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Our Fuel Poverty Act is the most ambitious fuel poverty legislation in the UK, setting us challenging but achievable targets, that in 2040 no more than 5% of households are fuel poor, and no more than 1% are in extreme fuel poverty. As required by the 2019 Fuel Poverty Act, a new statutory Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel was established from January 2022. The panel is an advisory non-departmental public body (NDPB) which will oversee the implementation of the Fuel Poverty Strategy, providing an important means of external scrutiny of our progress towards meeting the statutory targets.

As the 2019 Act requires the Scottish Government to formally consult with the panel on the strategy, we are presently working with them to seek their views in relation to appropriate next steps. The panel are also working collaboratively with the Poverty and Inequality Commission to inform advice for Scottish Ministers.

We are committed to tackling fuel poverty – not least by delivering on our Fuel Poverty and Heat in Buildings Strategies, which will help make homes warmer, greener and cheaper to run. We will invest at least £1.8 billion over the course of this parliament to insulate and install modern climate-friendly heating in homes and other buildings. This year alone (2022-23) we have allocated £336 million to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures including £119m targeted at fuel poor households. Our Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty scheme has its highest ever annual budget of £55 million, with recently revised eligibility criteria making a further 110,000 households eligible for support across Scotland. In addition, the Programme for Government commits us to using our Emergency Budget Review to double the value of our Fuel Insecurity Fund to £20 million, to ensure support continues to be available to people affected by rising energy costs who may be unable to afford their fuel bills this winter. Also subject to the emergency budget review, we will be investing an additional £5 million in Discretionary Housing Payments and allowing local authorities flexibility to use them to help with energy costs as well as rent payments.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce has met five times, with future meetings scheduled on a bi-monthly basis. Further information on the Taskforce, along with a summary of the meeting discussions, is available on the Scottish Government website Heat in Buildings: Green Heat Finance Taskforce - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce will publish a final report in September 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11301 on‎ 21 October 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
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The effect of the provisions in The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 are that new hosts cannot operate without a licence after 1 October 2022. The effect of this is that it placed a statutory duty on local authorities to have licence schemes opened in their areas by 1 October.

As set out in my letter to local authorities, dated 21 September, I explained that while there are no penalties under legislation for local authorities that failed to meet this deadline, there is of course a risk that local authorities could be challenged by new hosts, or anybody acting on their behalf, if they are unable to submit an application for a licence due to their local authority’s scheme not being open.

In the lead up to the commencement of short-term let licensing on 1 October 2022, we spoke to local authorities about their readiness to implement licensing schemes. This included regular group meetings and individual discussions.

A small number of local authorities informed us that their elected members would not meet to ratify their draft short-term let policies until after 1 October 2022. In these cases local authorities have ensured their websites have information about their licensing scheme including the draft policy, draft application forms, and an email address to submit enquiries to.

Since the answers to S6W-10436 and S6W-10437 on‎ 21 September 2022 were published, a small number of local authorities informed us that their elected members would not be able to meet to ratify their draft short-term let policies until after 1 October 2022. In these cases local authorities have ensured their websites have supported prospective applicants by having information about their licensing scheme including the draft policy, draft application forms, and an email address to submit enquiries to.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I wrote to all local authorities on 21 September reminding them of the importance of establishing licensing schemes in their area by 1 October. In that letter I explained that while there are no penalties under legislation for local authorities that failed to meet this deadline, there is of course a risk that local authorities could be challenged by new hosts, or anybody acting on their behalf, if they are unable to submit an application for a licence due to their local authority’s scheme not being open.

My officials spoke with Aberdeenshire Council on 26 September to understand the timeline for consideration of consultation responses and sign-off of its draft policy. These have been tabled for consideration by council sub-committees ahead of a full council meeting later this year. Prior to 1 October 2022, Aberdeenshire Council ensured its websites had information about its licensing scheme including its draft policy, a draft application form, and an email address to submit enquiries to.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-00856 on 21 September 2022 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Meeting of the Parliament: 21/09/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

NHS Boards do not fund the costs of private dental treatment. The budget for NHS General Dental Services is entirely for NHS dentistry.

Private dental care was subject to the same infection prevention controls that reduced access to dental services during the pandemic period.