Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-36162

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to homeowners of traditionally built homes to maintain energy efficiency in the transition to renewable energy, and what impact Edinburgh College withdrawing its stonemasonry apprenticeship might have on this.

The Scottish Government recognises the value and special characteristics of Scotland’s traditional and protected buildings. Traditionally built properties make up around 18% of all homes in Scotland and may have different requirements to other homes because of their construction type, location or status.

Although Edinburgh College ceased delivery of the Stonemasonry Modern Apprenticeship in 2023, there are still three centres of stonemasonry MA training across Scotland: City of Glasgow College (CoGC) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) at Stirling and Elgin.

The Scottish Government continues to work to ensure traditional skills needed to undertake retrofitting work are available. Scotland’s revised strategy for the historic environment “Our Past Our Future” has as one of its three key priorities “Delivering the transition to net zero”. Collaboration will be key to achieving success, as is working across different sectors and employer groups, and working nationwide across regional borders.

On 3 April 2025 it was announced that a new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, had secured £3.7 million of National Lottery support. Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills will be located near Lock 16 on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal in Falkirk. The centre, which will see Scottish Canals partner with Historic Environment Scotland, will focus on developing pathways into heritage skills training, volunteering, and employment within the historic environment sector.

On 8 April 2025, Historic Environment Scotland, Historic England and Cadw, published a new retrofit training handbook to support learners undertaking retrofit qualifications.

Question reference: S6W-36160

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to preserve traditionally built homes and to make them wind and weathertight in an energy-efficient manner, in light of the need to reduce carbon emissions across all housing stock.

The Scottish Government recognises the value and special characteristics of Scotland’s traditional and protected buildings, and we are taking a range of action to ensure they are preserved in a way that supports the reduction of carbon emissions. Traditionally built properties make up around 18% of all homes in Scotland. These homes may have different requirements to other homes based on their construction type, location or status.

In 2025-26 the Scottish Government is investing over £300m in heat and energy efficiency programmes, including for traditional properties. Households can access advice and funding through Home Energy Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government.

Home Energy Scotland specialist advisors are trained to provide advice on traditional homes, working closely with Historic Environment Scotland, who we continue to work closely with to ensure that Scotland’s traditional and protected buildings are properly maintained and preserved. Through Historic Environment Scotland’s Grants programme, we invest around £13.5 million a year to support building repairs, ancient monuments, archaeological work, and conservation.

The Scottish Government also continues to work to ensure the availability of the traditional skills needed to undertake retrofitting work. On 3 April 2025 it was announced that a new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, had secured £3.7 million of National Lottery support.

The Scottish Government will also continue to make representations to UK Government requesting the implementation of a VAT reduction in the context of encouraging maintenance and energy efficiency improvements in traditional buildings.

Question reference: S6W-36161

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Scotland will remain at net zero emissions, should it achieve its legal target by 2045, in light of reports of inefficient heating measures in traditionally built homes.

My recent statement to Parliament confirmed that we intend to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill in Year 5 of this Parliamentary session. This will create a target for decarbonising heating systems by 2045, and send a strong signal to homeowners, landlords and other building owners on the need to prepare for change.

We know that certain types of buildings might be more challenging to decarbonise, such as traditional and protected properties, for example. We will therefore ensure that any regulations we bring forward will provide suitable flexibility to account for this.

We continue to work with key partners, including Historic Environment Scotland, to support the best solutions to transition Scotland’s traditional buildings to be more energy efficient and to use clean heating systems while being sympathetic to their character and features.

We are investing over £300m in heat and energy efficiency programmes in 2025-26, including support for traditional properties.

We are also considering how we could provide for a more bespoke assessment of the technically-suitable energy efficiency and clean heating measures available for owners of traditional buildings.

Question reference: S6O-04573

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what steps it is taking to protect Edinburgh’s higher education sector, in light of reports of potential job losses.

Question reference: S6W-35514

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance or direction it has offered to its agencies and departments in relation to prioritising community-owned enterprises in arrangements for the generation of electricity on land in their ownership or management.

Land ownership, management and use should deliver a wide range of social, environmental, economic and cultural benefits to the people of Scotland. Community energy has a key role to play in supporting this and we have recently announced £3.5 million in 2025-26 for a new ‘Community Energy Generation Growth Fund’ through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme. This will support community groups to develop their own renewable energy projects and enable communities to benefit from the energy transition.

Through our Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement and corresponding protocols, we set our vision for the ownership, use and management of land, including recognising that more local communities should have the opportunity to own, lease or use buildings and land which can contribute to their community's wellbeing and future development.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST), on behalf of the Scottish Government, publishes the annual Community and Locally Owned Energy in Scotland (COLO) Report. The latest report states that, as of December 2023, there are 92 MW of operational capacity across 12,110 installations in the Public Sector and Charity category, across a range of technologies.

Question reference: S6W-35517

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Scottish Water has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Scottish Water from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Currently, Scottish Water hosts 0.17MW of hydro (estimated @ 1.3GWh/annum) and 279MW of wind (estimated @ 831GWh/annum).

The income received from hosting 3rd party renewables was £5.9m in 2023-24 and £3.6m in 2024-25 (note that this income tracks the wholesale cost of electricity).

Question reference: S6W-35523

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what installed electricity generating capacity Scottish Water directly owns in relation to wind, hydro and solar electricity generation, and what the current estimated annual revenue value is of any such capacity in (a) cash terms and (b) savings from the use of the grid.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water Group's (including Scottish Water Horizons) generating capacity by technology (2023-24) is detailed in the following table:

Technology	Installed Capacity (MW)	Actual Output (GWh)
Hydro	7.2	28.8
Solar/PV	23.7	11.1
Wind	0.5	0.9
Bioresources (Combined Heat and Power)	4.5	18.3
Total	35.9	59.1

Scottish Water Group renewables make a significant contribution to reducing Scottish Water’s Tier 1 operating costs: the income received from Feed In Tariff (FIT), Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) and export to the grid was £8.6m in 2023-24.

Most of Scottish Water’s renewable assets reduce its reliance on grid electricity and reduce its exposure to electricity price volatility. In 2023-24, Scottish Water saved £5.6m.

Question reference: S6W-35518

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Scottish Water has in place with community-owned providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Scottish Water from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.

Question reference: S6W-35516

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements the national forest estate has in place with community-owned organisations for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for the national forest estate from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.

Scotland’s national forests and land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland has 10 land agreements in place with 100% community owned or part community owned organisations covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. These are all hydro schemes. There are no windfarms or solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.

The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 5.501 MW.

The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £250,158.

The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.

Question reference: S6W-35521

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements it has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its direct ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for it from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages the majority of land owned by Scottish Ministers, in the form of Scotland's national forests and land. Currently FLS has 76 land agreements in place with private companies covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. There are 25 windfarms and 51 hydro schemes. There are no solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.

The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 1257.95 MW, this comprises 1213.7 MW wind and 44.245 MW hydro.

The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £21,800,000 wind and £2,049,842 hydro.

The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.