Questions and answers

Question reference: S4F-02071

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 May 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2014

To ask the First Minister, in light of the reported 162% increase since 2004 in the cost of providing free personal care, what action the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that local authority social work budgets can meet demand.

Question reference: S4O-03154

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the NHS Lothian board.

Question reference: S4F-02015

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 April 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the Audit Commission report, An overview of local government in Scotland 2014.

Question reference: S4O-03033

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what contribution it considers that housing can make to tackling poverty.

Question reference: S4W-19843

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Housing (Scotland) Bill will include provisions relating to energy efficiency measures as common works by householders.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill amends the powers of local authorities to require home owners to carry out work on homes that are below tolerable standard, and this includes homes that lack satisfactory thermal insulation. The Bill also includes a provision to enable local authorities to pay missing shares where a majority of home owners agree common works under the Tenement Management Scheme, and this can include works to install insulation.

Question reference: S4W-19841

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on delivering the recommendations in A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland: 2013 Update.

Building standards officials are in the process of investigating the fifteen additional recommendations made in the 2013 update of the original 2007 Sullivan Report.

In announcing deferment of the next set of energy standards in building regulations until October 2015, I have already acted upon the first recommendation made by the panel under the ‘Eventual and Staged Standards’ topic.

At this time, the focus of officials and the construction industry has turned to the development of an ‘action plan’ in support of the 2015 standards, referred to in the fifth recommendation under the ‘Eventual and Staged Standards’ topic.

Question reference: S4W-19827

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether additional funding will be made available for the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland in the event that funding from the energy company obligation declines.

The Scottish Government is currently working closely with local authorities, obligated energy companies and other delivery partners to assess the impact of the changes to the energy company obligation (ECO) on the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS).

We will continue to use our HEEPS funding to maximise leverage under ECO and have relaxed the criteria for accessing Scottish Government funding to ensure support for those in fuel poverty continues.

Longer term, we have set out our commitment in Scotland’s Future about what we would do in an independent Scotland. We plan to remove certain obligations from energy bills and maintain current funding levels from central resources.

Question reference: S4W-19828

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what alternative funding sources it is investigating for the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland in the event that funding from the energy company obligation declines.

The Scottish Government is currently working closely with local authorities, obligated energy companies and other delivery partners to assess the impact of the changes to the energy company obligation (ECO) on the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS).

There is a fixed budget within Government and we are unable to compensate for the decline in ECO caused by Westminster policy changes. However, we will attempt to meet the challenge by exploring all possible routes of funding including Green Deal, Scottish Government funding streams for community renewables, European funding and other relevant public and private sources of finance.

Longer term, we have set out our commitment in Scotland’s Future about what we would do in an independent Scotland. We plan to remove certain obligations from energy bills and maintain current funding levels from central resources.

Question reference: S4W-19825

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried out of the likely impact of changes to the energy company obligation on the funding of the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland.

We are in regular discussion with the delivery partners for the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS), including local councils, to assess the likely impact of the UK Government’s proposed changes to the energy company obligation (ECO) on HEEPS and how to mitigate this.

ECO is a UK Government scheme which places legal obligations on energy companies. It operates across England, Scotland and Wales and there is no separate funding allocation for Scotland. Statistics on delivery of ECO over the first nine months of the obligation show that Scotland has received a greater than pro-rata share of the measures funded by energy companies under the obligation across Great Britain.

Question reference: S4W-19830

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many households have had energy efficiency measures installed under the affordable warmth scheme, broken down by type of measure.

Some 1,500 households are reported by energy companies to have received installations in the period to end January 2014. Measures installed include: gas boilers, full gas central heating systems, heating controls, loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. The Scottish Government will publish a fuller breakdown by measure once this has been provided by all energy companies participating in the Affordable Warmth scheme.

Chamber and committees