Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill: evidence assessment

Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill: Scottish Government Comment on Evidence-Gathering

In preparing the Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Government has been required to undertake a Financial Memorandum and a Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) to understand the impact of the Bill's proposals on the Scottish Administration, Scottish Local Authorities, businesses and consumers.

The Bill will introduce regulation to the heat networks market in Scotland. However, at present, there is very limited regulation which applies to district and communal heating schemes, and as such the Scottish Government had limited evidence available to it to undertake a Financial Memorandum and a BRIA.

In light of this, in May 2019 the Scottish Government commissioned KPMG to gather data on the heat networks market, as well as views on the likely impacts of the Bill's proposals.

This evidence was provided to the Scottish Government as a Report in November 2019. The Report forms the remainder of this publication, and it has been a valuable source of information for the Scottish Government as it has developed the Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill.

Readers should note, however, that following receipt of the Report, and as we have continued to prepare the Bill, other sources of information have become available to the Scottish Government.

Where it was felt that other evidence was more accurate, this has instead been used in the Financial Memorandum and the BRIA.