Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-26921

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when the monitoring of attendance started at the Sandyford Hub Clinic at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Question reference: S3W-26926

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Sandyford Hub Clinic at the Vale of Leven Hospital will offer evening opening hours.

Question reference: S3W-26923

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the monitoring information showing (a) attendance, (b) age and (c) geographical location of patients at the Sandyford Hub Clinic at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Question reference: S3W-26882

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated for the Energy Assistance Package and how much has been spent to date.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21692 on 1 April 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.

The £3.6 million allocated to Energy Savings Trust to manage the Energy Assistance Package is drawn down monthly on a flat profile therefore £1.545 million has been spent to end August.

Citizens Advice Direct has received funding of £40,000 from a total annual grant of £80,000 to provide income maximisation checks under EAP as part of a wider programme of financial inclusion activity.

£2.5 million has been allocated to local authorities and RSLs to deliver insulation measures in social sector accommodation. Spend against this budget is historically drawn down in the third and fourth quarters of the financial year.

Spend to date against the £44.5 million for stage 4 and legacy fuel poverty programme measures is £10.2 million. This is in line with the expected profile as spend on installation measures is traditionally weighted towards the last two quarters of the financial year.

Question reference: S3W-26881

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the operation of the low income, low assets (LILA) route to bankruptcy and (a) abolish the £100 application fee and (b) provide access to LILA for homeowners.

A review of the low income, low assets (LILA) route into bankruptcy after one year of operation is currently being conducted by the Accountant in Bankruptcy and a report will be published by the end of September 2009.

The £100 application fee is payable by all debtors who apply for bankruptcy not just those who demonstrate eligibility by virtue of the LILA criteria. The fee is intended to meet the administration costs associated with the award process. We do not expect the review to produce evidence to support the abolition of the debtor application fee. If there were no fee, the administration costs would otherwise have to be borne by the public purse.

By definition, LILA allows for assets of low value only. The amendment of the LILA criteria to allow access through this route to homeowners would result in increased costs for debtors, and for the Accountant in Bankruptcy, to establish that there was little or no equity in the home.

We are looking at alternatives to allow access to bankruptcy for a wider group of people by way of a certificated route. This will allow homeowners access to bankruptcy if they consider this is the best course of action for them.

Question reference: S3W-26896

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the threshold is at which a house is considered fuel poor under the terms of the (a) Energy Assistance Package and (b) Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

A person is considered to be fuel poor if the ratio of household income required to heat their dwelling to a standard heating regime is greater than 10%.

The Energy Assistance Package provides a four stage approach to helping people vulnerable to fuel poverty. Stages one and two include energy efficiency advice, income maximisation and social tariff checks. Stages three and four are targeted at those who are most likely to be fuel poor and offer standard and enhanced physical measures to improve the energy efficiency of the home. Eligibility for stages 3 and 4 is based on a number of factors including age and income of the household and the energy efficiency of the dwelling.

The Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) sets out the standard that all homes in the social rented sector are expected to meet, independent of the household characteristics. The standard is based on a number of broad quality criteria, including the presence of certain physical energy efficiency measures. SHQS is not used as a yardstick to determine or measure levels of fuel poverty: the income level and fuel charges faced by the householder are required for this purpose and neither is a factor in the SHQS.

Question reference: S3W-26883

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) households and (b) individuals contacted the Energy Saving Trust for the Energy Assistance Package by the end of August 2009.

Question reference: S3W-26888

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individual applications to the Energy Saving Trust for the Energy Assistance Package have resulted in work being allocated to contractors and what percentage this represents of all applications.

The Energy Assistance Package provides a range of measures to applicants and details of those and the numbers benefiting can be found at:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Scotland/Energy-Assistance-Package/Programme-Statistics.

The latest statistics available cover the period from April to the end of July.

Of the 1,477 referred to Stage 4 by the end of July, the managing agent has indicated that 1,324 were accepted, subject to survey, and 1,296 of those were allocated to survey. Of those allocated to survey, 21 have subsequently cancelled and 611 have been identified as qualifying for Stage 4 measures.

Of the 611 the managing agent is progressing 349 applications (57%) i.e. awaiting permissions, agreeing specifications etc and 262 applications (43%) have been allocated to a contractor for work to be undertaken.

Question reference: S3W-26893

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider the use of the energy performance certificate to measure fuel poverty rather than simply recording the energy performance of a home.

The purpose of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) is to rate the energy efficiency and environmental impact of a particular dwelling and recommend cost effective ways to improve the energy performance of that dwelling. They are a labelling system to allow prospective buyers and tenants to compare the energy efficiency of different properties.

Fuel poverty levels are based on the ratio of household income required to heat a dwelling to a standard heating regime. A ratio above 10% means that a household is considered to be fuel poor. EPCs do not provide the energy costs nor the income level of the household resident in the dwelling and so cannot be used to measure fuel poverty.

Question reference: S3W-26890

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what procurement process will be used to appoint contractors for the delivery of the (a) Energy Assistance Package and (b) Home Insulation Scheme.

The managing agent is responsible for delivery of the measures available under Stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package. The individual surveyors and installers through which the managing agent delivers these are appointed following a tendering process which is open to all competent suppliers and is consistent with EU procurement rules.

The Energy Saving Trust, as the Scottish Government''s managing agent for the Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) is currently carrying out a procurement exercise to appoint the supplier offering the best deal for HIS customers in a given area. This will be an open and competitive process in order to obtain the most economically advantageous tender and reflect EU procedures and regulations. It will be the responsibility of each supplier, when appointed, to enter into contracts as they see fit to ensure that the required skills are available to ensure installation of appropriate insulation measures in each area.