Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11044 on 29 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
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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.

I am aware of the Recovery and Wellbeing village project being developed by Blue Triangle in Partnership with Hamilton Accies and local partners. Officials recently met with colleagues from the project to discuss these developments further. The Scottish Government acknowledge that there is no one size fits all approach to rehabilitation, it is for this reason I support the development of treatment and recovery services with varying models of care, including those of a residential nature and those in community settings such as this initiative. Officials will continue to engage with the project team going forward and I look forward to receiving detailed feedback for further consideration.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to collect such data.

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.

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.

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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11044 on 29 September 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers