Scottish Government consultations

We asked for views on a minor amendment to road works legislation. We sought views on the proposal to revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument which accounts for the target cost of operating the Scottish Road Works Register and replace it with a new Regulation to account for the overall running cost in the 2025/26 financial year. The projected running cost for 2025/26 will increase to £1,008,819 from £901,314.

In total, nineteen responses to the consultation were received, primarily from roads authorities.  Seven responses were from individuals, three from statutory undertakers. Brief analysis of these responses is detailed below.

There was strong support for the proposal; sixteen of the nineteen responses gave support for the proposal. Two statutory undertakers and one individual were not content with the agreed cost sharing matrix developed by the Roads Authority and Utility Committee (Scotland).

Of the two undertaker responses in opposition to the proposal, one made no alternate suggestions but commented that road authority activities have largely increased. Whilst there has been increase in noticing of work carried out by road authorities, there was still a continuation of increase in utility works and at present utilities carry out 73% of the works. Another undertaker suggested a new splitting model for future years in addition to opposing the current one. 

The consultation responses have been carefully considered, most of the respondents supported the proposal to replace the 2024 Scottish Statutory Instrument. As a result, we will now revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument, “The “Scottish Road Works Register (Prescribed Fees) Regulations 2024”, and replace it with a new Regulation as proposed. 

For your views on various parts of the Scottish Pubs Code. Topics covered within the consultation paper included: Market Rent Only leases, guest beer agreements, information for prospective tenants, rent assessment, flow monitoring devices and gaming machines.

The consultation was launched on 17 September 2024, and was a short, targeted consultation drawing upon concerns raised by stakeholders following the making of the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024. The proposals were informed by workshops that were carried out with tenant and pub-owning business representatives.

The consultation closed on 4 November 2024 and asked 20 questions. A total of 21 responses were received from stakeholders and individuals.  16 were from groups or organisations (eight Pub-owning businesses, six Representative bodies and two Campaign groups) and five from individual members of the public.

The Scottish Government’s analysis of the consultation has been published as well as the consultation responses (where permission was granted).

The responses to this consultation will inform proposed Ministerial changes to the Scottish Pubs Code.

The intention is for an amending Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) to be laid in the Scottish Parliament in January 2025 and, subject to the parliamentary process, for it to come into effect on 31 March 2025. The code will be subject to statutory review, with the first review period ending on 31 March 2026 and further reviews due every 3 years thereafter.

We consulted on our initial proposals for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard between July and October 2024.

We asked for your views on a range of key topics relating to determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent:

• Identifying the components of an equivalent standard.
• Proposals to improve the setting of energy performance and ventilation standards for new buildings, leading to lower energy demand (and reduced running costs) and a healthy indoor environment.
• Proposals to improve assurance that the design intent for energy performance and ventilation standards for new buildings is achieved in practice.
• General topics which are material to the ongoing development of energy and environmental standards set by building regulations.
• The proposed updated programme to deliver the current energy standards review and the commitment on a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard.
• Notes on the proposed amendments of regulations.

Consultation activity ran from 31 July 2024 to 23 October 2024 and received a total of 350 responses. 186 were from organisations and 164 were from individuals. Of the responses received, 64 respondents instructed that their responses should not be published. Of these 64 responses, 25 were from individuals and 39 from organisations.

Accordingly, following final QA checks, 290 consultation responses were published on the consultation page.

Responses represented a range of views and offered useful insight into many aspects of the proposals. The consultation analysis report is now published.

• Determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard - Analysis of Consultation Responses - gov.scot

Following review and consideration of responses to the consultation and focussing on items that may require modifications to the Building Regulations to satisfy Mr Rowley’s final Bill proposal, it is our position that only limited changes to regulations are needed to support an outcome, up to and including that delivered through the voluntary Passivhaus Standard.

In respect of how we set performance requirements, the Scottish Government is content that the current regulations and schedule of mandatory standards within The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 already provide the necessary legislative provisions to give effect to the final proposal for a proposed Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill. The outcome being ‘to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new-build housing to meet a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard, in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance’.

Changes that are necessary to legislation have been identified and these relate to building standards processes. In particular, the mandating of information needed to demonstrate to verifiers that compliance in both the design and the construction of buildings is being taken forward correctly. We can confirm that regulations amending The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 were laid on 12 December 2024. These introduce a requirement for developers to provide an “energy and environmental design statement” with building warrant applications and an “energy and environmental construction statement” with each completion certificate. These statements will describe how the design and construction of the building complies with paragraphs 3.13, 3.14, 3.28, 6.1 to 6.7, 6.10, 7.1 and 7.2 of schedule 5 of the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. These are the mandatory standards relevant to the delivery of energy and environmental performance.

Part 1 of the Scottish Government response to the consultation, which covers regulatory amendments, is now published.

• Determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard - Scottish Government Response Part 1 - Regulatory Changes - gov.scot

Part 2 of the Scottish Government response to the consultation will follow in January 2025.

Next Steps

The July 2024 consultation proposed an implementation date of 2028 for the new standards and there was widespread support for this. To enable the construction sector to prepare for the changes an implementation date of 31 March 2028 was set out in the regulatory amendments.

We will continue to work with the Working Group and wider industry stakeholders through 2025, informed by response to this consultation, to agree and develop the detail of changes to how we set energy and environmental standards for new buildings with the aim to publish revised standards in early 2026.

Regulatory amendments

Amendment to regulations are published here: The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024