Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has provided consistent support for Scotland’s marine energy sector for more than a decade. As a result, Scotland is the most advanced hub in Europe for the testing and demonstration of marine energy technologies and is ideally placed to both shape and benefit from the potential global market for marine energy while helping deliver a net-zero economy.

This support has included the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund, which provided £3.4 million to Orbital Marine Power to build and deploy the O2 tidal stream turbine and £1.545 million to Simec Atlantis Energy to design, fabricate and install a subsea hub for the MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth. This support enabled both Orbital Marine Power and Simec Atlantis Energy to benefit from the recent introduction of ring-fenced support for tidal stream energy projects in the UK Government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme. In addition, the Scottish Government has, since 2014, invested almost £50 million in Wave Energy Scotland and continues to support this internationally renowned programme, which has made significant progress in driving the development of wave energy technology towards readiness for commercialisation.

The Scottish Government will continue to engage with the marine energy industry in Scotland and is committed to supporting the further development of the sector.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme is an industry-led and industry-funded initiative, consistent with the vast majority of similar schemes across Europe. It is the responsibility of all affected businesses to ensure that they are prepared for the scheme’s launch on 16 August 2023. This includes any loss reserve measures.

Circularity Scotland Ltd is a private, not-for-profit, company. Accordingly, the Scottish Government does not have access to this information.

Scottish Government has delivered its native woodland creation targets as set in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and more recently the Bute House Agreement, and is committed to supporting further expansion of our native woodland resource. As part of the work to develop the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and underpinning Delivery Plans, we are reviewing the current targets for native woodland expansion and setting evidence based targets for future years. We recently invited views on the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy though a recent consultation exercise. The creation and management of new native woodlands will continued to be underpinned by the UK Forestry Standard, and supported through our Forestry Grant Scheme.

Protection for woodland is in place via the felling regulations under the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018. Where felling permission is not applicable, the Control of Woodland Removal Policy only permits removal of existing woodland where it would achieve significant and clearly defined additional public benefits including habitat restoration or public safety. Scottish Planning Policy 2014 (SPP) seeks to protect and enhance ancient semi natural woodland, together with individual trees, and encourages the creation of new woodland and planting of native trees in association with development.

The Scottish Government is committed to continue working closely with cities across Scotland in tackling the global climate emergency.

A number of initiatives have been driven forward to support cities in Scotland in helping them work towards net zero ambitions. The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund is making £200 million of grant funding available over this parliamentary term to registered social landlords in Scotland, including Local Authorities for the retrofit of existing housing stock.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government published its draft Vision for Scotland’s public electric vehicle charging network and announced a new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund that aims to double the size of the network through £60m of public and private investment.

Over £50 million per annum goes towards the Sustrans managed Places for Everyone programme that funds local authorities to create safer, more attractive, healthier places and increase the number of trips made by walking, cycling and wheeling for everyday journeys.

Although not targeted exclusively at cities, we are aiming to unlock £200m investment from local authorities in low carbon infrastructure through our Green Growth Accelerator and the long term nature of the £5 billion City Region and Growth Deals programme has allowed us to develop and apply international carbon management best practice that will result in significant net zero benefits across and beyond Scotland.

The UK Government set out a timeline for ambitions to deploy a First-of-a-Kind Small Modular Reactor (SMR) by the early 2030s in their ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Future’ and ‘Energy White Paper: Powering a Net Zero Future’ (both published in 2020).

In April 2022, the Office of Nuclear Regulation announced the commencement of Step 1 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) for Rolls-Royce SMR Limited’s 470MW Small Modular Reactor design. Due to the complexity and the level of scrutiny required in the GDA process, it is expected to take a number of years to complete, with risks of further delays depending on the quality of evidence returns provided through the process. Rolls Royce estimate that it will then take more than 5 years from the point of approval for the first SMR to provide power on the grid.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the energy sector and continues to provide support in a number of ways. For example:

• £5 million provided through the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund to support tidal energy innovation and deployment.
• £18.25 million funding to support the current Wave Energy Scotland technology programme, the biggest wave energy technology development programme in the world.
• £10 million hydrogen innovation scheme under the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, which will focus on innovation in hydrogen production, storage and distribution technology.
• £75 million Just Transition fund to support the energy sector, including testing and promoting emerging technologies such as EV battery recycling technology, offshore green hydrogen and commissioning.

The Scottish Government has provided consistent support for Scotland’s marine energy sector for over a decade. As a result, Scotland is the most advanced hub in Europe for the testing and demonstration of marine energy technologies and is ideally placed to both shape and benefit from the potential global marine energy market. We will continue to support the sector as it grows, and Marine Scotland will continue to address evidence gaps through the Scottish Marine Energy Research Programme.

An analytical exercise, such as the one suggested, would be a significant undertaking and come at a large cost to the taxpayer. As it has been a long standing policy of the Scottish Government not to support the construction of any new nuclear power stations in Scotland, under current technologies, any such analysis would not be value for money and has not been pursued.

The First Minister and other Scottish Government Ministers engage regularly with the Federation of Small Business (FSB) Scotland to discuss all issues affecting small businesses.

The First Minister last met representatives of the FSB Scotland on 19 May 2022 at the FSB Celebrating Small Business Awards UK. A discussion with Martin McTague, FSB National Chair and Colin Borland, Director of Devolved Nations at FSB included the importance of small businesses to Scotland's economy, the significant support and work that FSB do in dialogue with Scottish Government and the success of Scottish businesses, including the Scottish 2022 winner at the UK-wide Federation of Small Business Awards.

More recently on 31 August 2022, I met with Stacey Dingwall, Head of Policy for Scotland and Andrew McRae, Scotland's Policy Chair FSB during a visit to Amity Fish Ltd, Peterhead. Issues discussed included business rates, energy costs and skills.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with BEIS and Ofgem and National Grid ESO to discuss the arrangements under which all generators, both existing and new, access and use the GB electricity system.

National Grid ESO regularly assess the need for investment in our electricity system. The latest assessment has identified over £21bn of transmission network investment needed in GB. This vital investment will minimise constraints on the system while supporting new connection of generation to meet 2030 targets and maintain system security.

This is a reserved issue and Scottish Government has no powers to change the regulations in respect to electricity network access. It is vital that industry, government, and the regulator work together to enable timely delivery of these investments while ensuring that UK regulatory levers drive down costs and increase benefits for customers and communities.