 October 2021) to the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and Her Majesty’s Treasury. Our offer was reiterated in a meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport and the UK Government’s Minister for Energy, Greg Hands, on 13 January 2022.

Our offer of support was made on the basis that the Scottish Cluster is given certainty of its due status within the UK cluster sequencing process.

The Scottish Cluster demonstrated full suitability for Track-1 status based on the competition criteria, but has been designated as a ‘reserve’ cluster. Awarding the Cluster its ‘due status’ would therefore mean ensuring it can continue its development on a Track-1 timeframe.

Despite repeated requests to the UK Government from both the Cluster and Scottish Ministers, the designation of ‘reserve’ status has come with little clarity and no guarantees of future support for the Cluster. As the First Minister stated in her letter to the UK Prime Minister on 04 November 2021, this uncertainty risks delaying the delivery of crucial and strategically important projects including the decarbonisation of Scotland’s largest point industrial emitter at Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government does not hold all the necessary legislative and regulatory powers to allow us to support the Cluster alone; key levers, including access to BEIS business models, are reserved to the UK Government. Further detail on how the financial backing of up to £80 million could best be spent will therefore be determined in due course following further engagement with the UK Government on the Scottish Cluster’s status within the cluster sequencing process.

As detailed above, our offer of support has been made on multiple occasions to the UK Government. Officials also consulted with representatives of the Scottish Cluster.

The Energy Saving Trust publishes information on the typical range of installation costs for heating and micro renewable systems.

Installation costs for these technologies are affected by a variety of factors, including dwelling characteristics, locally available resources (such as proximity to a river) and local availability of suppliers and materials. The fact of a home being on or off the gas network does not in itself affect upfront costs for these technologies. However, the factors that do influence costs tend to be differently distributed between urban and rural areas. For example, the average floor area of rural homes is higher than for urban homes (meaning higher capacity heating systems may be required on average), and transport requirements or weather disruptions can add costs in remote rural and island settings.

We recognise the distinct challenges remote rural and island communities face in the transition to zero emissions heating. Our Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan will include a specific focus on developing local supply chains particularly in our islands and remote communities to help bring costs down. We will set out more details of our approach to decarbonisation in island settings in the forthcoming Islands Energy Strategy.

Through Home Energy Scotland, the Scottish Government funds interest-free loans for homeowners with cashback grants of up to £7,500 for zero emissions heating plus up to £6,000 for energy efficiency measures.

The Energy Saving Trust’s running cost information can be found at:

(a) high heat retention electric heating systems: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/electric-heating/

(b) air source heat pumps: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/air-to-water-heat-pumps/

(c) ground source heat pumps: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/ground-to-water-heat-pumps/

(d1) micro-hydro: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/hydroelectricity/

(d2) micro-wind: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/wind-turbines/

Social Security Scotland routinely monitors applications received and the time between when part 1 and part 2 of applications are submitted.

Information on applications received is published as part of routine Official Statistics publications on Child Disability Payment. The second high level statistics covering the period from 26 July to 21 November 2021 were recently published on 18 January 2022 and are available at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/child-disability-payment-pilot-high-level-statistics-to-21-november-2021 . The next set of Child Disability Payment statistics are due to be published in February 2022. This will cover the period from 26 July 2021 to 31 December 2021.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people are able to access the right support for their mental health without stigma, including medication where this is the most appropriate intervention.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the numbers of children and young people aged 19 and under who were prescribed antidepressants in conjunction with psychological therapy in 2019-20.

NICE guideline NG134 sets out the procedures for clinicians treating children and young people who may be experiencing instances of depression. The guidance is clear that psychological therapy and other therapeutic interventions are the first recommended treatments for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate depression. The guidance also makes clear that antidepressant medication should only be offered to a child or young person with moderate to severe depression in combination with a concurrent psychological therapy.

The numbers of children and young people being prescribed with antidepressant medication is extremely small. The latest Public Health Scotland data, shows that in 2019-20, in the 0–19 age category, 1.8% of children and young people in Scotland were prescribed anti-depressants.

The Area Based Schemes funded by the Scottish Government deliver energy efficiency improvements to fuel poor households. This does not include funding for general energy saving or energy efficiency advice, as Home Energy Scotland is available as a free and impartial service for householders across Scotland.

We require ABS projects to comply with all relevant building regulations, retrofit standards and guarantee requirements. In most cases, householders referred or invited to participate in an ABS project will receive separate technical advice about energy efficiency measures that is specific to their property. The recommendation to install an energy efficiency measure will typically be based upon the findings of a physical survey or inspection; recommendations from any relevant Energy Performance Certificate (EPC); and conform with advice on building standards. Councils will invite householders to agree to works on this basis.

To help ensure the benefit from any measures installed through ABS projects, householders will usually receive an information pack about caring for the energy efficiency improvement to their property; along with relevant product guarantees. Councils must set out the quality assurance and complaints process for their ABS projects. Typically the contracted installer and/or the manufacturer of the measure will also provide a helpline service for follow up enquiries.

We are clear that there is no place for harassment or abuse of any form, whether in the workplace, schools, in the home, or in society. That is why Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, challenges the notion that violence is inevitable or acceptable and prioritises primary prevention.

Education settings have an important role in preventing violence against women before it occurs through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships and consent. In August 2021, we launched our ‘Equally Safe at School’ initiative which was developed with Rape Crisis Scotland, Zero Tolerance, and the University of Glasgow. Our Mentors in Violence Prevention peer education programme delivered in schools throughout Scotland seeks to enable young people to recognise and speak up against gender based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

Over the next two years, the Delivering Equally Safe Fund will invest £817,350 in the continued delivery of the national sexual violence prevention programme and the implementation of the ESAS whole school approach to preventing GBV. Furthermore, the Delivering Equally Safe funds White Ribbon Scotland £150,000 to maintain and develop projects and events which engage with men and boys to end violence against women, particularly in seeking to prevent violence before it happens.

Additionally, all higher education institutions in Scotland are expected to adopt and adapt the trauma informed Equally Safe in Higher Education Tool Kit and factor a gendered analysis into their approach to this issue. We are taking action to improve gender equality in workplaces and improve the attitudes that create the societal conditions for gender based violence to perpetuate through the employer accreditation programme Equally Safe at Work.

In Autumn 2021, Police Scotland launched the 'That Guy' sexual violence campaign across various forms of social media and TV advertisements which urged men to take responsibility and to address their behaviour as well as challenging those of their peers. The campaign stimulated conversations and turned the narrative away from preventative advice to women, towards focusing on men’s behaviour.

The Scottish Government has committed within the Programme for Government to expand the availability of the Caledonian System and increase our investment to £10 million over the next two years. The innovative and internationally recognised Caledonian System programme provides male perpetrators of domestic abuse with specific rehabilitation services to address and challenge their harmful behaviours.