Chamber and committees

I have chaired both meetings of the Joint Strategic Review held to date and have written to all members to propose that further meetings should be held over the autumn.

The Energy Saving Trust was appointed as managing agent for the Energy Assistance Package and Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) by Scottish ministers by way of grant funding using powers contained in section 153(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, as varied by S.I. 1995/554, which allows the grant funding of named bodies “ including Energy Saving Trust “ for environmental expenditure.

Energy Saving Trust is currently carrying out a procurement exercise to appoint the supplier offering the best deal for HIS customers in a given area. This is an open and competitive process in order to obtain value for money and to reflect EU procurement and regulations.

An exercise to appoint a managing agent for stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package from 1 April 2010 is currently in progress in accordance with EU procurement and tendering rules.

The independent Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum meets quarterly. The Minister for Housing and Communities has not met the forum as a collective group but has met with individual member organisations at a number of different events. For example, the minister addressed a stakeholder event on 27 February 2009, chaired by the chair of the forum on the subject of the Energy Assistance Package and CERT delivery was discussed at the CERT Strategy Steering Group, chaired by the minister, on 27 May 2009.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27669 on 8 October 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Indicative targets set for Energy Saving Trust were to achieve 75,000 individual contacts from potentially fuel-poor clients for the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) in 2009-10. It was expected that 50,000 referrals would be made under stage 2, 30,000 at stage 3 and 10,000 at stage 4. The indicative targets are for a 12 month period and it was expected that numbers would build over the year in response to colder weather, awareness of the new package and marketing activity.

The Fuel Poverty Forum recommended the Scottish Government replace the Central Heating Programme with an Energy Assistance Package that addresses both the home and the householder, and includes tariff advice, welfare benefit and tax credit advice and energy audit with access to grants and loans to improve energy efficiency. Intended outcomes of the EAP are improved energy efficiency, income maximisation and reduction of fuel bills. Installation of central heating systems is only one of the outputs contributing to these outcomes.

Stage 4 offers eligible households a menu of enhanced physical measures to improve the energy efficiency of the home. Each individual household receives a package of measures tailored to their home and these can include central heating systems, insulation and draught proofing.

The applications referred to in the answer to question S3W-26888 were all at different stages of the process, but we would expect most to follow through to successful installation of measures. A minority of applications will be found not to be eligible at survey, or the applicant will decide to withdraw their application before completion. Under previous programmes it usually took an average of around six months from application to successful implementation of measures, though in 2008-09 the average time taken to successfully process applications was reduced to an average of five months.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27676 on 8 October 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to the answer to question S3W-27661 on 8 October 2009 which sets out how the total grant funding for the scheme is allocated. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

A minimum of £9.1 million of government funding will be available for those Home Insulation Scheme measures which need to be the subject of a procurement exercise. That exercise will also be how the bulk of additional contributions to the scheme over and above the government''s £15 million contribution are levered.

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) advert excludes VAT as required by OJEU procedures, which is why the figure included in the advert differs from that in the grant offer letter.

The Energy Assistance Package (EAP) is delivered through a Scottish Government partnership with 10 primary delivery partners. These are: Energy Saving Trust; managing agent for stage 4 (currently Scottish Gas); Citizens Advice Direct; Pensions Service; Scottish Gas (CERT provider); Scottish Power (CERT provider); Scottish and Southern (CERT provider); EDF (Cert Provider); Eon (CERT provider), and nPower (CERT provider).

Energy Saving Trust manage the overall EAP programme and deliver energy efficiency advice through the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Network. Stage 2 is delivered through referrals by EST to the Pensions Service and Citizens Advice Direct. EST refer stage 3 work to CERT providers and stage 4 to the managing agent. It is a matter for CERT providers and the managing agent whether they carry out work themselves or subcontract to other companies; however we understand that a number of large and small companies are used. The Scottish Government believes that all work should be tendered in a fair and transparent way that complies with EU procurement guidance and supports small businesses to be able to compete for work.

Energy Saving Trust has undertaken and is planning a range of activity to market the Energy Assistance Package including a number of different direct mailings. The rising number of callers in each month to date is given in the following table.

	Enquiries to ESSacs about EAP
April	1,967
May	2,071
June	2,347
July	3,147
August	5,101
Total	14,633