The Scottish Government is aware that unaccompanied young people have arrived in Glasgow in significant numbers in recent years.

Asylum processes are reserved to the UK Government, and therefore local authorities are not asked to routinely provide data to the Scottish Government on the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking people arriving in their area. However in November and December 2023, the Scottish Government asked local authorities to provide information about their services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people. Glasgow City Council's returns show that at that time, it was looking after a total of more than 350 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people.

In addition, the Scottish Government funds Guardianship Scotland, which provides support and advocacy for children and young people at risk of trafficking. The majority of people supported by Guardianship Scotland arrive in Scotland as unaccompanied asylum-seeing children. The figures below show the number of young people living in Glasgow who have been referred to Guardianship Scotland in each of the last three years.

• 2022 - 86
• 2023 - 56
• 2024 - 48

In partnership, the Scottish Government and COSLA provide £2m investment per year to deliver the training programme for educational psychologists.

The formulation for this investment takes into account the number of students, the tuition fees paid for each student, individual membership to the British Psychological Society and an allocation to help students with living costs associated with studying.

The living costs grant is not income assessed, is not indexed to inflation and does not need to be paid back.

The grant has been reviewed since 2018 and the amount was agreed with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists.

The Scottish Government’s Solar Vision, which will be published in due course, will set out the commitments that we will take to enable greater deployment of solar in Scotland. We will continue to support the sector to minimise barriers to deployment, wherever possible.

In 2023 and 2024, we introduced new and extended permitted development rights to simplify the planning process for the installation of zero- and low-carbon technologies, including solar canopies in car parks. Relevant guidance is contained in Planning Circular 2/2024: Non-Domestic Permitted Development Rights.

The fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) sets out the Scottish Ministers’ policies and proposals for the development and use of land. NPF4 places climate and nature at the centre of our planning system and is a significant step forward towards achieving a net zero Scotland. It makes clear our support for all forms of renewable, low-carbon and zero emission technologies, including solar panels. When making decisions on planning applications, planning authorities must consider the development plan (which includes NPF4 and the relevant local development plan) as a whole, alongside all other material considerations.

Between 2021 and 2024, expenditure under the Heat in Buildings Programme totalled £493m. The annual spend is as follows:

With the draft 25-26 budget allocation, the total allocation for Heat in Buildings within this parliamentary session is £1.7bn.

The Scottish Climate Survey is gathering data on public awareness and understanding of a variety of climate-related topics, including the heat transition. Data collection began in October 2024 and is continuing until January 2025. A report of findings is expected to be published by April 2025.

With the introduction of a new heat network authorisation and consumer protection regime being developed under the Energy Act 2023, my officials have focused their efforts on engaging with the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Ofgem regarding the data that will be collected as part of this new regime and the system that will be used to collect it. Ofgem has recently published the Heat networks regulation: authorisation and regulatory oversight consultation which provides details on the registration and monitoring. Both processes will provide valuable data on heat networks.

We expect that the quality of data from the new regime will be significantly better than that submitted as Heat Networks Metering and Billing Regulations 2014 (HNMBR) notifications, for a number of reasons, including that Ofgem is developing a dedicated digital platform so that regulated entities can engage with Ofgem supporting the processes of Registration, Authorisation Application and reporting for monitoring.

The date for heat networks regulation taking effect has been confirmed as 1 April 2025 in the Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025 Statutory Instrument (SI) 2025, laid in the UK Parliament on 28 November 2024, with later commencement dates for some of the regulations within the SI.

The Heat networks regulation: authorisation and regulatory oversight consultation can be accessed at the following address: Heat networks regulation: authorisation and regulatory oversight.

Work is underway to review and allocate the budget across the schemes funded through the Heat in Buildings programme. The allocations will be submitted for review to the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy early in the new year.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce met on 16 July 2024 and 9 October 2024. The Taskforce’s next meeting is scheduled for 15 January 2025 when it will seek to finalise its Part 2 report.

The Green Heat Finance Taskforce is currently finalising its Part 2 report and will publish it in early 2025.