Chamber and committees

Arrangements are being made to hold the next meeting of the Orkney Islands Council Ferry Replacement Task Force soon. The minutes will be published on the Transport Scotland website in due course. I also plan to visit Orkney during summer recess where I will discuss the council's plans for its fleet replacement.

The Island Communities Impact Assessment makes clear that the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme will not increase the amount of waste that will arise in island communities as most waste is currently transported off the islands. Furthermore, as part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Deposit Return Scheme Strategic Environmental Assessment: Post Adoption Statement’ at table 3.1 Mitigation of environmental effect does set out the “effects (including greenhouse gas emissions) from the potential for increased vehicle movements from consumers, retailers and reprocessors” and it highlights a number of proposed mitigation actions to minimise carbon emissions. The Scottish Government, Circularity Scotland, and our business partners are developing solutions which build on these proposals where possible. The Scottish Government does not consider an additional assessment necessary at this stage.

A) SEPA is the regulator for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), responsible for the producer registration service and checking compliance with the Regulations. It is not within SEPA’s remit to model the carbon footprint of any transportation used for the scheme, and it has not conducted this modelling. SEPA was consulted on and responded to the consultation relating to the Deposit Return Scheme’s strategic environmental assessment (SEA) which considered the carbon emission associated with the DRS.

B) Circularity Scotland has not conducted carbon footprint modelling on their transportation network, but seek to operate to the highest ethical and environmental standards. This includes developing with their partners a solution for the collection of scheme articles on islands which makes use of local supply chains where possible in order to minimise carbon emissions.

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland continue to regularly engage directly with businesses on matters which are within our control to ensure all involved are ready for successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Organisations from across the UK frustrated by the UK Government’s position have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exemption to the Internal Markets Act. Many more have privately expressed their concern that the lack of an Internal Market Act exemption is creating uncertainty and confusion for all the businesses that have worked so hard to prepare for the scheme.

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland continue to regularly engage directly with businesses on matters which are within our control to ensure all involved are ready for successful launch on 1 March 2024.

Organisations from across the UK frustrated by the UK Government’s position have written an open letter urging the Prime Minister to grant an exemption to the Internal Markets Act. Many more have privately expressed their concern that the lack of an Internal Market Act exemption is creating uncertainty and confusion for all the businesses that have worked so hard to prepare for the scheme.

Further to the description of each scheme provided in the response to S6W-16682, the requested figures for the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme and Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) Scheme are set out below.

HES Grant and Loan Scheme

The following table shows the time from an application being received to a funding agreement being offered for zero direct emissions heating measures. Once a funding agreement has been put in place, applicants have 9 months to have the installation of measures completed and submit a claim to drawdown funding.

It is important to note the figures include time taken for processes outside the control of the Scottish Government and service provider, such as the time taken for applicants to submit the required documentation.

WHS Scheme

The following table shows figures for both the total time taken and time taken excluding periods where an application is paused due to external factors. The figures reflect the time taken from an application being received to the installation of zero direct emissions heating systems.

It is important to note that the total time taken to complete a zero direct emissions heating system installation includes factors outside the control of the Scottish Government and service provider, such as the time taken for District Network Operators (DNOs) to process applications for load checks and electricity connection.

The response to S6W-16682 did not include the above information as the Scottish Government’s heat and energy efficiency schemes are not designed to act as an emergency response for households who have experienced a sudden failure in their heating system. Therefore, the information requested for an emergency response scheme could not be provided as no such scheme exists.

There is no fixed definition of what a hard to treat home is. As noted in the response to PQ S6W-01910, the average cost of upgrading an off-gas property with an initial EPC rating between bands E and G to an EPC band C could be in the region of £17,000.

As set out in our Heat in Buildings Strategy, the cost for an individual dwelling can differ from this average depending on the building type, materials, existing levels of energy efficiency and type of heating systems being replaced.

A broad range of delivery programmes are available to provide advice and financial support to householders, including Home Energy Scotland, Warmer Homes Scotland, and the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme, which offers grant funding of up to £15,000 to assist homeowners with the installation of zero emission heating and energy efficiency measures, as well as additional funding available as an interest free loan. There is an uplift of £1,500 for both the zero emission heating and energy efficiency grants for rural and island homes, meaning rural households can claim up to £18,000 in grant funding.

Around 160,000 of off-gas grid dwellings have an EPC rating of bands E to G, suggesting a total capital cost of around £2.7 bn to upgrade these homes to EPC band C.

The Strategy sets the target of all homes reaching a level of energy efficiency equivalent to EPC C by 2033, but acknowledges that there may be some circumstances where this will not be possible, and that meeting this standard will be predicated on it being technically feasible and cost-effective.

As indicated in the islands communities impact assessment , published in 2020, the introduction of Deposit Return Scheme will not increase the amount of waste that will either arise in island communities or be transported off islands. This is because most waste is currently transported off the islands already. Circularity Scotland and Biffa are developing a solution for the collection of scheme articles on islands which makes use of local supply chains where possible. We expect this solution to be subject to review as more local data becomes available about active return points and exempted return points.

The Scottish Government and delivery partners such as Circularity Scotland, SEPA, and Zero Waste Scotland have regularly engaged with businesses on the Deposit Return Scheme. There are a number issues which businesses are working with partners on to ensure all involved are ready for launch on 1 March.

We have taken action to address a number of matters which are within our control and which businesses had raised concerns about. These include, but are not limited to:

• needing more preparation time to ready their business for the launch - we have given businesses an additional six and a half months to prepare for the scheme launch.

• impact on the hospitality industry - we exempted all premises that sell 90% or over of their drinks products for consumption on the premises from acting as a return point.
• impact on small producers – we completely excluded from the scheme products that sells fewer than 5,000 items a year.
• miniatures and other smaller containers may cause problems at return points – we completely excluded from the scheme all drinks containers under 100ml.
• administrative burden for retailers applying for exemptions – we have simplified the online process for retailers to apply for an exemption from operating a return point.

As we continue to prepare for a successful launch of the scheme we continue to wait on the UK Government to take any action to agree an exclusion from the Internal Market Act.

The Scottish Government welcomes Sumitomo’s proposed investment in Scotland and is working closely with our enterprise agencies and other partners to support the investment and ensure it delivers maximum benefit for Scotland. Sumitomo has confirmed more than £200m in investment and the creation of 150 highly skilled green jobs. The specific location and opening dates have yet to be confirmed. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has agreed to the principle of financial support should it be required to help realise Sumitomo’s ambitions, but no funding commitment has been made.

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund has £11.8 million remaining available to allocate during this parliamentary term to fully developed, consented main fund project applications in rural and island communities.