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The Scottish Government''s Public Sector Pay Policy encourages a total reward approach to public sector pay, including non-pay rewards such as salary sacrifice schemes.

Salary sacrifice schemes for other public sector workforce groups in Scotland are a matter for the employers within these groups.

The Scottish Government is actually encouraging more employers in Scotland - public, private and voluntary sector - to offer their staff childcare vouchers, which are a form of salary sacrifice scheme.

During his budget speech on 4 February 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth announced proposals for the first stage of an ambitious area based Home Insulation Scheme supported by £15 million of new government funding in 2009-10 plus £15 million from other sources. Since then, the Scottish Government has been working with stakeholders, including COSLA, to finalise details of the scheme and announcements will follow in due course.

Legislation on the energy performance of buildings was introduced under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008 as a result of an EU Directive. This legislation came into force for existing buildings on 4 January 2009. Energy performance certificates are therefore not required for buildings subject to new leases or renewal of existing leases prior to that date.

The Scottish Government, however, recognises its leadership role for the wider public sector and we will be working to produce EPCs for the main buildings on our core estate during 2009. This approach will mean that the Scottish Government has gone beyond the minimum statutory requirements, underlying its commitment to leading by example.

Legislation on the energy performance of buildings was introduced under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008 as a result of an EU Directive. This legislation came into force for existing buildings on 4 January 2009. I refer the member to my answer S3W-22032 that notes no new leasing arrangements or renewals were entered into by Core Scottish Executive over 2007 and 2008. Energy performance certificates are therefore not required.

The Scottish Government, however, recognises its leadership role for the wider public sector and we will be working to produce Energy Performance Certificates for the main buildings on our core estate during 2009. This approach will mean that the Scottish Government has gone beyond the minimum statutory requirements, underlying its commitment to leading by example.

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.

In her speech on 2 April 2009, Sarah Boyack MSP referred to an alleged loophole in the licensing process for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), because that regulatory regime does not cover short-term lets, in which antisocial behaviour may take place.

HMOs are required to be licensed primarily to ensure they meet standards designed to protect their residents from the risks of living in this type of accommodation. In order to obtain a licence, the owner of the property may, for example, be required to carry out alterations to the property to make it suitable to be the home of the relevant number of occupants.

As the Scottish Government has previously made clear, we have concerns about the position of tenants in multiply-occupied short-term lets, who may be living and working in Scotland, but are excluded from the protection of HMO licensing because landlords claim that the property is not the only or principal residence of the occupants. This particularly affects migrant workers. We will discuss with stakeholders the possibility of including such short-term lets in licensing, in order to extend to such tenants the protection it affords. Landlords of these properties are already required to register with local authorities.

We have no plans to extend HMO licensing to holiday accommodation, where the occupants are merely visiting an area, not living and working there. Such regulation would have a considerable impact on the tourism sector. Under antisocial behaviour legislation, local authorities have powers to deal with antisocial behaviour in such premises, including issuing on the spot fines and seizing noise-making equipment.

The implications of including any category of property within HMO licensing go far beyond issues relating to antisocial behaviour and it would not be appropriate to extend HMO licensing to any category of accommodation solely to address such issues.

Within the context of the licensing of houses in multiple occupation, if there were to be any changes to the definition of a licensable property, a legal definition of a holiday let would be drafted if that proved necessary to distinguish such a property from licensable properties. If such a definition proved to be necessary, we expect that it would reflect the distinction between properties occupied by tenants who are living and working in an area and those occupied by people who are visiting an area for a short period for the purposes of a holiday.

During his Budget speech on 4 February 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth announced proposals for the first stage of an ambitious area based Home Insulation Scheme supported by £15 million of new government funding in 2009-10 plus £15 million from other sources. Since then, the Scottish Government has been working with stakeholders, including COSLA, to finalise details of the scheme and announcements will follow in due course.

We have received letters from three Members of the Scottish Parliament claiming that there is a loophole in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000, in that the regulatory regime established by that Order does not cover holiday lets.

In fact, the system of licensing of houses in multiple occupation is a regulatory regime with conditions designed to protect tenants whose principal or only residence is a multiply-occupied house. The legislation was not designed to cover holiday lets.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-17400 on 11 November 2008. 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 concordat with local authorities reinforces the principle that local delivery decisions should be made locally to ensure the delivery of local outcome agreement. Third sector organisations such as Community Service Volunteers can make a contribution to delivering single outcome agreements by engaging with community planning partnerships and local authorities.