Asked by: Baker, Claire (Scottish Labour - Mid Scotland and Fife)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many Pension Age Winter Heating Payments it expects will remain to be paid by 31 December 2025.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
Pension Age Winter Heating Payment will support at least 880,000 pensioners with their heating bills this winter.
Payments started in November and Social Security Scotland expects the vast majority of payments to be issued by the end of December. Work will continue throughout the rest of the winter to finalise any remaining payments.
As of 14 December 2025, more than 568,000 Pension Age Winter Heating Payments had been made. Updated figures will be published in the next management information release on 4 February 2026.
Further details are available on Social Security Scotland’s website at: Winter Benefits management information release to 14 December 2025.
Asked by: Regan, Ash (Independent - Edinburgh Eastern)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government which organisations have received support from the Equality and Human Rights Fund in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) the amount awarded, (b) the duration of the funding and (c) whether the award was (i) a new allocation or (ii) the continuation of an existing funding arrangement.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
The Equality and Human Rights Fund supports projects that work to promote equality and tackling discrimination and prejudice.
The following table, which is available on the gov.scot website, shows which organisations have received support from the Fund in the last five years. It also provides a breakdown of the amounts awarded to each organisation for relevant periods.
Funding to each organisation from October 2022 onwards has been a continuation of the arrangements established at the outset of the Fund.
Organisation | October 2021-September 2022 | October 2022-March 2023 | April 2023-March 2024 | April 2024-March 2025 | April 2025-March 2026 | Total Award |
Age Scotland | £396,404.00 | £201,625.50 | £406,743.50 | £406,743.50 | £406,743.50 | £1,818,260.00 |
Amina – the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre | £207,839.00 | £102,183.50 | £207,019.00 | £207,019.00 | £207,019.00 | £931,079.50 |
BEMIS Scotland | £215,000.00 | £107,500.00 | £215,000.00 | £215,000.00 | £215,000.00 | £967,500.00 |
Boots and Beards | £59,102.00 | £36,968.00 | £75,660.50 | £75,660.50 | £75,660.50 | £323,051.50 |
British Deaf Association | £224,507.00 | £113,964.00 | £230,182.50 | £230,182.50 | £230,182.50 | £1,029,018.50 |
Central Scotland Regional Equality Council | £72,686.00 | £37,114.00 | £75,077.00 | £75,077.00 | £75,077.00 | £335,031.00 |
Civil Rights First | £48,574.00 | £35,917.50 | £70,560.00 | £70,560.00 | £70,560.00 | £296,171.50 |
Close the Gap (SCIO) | £216,307.00 | £114,774.50 | £226,539.50 | £226,539.50 | £226,539.50 | £1,010,700.00 |
Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights | £142,599.00 | £71,624.50 | £144,479.50 | £144,479.50 | £144,479.50 | £647,662.00 |
Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations - Scotland | £199,100.00 | £99,550.00 | £199,100.00 | £199,100.00 | £199,100.00 | £895,950.00 |
Deafblind Scotland | £71,391.00 | £36,880.50 | £74,979.00 | £74,979.00 | £74,979.00 | £333,208.50 |
Disability Equality Scotland | £170,357.00 | £81,458.50 | £164,821.00 | £164,821.00 | £164,821.00 | £746,278.50 |
DISABILITY INFORMATION SCOTLAND | £164,525.00 | £83,190.00 | £167,737.50 | £167,737.50 | £167,737.50 | £750,927.50 |
Edinburgh Napier University - Equate Scotland | £311,596.00 | £169,871.50 | £355,626.00 | £355,626.00 | £355,626.00 | £1,548,345.50 |
Elect Her | £105,793.00 | £46,939.50 | £100,047.50 | £100,047.50 | £100,047.50 | £452,875.00 |
Engender | £346,980.00 | £177,623.50 | £359,806.50 | £359,806.50 | £359,806.50 | £1,604,023.00 |
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) | £51,954.00 | £25,805.00 | £52,813.00 | £52,813.00 | £52,813.00 | £236,198.00 |
Equality Network Limited | £503,322.00 | £251,603.50 | £503,265.00 | £503,265.00 | £503,265.00 | £2,264,720.50 |
Ethnic Minorities Law Centre | £195,138.00 | £94,856.50 | £190,713.50 | £190,713.50 | £190,713.50 | £862,135.00 |
FENIKS Counselling, Personal Development & Support Service Ltd | £78,869.00 | £40,179.00 | £81,482.00 | £81,482.00 | £81,482.00 | £363,494.00 |
Generations Working Together | £201,388.00 | £101,887.50 | £206,930.75 | £206,930.75 | £206,930.75 | £924,067.75 |
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector | £247,709.00 | £121,348.00 | £245,945.00 | £245,945.00 | £245,945.00 | £1,106,892.00 |
Glasgow Disability Alliance | £333,325.00 | £166,667.50 | £333,337.50 | £333,337.50 | £333,337.50 | £1,500,005.00 |
Glasgow Women's Library Ltd | £123,395.00 | £61,747.50 | £125,056.00 | £125,056.00 | £125,056.00 | £560,310.50 |
Grampian Regional Equality Council Ltd. | £28,667.00 | £14,160.00 | £28,445.00 | £28,445.00 | £28,445.00 | £128,162.00 |
Inclusion Scotland | £850,000.00 | £412,500.00 | £825,000.00 | £825,000.00 | £825,000.00 | £3,737,500.00 |
Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) | £203,379.20 | £104,985.60 | £216,095.70 | £216,095.70 | £216,095.70 | £956,651.90 |
JustRight Scotland SCIO | £95,567.00 | £48,450.50 | £97,442.00 | £97,442.00 | £97,442.00 | £436,343.50 |
Kairos Women+ | £50,754.00 | £21,520.50 | £46,444.50 | £46,444.50 | £46,444.50 | £211,608.00 |
Leadership Equality and Active Participation (LEAP) in Sports Scotland | £70,043.00 | £35,257.50 | £71,402.50 | £71,402.50 | £71,402.50 | £319,508.00 |
Legal Services Agency Ltd. | £129,748.00 | £66,367.50 | £137,156.50 | £137,156.50 | £137,156.50 | £607,585.00 |
LGBT Healthy Living Centre | £171,053.00 | £93,310.00 | £189,932.00 | £189,932.00 | £189,932.00 | £834,159.00 |
LGBT Youth Scotland | £281,930.00 | £143,982.00 | £290,870.50 | £290,870.50 | £290,870.50 | £1,298,523.50 |
Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project | £148,828.00 | £75,306.50 | £152,409.00 | £152,409.00 | £152,409.00 | £681,361.50 |
Multi-Cultural Family Base | £44,892.00 | £22,719.50 | £45,717.00 | £45,717.00 | £45,717.00 | £204,762.50 |
Neighbourhood Networks in Scotland | £94,461.00 | £46,512.50 | £93,956.50 | £93,956.50 | £93,956.50 | £422,843.00 |
Outside the Box Development Support Ltd | £56,995.00 | £29,422.00 | £59,027.00 | £59,027.00 | £59,027.00 | £263,498.00 |
Romano Lav | £82,583.00 | £38,421.50 | £73,597.50 | £73,597.50 | £73,597.50 | £341,797.00 |
Scottish Ethnic Minority Deaf Charity | £79,860.00 | £38,565.50 | £78,655.00 | £78,655.00 | £78,655.00 | £354,390.50 |
Scottish Trades Union Congress (Scottish Pensioners' Forum) | £47,819.00 | £23,831.00 | £48,913.00 | £48,913.00 | £48,913.00 | £218,389.00 |
Scottish Women's Budget Group | £72,062.00 | £37,127.00 | £74,383.00 | £74,383.00 | £74,383.00 | £332,338.00 |
Scottish Women's Convention | £196,666.00 | £98,333.00 | £196,667.00 | £196,667.00 | £196,667.00 | £885,000.00 |
STEP | £157,725.00 | £83,772.00 | £171,137.50 | £171,137.50 | £171,137.50 | £754,909.50 |
Stonewall Equality Limited | £103,992.00 | £52,594.00 | £106,505.00 | £106,505.00 | £106,505.00 | £476,101.00 |
The Poverty Alliance | £116,101.00 | £69,862.50 | £133,988.50 | £133,988.50 | £133,988.50 | £587,929.00 |
The Scottish Older People's Assembly | £49,100.00 | £24,550.00 | £49,100.00 | £49,100.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC) | £140,906.00 | £73,440.00 | £147,660.50 | £147,660.50 | £147,660.50 | £657,327.50 |
YWCA Scotland | £107,477.00 | £83,782.00 | £144,652.00 | £144,652.00 | £144,652.00 | £625,215.00 |
Total | £8,292,078.95 | £8,242,978.95 | £36,843,807.15 |
Asked by: Haughey, Clare (Scottish National Party - Rutherglen)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that all eligible recipients of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment will receive payments in 2025-26.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
Pension Age Winter Heating Payment will support at least 880,000 pensioners with their heating bills this winter.
As of 14 December 2025, over 837,000 payments of our Winter Benefits have been made to help households with heating costs, including more than 568,000 Pension Age Winter Heating Payments. This payment replaces the Department for Work and Pensions’ Winter Fuel Payment in Scotland and is set at a higher rate than the equivalent support elsewhere in the UK.
Payments commenced in November, and we expect the vast majority of payments to be issued by the end of December. Work will continue throughout the rest of the winter to finalise any remaining payments.
Eligible people of State Pension age will receive a payment between £101.70 and £305.10 depending on their circumstances. Most will get their payment automatically–no application is needed.
Asked by: Regan, Ash (Independent - Edinburgh Eastern)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what policy, criteria and decision-making processes have governed the automatic rollover of Equality and Human Rights Fund awards in the last five years, and whether an automatic rollover will be implemented again for the next funding year.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
The Equality and Human Rights Fund supports projects that work to promote equality and tackling discrimination and prejudice. It was originally intended as a three year Fund running from October 2021 to September 2024. The funding periods were amended to align to financial years to enable approvals as part of annual budget considerations.
The Fund Managers, Inspiring Scotland, assess and report on all organisations on a six monthly basis to ensure that projects continue to deliver. Ministers have continued to extend the Equality and Human Rights Fund as its original objectives continue to be relevant.
Decisions on grant funding for 2026-27 will be announced following the passing of the 2026 Budget Bill.
Asked by: Regan, Ash (Independent - Edinburgh Eastern)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government which organisations that had previously received support from the Equality and Human Rights Fund in each of the last five years have since had their funding discontinued, broken down by the reason for the discontinuation.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
The same 48 organisations have been funded from the Fund’s inception until the end of FY 2025-26, with the sole exception of The Scottish Older People’s Assembly. It is intended that funding will be provided to The Scottish Older People’s Assembly in 2026-27 following a period of reorganisation of its Trustees’ governance arrangements.
Asked by: Balfour, Jeremy (Independent - Lothian)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) adult and (b) child disability payment tribunals the Social Security Scotland tribunal system has heard in the calendar year 2025; how many have been held (i) in person, (ii) online, (ii) by telephone and (iv) by correspondence, and what information it can provide regarding how many cases are competed in an average (A) morning, (B) afternoon, (C) all day and (D) multiple day session.
Answered by Constance, Angela - Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs
This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.
Asked by: Sweeney, Paul (Scottish Labour - Glasgow)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with delivery partners on implementing action 3.4 of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy Delivery Plan 2024-2026 on promoting better understanding of qualification recognition pathways.
Answered by Stewart, Kaukab - Minister for Equalities
Scottish Government recognise the unique challenges New Scots face, including the recognition of overseas qualifications. This is a known barrier to employment.
Through the New Scots strategy, a strategy involving wider partners including those involved in employability support, a number of partners including third sector and local authorities are working with New Scots to support the recognition of their qualifications.
Asked by: Slater, Lorna (Scottish Green Party - Lothian)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the next steps are following the consultation, Enhancing the accessibility, adaptability and usability of Scotland’s homes, and when it expects to update Part 1 of the Housing for Varying Needs design guide.
Answered by McAllan, Màiri - Cabinet Secretary for Housing
We reaffirmed our commitment to deliver change in this area during the passage of the Housing (Scotland) Bill and are giving detailed consideration to the consultation feedback to ensure that we get the fundamentals of this work right.
We recognise that enhancing the accessibility, adaptability and usability of Scotland’s homes is essential to enable people to live well and stay in their homes for as long as they wish and, during Stage 3 of the Bill in the autumn of 2025, we committed to instituting change within two years.
To help ensure that (a) changes to Part 1 of the Housing for Varying Needs design guide and (b) the introduction of an all-tenure Scottish Accessible Homes Standard are meaningful and proportionate, we will work closely with the building sector and other stakeholders as work progresses. Crucially, this will include those with lived experience.
Asked by: Cole-Hamilton, Alex (Scottish Liberal Democrats - Edinburgh Western)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that some Edinburgh Western constituents are yet to receive their Winter Heating Payments and have been told that they may need to wait until February to get them in their accounts, what the reasons are for some payments not having been allocated.
Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
Winter Heating Payment is an automatic payment made during the winter months to help eligible people with heating costs.
It replaced the UK Government’s Cold Weather Payment for people in Scotland and is paid regardless of temperature – unlike the payment it replaced, which only applied if temperatures stayed at or below freezing for a week.
Social Security Scotland contacts clients before payment is issued. Most people will receive their payment by the end of December 2025, although payments will continue to be made until the end of February 2026.
As of 14 December 2025, more than 225,000 Winter Heating Payments had already been made. Further details are available on Social Security Scotland’s website at: Winter Benefits management information release to 14 December 2025.
Asked by: Eagle, Tim (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Highlands and Islands)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to enforce community (a) benefit payments and (b) equity ownership from onshore renewable energy developments as a mandatory requirement for planning application considerations.
Answered by McKee, Ivan - Minister for Public Finance
Powers to mandate community benefits and shared equity ownership are reserved to the UK Government. We continue to press the UK Government to use its reserved powers to mandate community benefits and shared ownership for mature onshore technologies, so communities share in Scotland’s natural wealth through locally shaped, lasting arrangements.
In order to maintain a robust, impartial process in which people can object to proposals while still discussing any benefits on offer, financial arrangements such as community benefits and shared ownership schemes sit independently from our planning and consenting systems.
Consequently, the Scottish Government has no plans to make community benefits or shared ownership a mandatory consideration in planning applications.
We remain committed to a just energy transition that delivers real benefits for communities: around £30 million was offered last year under our voluntary Good Practice Principles, which we are refreshing following consultation analysis published on 22 October.