EIR/202600512680 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Eligibility for emergency heating oil fund among rural homes: EIR release
Information requested
With regards to the emergency heating oil fund set up to support Scotland:
1. How many homes in ‘rural’ areas will be eligible? 2. How many homes in areas outwith the ‘rural’ definition will be eligible? 3. How much funding is expected to be provided to ‘rural’ households?
Response
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.
1. On your first two questions, based on results from the 2024 Scottish House Condition Survey, we estimate that 169,000 households in Scotland use heating oil or liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as their primary heating fuel, of which 87% (147,000) are classed as rural. We also estimate that around 6,000 oil/LPG households receive a qualifying low-income benefit (and therefore have automatic eligibility), and that the vast majority of these are in areas that are classed as rural. 2. While people in receipt of low-income social security will qualify automatically for support, under the terms of their grant we have asked Advice Direct Scotland (ADS), which is administering the scheme, to grant awards to people who may not be in receipt of a qualifying benefit but are in financial hardship or at risk of self-rationing. In order to qualify, applicants must meet certain other criteria, with one of those criteria being a priority need for heat based on geographical location, i.e. rurality. The discretionary nature of this part of the scheme means that we cannot answer your third question, as it is not possible to know at this stage how much of the funding will go specifically to rural households.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
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.
Attachments
No attachments found.