Questions regarding Home Energy Scotland loans : FOI release

Information requested

1. How much funding EST Scotland receives from Scottish government for Home Energy Scotland loans?

2. I should also like to know the percentage of Home Energy Scotland loan applications rejected following credit checks by the mandated Transunion/Credit Karma organisation?

3. Why have other agencies; Experian and Equifax not been used as part of the credit check process for Home Energy Scotland loans?

4. Who exactly has mandated Transunion as the credit check agency for Home Energy Scotland loan applications?

Response

1.In financial year 2019-20 we paid £425,570 to the Energy Saving Trust (EST) for to administer HES Loans on our behalf.

2. Since the HES Loan launched in its current form in 2017 22% of applications have been rejected as a result of not meeting the required credit score.

3. These agencies are not used as well as Transunion because each agency uses different scoring formats. EST cannot compare results across agencies – a successful credit score through TransUnion would not be the same score provided through another agency. In addition, as credit checks leave a “footprint” on an individuals’ credit report it would not be appropriate to carry out multiple checks across different agencies as it could have an impact on the individual’s ability to borrow elsewhere.

4. TransUnion have not been mandated as the credit check agency for the HES loan scheme, they were selected competitively by EST as fund administrator.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.