Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-10182

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 31 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09495 by Tom Arthur on 12 July 2022, (a) on what date and (b) by which minister the City of Edinburgh Council’s proposed designation of the Edinburgh short-term let control area was approved; whether a decision had been passed for approval to the responsible minister on or before 12 July 2022, the date on which the answer to question S6W-09495 was issued, and whether it will provide an advisory timetable for the determination of any other proposed control areas.

The Scottish Ministers approved the City of Edinburgh Council’s proposed designation of the entirety of Edinburgh as a Short Term Control Area on 27 July 2022. A draft decision letter was provided to the Minister for Public Finance, Planning & Community Wealth by officials on 12 July 2022. Whilst there is no statutory timescale for the consideration of proposed short-term let control area designations, every effort is made to consider and determine such proposals as swiftly as possible.

Question reference: S6W-10186

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 25 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many heating and renewable installations under the (a) Warmer Homes Scotland (b) area-based schemes and (c) Home Energy Scotland Loans and Cashback schemes were (i) gas boilers (ii) electric storage heaters (iii) air source heat pumps (iv) oil boilers (v) solar PV (vi) LPG boilers (vii) biomass boilers (viii) domestic battery storage units, (ix) district heating connections and (x) solar thermal systems, in each year of operation of the respective schemes.

The answer to your question is outlined in the following tables. Please note, data for 2021-2022 Area Based Schemes are still being collected and will be published on the ABS webpage in due course: Area Based Schemes: annual final measures reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Warmer Homes Scotland

	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022
Gas Boilers	1070	4010	4256	2627	2544	2633	3870
Electric Storage Heaters	99	242	301	279	278	212	306
Air Source Heat Pumps	0	32	70	122	138	166	261
Oil Boilers	67	236	353	269	234	210	196
Solar PV	0	3	5	0	19	22	88
LPG Boilers	50	574	484	114	90	74	49
Biomass Boilers	0	3	2	1	6	0	3
Domestic Battery Storage Units	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
District Heating Connections	0	0	0	1	0	1	2
Solar Thermal Systems	0	1	6	6	3	0	1

Area Based Schemes

	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Gas Boilers	2834	440	319	11	8	9	21	30
Electric Storage Heaters	216	163	16	40	10	1	4	25
Air Source Heat Pumps	8	5	0	2	1	2	64	80
Oil Boilers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Solar PV	0	267	0	0	0	0	0	144
LPG Boilers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Biomass Boilers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Domestic Battery Storage Units	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
District Heating Connections	554	9	0	0	0	0	30	2
Solar Thermal Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Home Energy Scotland Loans and Cashback

	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022
Gas Boilers	569	604	394	221	176
Electric Storage Heaters	19	27	21	10	9
(Heat Pumps (Air Source/Ground Source/Water Source and ASHP hybrids	258	426	531	732	1187
Oil Boilers	58	69	18	33	20
Solar PV	69	336	176	224	354
LPG Boilers	10	11	9	3	1
Biomass Boilers	40	48	50	37	50
Domestic Battery Storage Units	0	82	88	151	225
District Heating Connections	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Solar Thermal Systems	Numbers included in Solar PV

Question reference: S6W-10185

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 25 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many heating installations under the (a) Warmer Homes Scotland (b) area-based schemes and (c) Home Energy Scotland Loans and Cashback schemes have been (a) carbon producing and (b) zero carbon, in each year of operation of the respective schemes.

The answer to your question is outlined in the following tables. Please note, data for 2021-2022 Area Based Schemes are still being collected and will be published on the ABS webpage in due course: Area Based Schemes: annual final measures reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

“Zero Carbon” heating for the purposes of this response is defined as heating which does not generate carbon emissions at the point of use. Solar and battery storage are not counted towards the Zero Carbon figure as they are usually installed in conjunction with other microgeneration measures, for example air source heat pumps.

Warmer Homes Scotland

	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022
Carbon Producing	1187	4823	5095	3011	2874	2917	4118
Zero Carbon	99	274	371	402	416	379	569

Area Based Schemes

	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Carbon Producing	2834	440	319	11	8	9	21	30
Zero Carbon	778	177	16	42	11	3	98	107

Home Energy Scotland Loans and Cashback

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022
Carbon Producing	677	732	471	294	247
Zero Carbon	277	453	552	742	1196

Question reference: S6W-10183

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 25 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many zero-carbon heating systems have been installed in (a) new and (b) existing homes in each year since 2016.

Table 1 shows the number of new build completions in Scotland fitted with zero emissions heating systems in the period 2016 to 2021. This includes all homes using electricity, biomass or connected to a community heating system as their main heating fuel type.

Table 1

2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
1,527	1,987	2,448	3,488	2,286	4,393

Source: Management information as extracted from the EPC database, published and available at statistics.gov.scot : Domestic Energy Performance Certificates - Dataset to Q1 2022

Table 2 shows domestic renewable heat installations over the period 2016 to 2020 (latest available data). These data are derived from registrations under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, therefore primarily relate to installations in existing properties and do not include non-renewable zero emissions heating systems such as direct electric systems.

Table 2

2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
2,013	1,813	2,088	2,627	3,055

Source: Renewable Heat Database, maintained by the Energy Saving Trust (unpublished)

Question reference: S6W-10181

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09562 by Shona Robison on 13 July 2022, whether it will address the issue raised in the question regarding what action it is taking to improve public perception of the affordable housing supply programme, in light of Shelter Scotland's recent survey findings, conducted by YouGov, which reportedly found that 60% of adults in Scotland think that it is unlikely that the Scottish Government will deliver on its target of providing 110,000 affordable homes by 2032; what its response is to Shelter’s reported findings; whether it conducts its own polling and public perception research regarding the affordable housing supply programme, and (a) in what way and (b) how frequently it reviews the outcomes and deliverables of this programme.

The Scottish Government appreciates the spotlight that Shelter Scotland shines on our shared vision of a safe, secure, affordable home for everyone in Scotland.

Having delivered our previous 50,000 affordable homes target, we have now started to deliver against our commitment to 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70% of which will be for social rent and 10% in remote, rural and island areas.

We do not conduct our own polling and public perception research. However, we do publish quarterly Official Statistics and annual Outturn Reports that focus on how the Affordable Housing Supply Programme resources were spent and what they delivered, in line with priorities and outcomes identified within local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans which set out the key strategic affordable housing investment priorities.

Question reference: S6W-10184

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties (a) built in each of the last five years and (b) under construction in 2022-23, under the affordable housing supply programme, (i) have zero carbon heating systems installed, (ii) received the greener subsidy and (iii) attained (A) bronze (B) bronze active (C) silver (D) silver active (E) gold or (F) platinum levels of sustainability.

With regard to (a) and (b) (i), we do not currently, but do plan to shortly collect this information. For (a) and (b) (ii), information on RSL and council house social rent approvals which qualified for higher greener subsidy is published within our annual Outturn Reports.

For easy reference, the following table shows the information that we hold for homes which have or have not been approved to the higher greener standard:

Financial Year	Yes	No	Total Homes
2016-17	3,162	3,948	7,110
2017-18	4,606	2,715	7,321
2018-19	6,878	859	7,737
2019-20	9,258	798	10,056
2020-21	4,502	1,034	5,536
Total Homes	28,406	9,354	37,760

With regard to (a) and (b) (iii), we do not collect this information.

Question reference: S6W-10169

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09182 by Shona Robison on 24 June 2022, whether landlords are legally obliged to provide additional information when completing an amended section 11 notice form, where that requested information is not in the form prescribed in Schedule 1 of The Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008.

Question reference: S6W-10171

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09182 by Shona Robison on 24 June 2022, whether it can provide a breakdown of any local authorities that have amended the section 11 notice form of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003.

Section 11 of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 requires a landlord to notify the local authority when proceedings for possession are raised providing information prescribed in Schedule 1 of The Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008. Local authorities produce templates in line with Schedule 1. The Scottish Government does not require local authorities to provide these templates for validation so if any local authorities have amended the section 11 notice form to include information not prescribed within Section 1 of The Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008, the Scottish Government is not made aware of this.

Question reference: S6W-10170

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09182 by Shona Robison on 24 June 2022, whether it will set out the part of the (a) Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 and (b) Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008 that (i) allows local authorities to amend and (ii) places a duty on local authorities to provide the section 11 notice form.

(a) – The relevant part of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 can be found under Section 11 of the Homelessness etc (S) Act 2003 at Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 (legislation.gov.uk)

(b) – Schedule 1 of the Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations sets out the form of notice that must be provided to the LA under section 11 of the 2003 Act at The Notice to Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2008 (legislation.gov.uk) . As this is a statutory notice, local authorities must require notice to be provided in this form.

Question reference: S6W-10199

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-09252 by Shona Robison on 21 July 2022, whether these sums of money are included in the Single Building Assessment programme: spending information, which was released on 12 May 2022, and how much has been spent on contractors (a) prior to July 2021 and (b) in July and August 2022.

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