Chamber and committees

The results of our fuel poverty evidence review shows that fuel poverty is particularly high for older age groups, for those who are long term sick and/or disabled. This is why we have developed programmes which will ensure that disabled persons and households will benefit. The Scottish Government has created a £200 million per year initiative (£79 million from the Scottish Government and £120 million from major energy companies) to tackle fuel poverty. The new Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland aim to upgrade Scotland’s housing stock and tackle fuel poverty and offer a range of free or discounted heating and home insulation measures to all those across Scotland who struggle with fuel poverty.

In order to access the £60 million available for area based schemes local authorities must demonstrate that they are prioritising fuel poor areas and households.

We have also invested £16 million this year in the Energy Assistance Scheme, which provides heating and insulation measures to the most vulnerable and poor households in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has a statutory duty, “to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that people are not living in fuel poverty in Scotland by November 2016”. The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating fuel poverty and is increasing funding to do so. This year alone we have allocated £79 million to tackle fuel poverty, almost 40% higher in cash terms than the last Labour budget of £56.5 million in 2006-07. In total we will spend around a quarter of a billion pounds over this spending review period on fuel poverty and energy efficiency.

Fuel poverty statistics published in December 2012 show that Scottish Government action is mitigating swingeing fuel price increases. Despite punishing 14% fuel price increases in Autumn 2011, improved household energy efficiency prevented a further 35,000 households falling into fuel poverty.

The available statistics on rough sleeping in Scotland provide information on homeless applications where the council recorded that a household member slept rough the night before applying for homelessness assistance. The following table shows the number of such applications in each local authority area from 2007-08 to 2012-13.

Source:- Homelessness statistics HL1 returns from local authorities.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government is leading by example by taking part in this year’s WEI in which our participation began in 2006.

SPCB officials recently met with Stonewall representatives to find out more about the Workplace Equality Index. It was useful to gain a fuller understanding of the index. The SPCB is confident that its existing framework for equality takes account of the needs of all protected characteristics, including sexual orientation. This is reflected through our work on employee engagement; staff training; workforce monitoring; procurement; community engagement and staff feedback all of which are included in the criteria specified in the index.

The SPCB has committed this year to meeting other priorities in respect of equality – in particular we will concentrate on making it easier for people to engage with the Parliament and also to assist visitors to the Parliament. Given the need to prioritise resources, we do not currently plan to register with the index in 2014.

That said, the SPCB reviews its progress on equality every year to identify its key priorities for the year ahead. Sexual orientation will be reviewed as part of this process and any further work identified will be carried out in this area as necessary. The SPCB’s Equality Advisory group which is made up of representatives from each of the protected groups, including Stonewall, will assist us with any work we take forward.

This information is not held centrally.

Yes, the Scottish Government will take part in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index 2014.

The following table shows the number of patients dispensed Z drugs, Benzodiazipines or SSRIs during the financial years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Please note that the data is collected in time bands relating to the financial year, not calendar years.

Source: Prescribing Information System.

Z Drugs included are zaleplon, zolpidem and zopiclone as listed in section 4.1.1 (Hypnotics) of the British National Formulary (BNF).

Benzodiazepines are those included in BNF section 4.1.1 (Hypnotics), and BNF section 4.1.2 (Anxiolytics).

SSRI figures are taken from the Medicines for Mental Health publication from September 2012:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Publications/index.asp

Patient count is a count of all unique Community Health Index (CHI) numbers, which act as unique patient identifiers, within each financial year. This will not include prescriptions of these drugs made to patients for whom no CHI number could be ascertained.

There are no plans to replace the current building. A programme of investment established in 2007-08 into the building infrastructure continues on an annual basis.

Since 2007-08 a total of £11,014,000 has been invested, with a further £2 million to be invested in 2013-2014.