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This is the second Priorities Report by the Consumer Protection Partnership (CPP), of which CAS is a member, following the publication of the first Priorities Report in November 2013.

CAS welcomes new the Draft Provision of Water and Sewerage Services (Reasonable Cost) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and would welcome clarity from the Scottish Government on whether any review of Council Tax / local taxation may impact the Regulations with regard to council tax banding.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) is seeking tenders from all interested parties to undertake research into consumers’ experience of water and sewerage debt.

Citizens Advice Scotland welcomes new measures that will improve and protect water sources within catchment areas, and will mitigate the need for Scottish Water to treat contaminated water to the cost of the paying customer.

CAS has responded to the consultation on the draft regulations for Universal Credit data sharing. In order to provide a representative response on behalf of the Citizens Advice Service, we consulted bureaux in Scotland on the proposals and received responses from 32 citizens advice bureaux. This response represents a summary of the responses received. 

As a member of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum, Citizens Advice Scotland is working closely with the Scottish Government and other organisations to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, no-one in Scotland is living in fuel poverty by November 2016. 

The Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum published it's final report on its review of the Scottish Government's fuel poverty strategy in March 2014. This included a number of recommendations, covering a range of issues that the Forum identified as needing to be acted upon if fuel poverty is to be eradicated by November 2016. Amongst others, these included recommendations on how the government can prioritise: areas of wider poverty and deprivation; fuel poor households who live remote from the gas grid and in harder to treat properties; and improving understanding of the links between fuel poverty and health or other social benefits. 

CAS is supportive of the Scottish Government’s drive to eradicate fuel poverty in Scotland and has signed up to all of the recommendations contained in the final report.