Fossil fuel boilers, Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme and heat pumps statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. In the most recent analysis done by yourselves, how many fossil fuel boilers are there in Scotland and what is the current estimation for when these will be replaced?

2. How much is the Scottish Government estimating it would now cost homeowners to replace their fossil fuel heating systems?

3. How much money has been handed out in the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme, with a breakdown of this in terms of loans and grants, and the number of grants and loans rejected as well?

4. All research and briefings prepared for ministers about heat pumps between January 2023 and the date of this FOI?

5. How much money has been spent on decarbonising Scottish Government buildings so far and a breakdown of these costs, including how much was spent and what the money was spent on?

6. In a Scottish Government tweet on August 25, it states: "Renewables capacity in Scotland has grown by 8% over the last year, more than one-and-a-half times the rest of the UK." -Could you substantiate this claim? Including where it is sourced from, what capacity is being talked about and what the actual figures are?

7. The Scottish Government has previously called the statement Scotland has 25% of Europe’s  offshore wind potential "outdated" and said work was being undertaken to get a new figure. Could youprovide the work which has been undertaken so far, and whether a new figure has been found yet?

Response

In addition, in your response to our clarification request you made clear the request under question four was in relation to the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps.

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of the answers to your questions. Please note I have provided an additional PDF document 'Annex 1' which comprises the briefings and research papers which were in scope of question four of your  request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some sections of the briefings and research papers requested by question four of your request. Therefore, some lines within the briefings have been redacted because exceptions under the following regulations of the EIRs applies to sections of information contained within the documents:

• Regulation 10(5)(f) - third party interests, where information regarding external stakeholders is discussed which does not provide a valuable contribution to the response.
• Regulation 10(4)(e) - internal communications, where free and frank discussion is taking place between ministers which could negatively impact policy making to release at this stage.
• Regulation 11 - personal data, where names and contact details of individuals are provided which pose a risk to the protection of their personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

In addition, in order to enable a succinct response to your particular query, sections of briefings and research papers in scope of question four of your request have been redacted if they are out of scope of the request and add no value to the release. This is in order to make it easier to access the specific information requested.

The links to five research projects in scope of question four have also been provided in the attached answer. This is as, under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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.

FOI 202300383859 - Information Released - Annex 1

File type

146 page PDF

File size

5.7 MB

FOI 202300383859 - Information Released - Annex 2

File type

3 page PDF

File size

103.0 kB