Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no direct plans at present to extend the National Cycle Network (NCN) route 73. Sustrans manage the NCN in Scotland and have set out ambitions to improve and extend the NCN in their 2018 Paths for Everyone Document. The Scottish Government has funded Sustrans with £10.6 million in 2022-23 (increased from the £4 million award in 2021-22) to undertake this work.

The second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommends creating new and improving existing active travel routes to connect Scotland’s cities, regions and major gateways, using high-quality active travel infrastructure that segregates users from busy roads, but makes use of quiet roads where appropriate. This will support long-distance active journeys, although it is anticipated that most benefit will arise from relatively short journey routes between or within the communities that the network would pass through.

The long-distance active travel network would enhance the existing National Cycle Network to create a strategic national network of active travel routes mirroring in part the Trunk Road and rail networks. The draft STPR2 report was published on 20 January this year for a three month consultation period. Feedback is now being considered and the final report is due later this year.

Programme for Government in 2016 and 2017 addressed potential transport issues in South West Scotland and extensive stakeholder engagement was undertaken to inform the South West Scotland Transport Study; the initial appraisal report was published in January 2020, and included 23 recommendations for consideration in STPR2, including one to develop the Strategic Active Travel Network in the South West of Scotland and better connect communities to key destinations with cycle paths parallel to trunk roads and improvements to the NCN. This intervention is currently subject to detailed appraisal as part of Phase 2 of STPR2.

The Scottish Government has welcomed the report from Environmental Standards Scotland. They requested some clarifications and made a number of recommendations on how processes relating to the enforcement of acoustic deterrent devices could be improved. They were content with Marine Scotland’s replies and the amendments made to procedures, and concluded that ESS had "no ongoing concerns."

Details of fish farm inspections relating to Acoustic Deterrent Devices will shortly be published on the Scottish Government website, all ESS recommendations will then have been addressed. Marine Scotland continue to monitor compliance with unannounced inspections.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10282 on‎ 26 August 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

The regulation and funding of electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government. However, we are engaging closely with Ofgem and BEIS to ensure that its policy and regulation recognises and enables Scotland’s world leading net zero target, and this includes our plans for heat decarbonisation.

The Scottish Government has also worked closely with network companies to ensure their business plans reflect the scale and pace of low carbon technology deployment required to meet net zero targets. We have also set up a new Heat Electrification Strategic Partnership (HESP) with them as a forum within which to further develop our understanding of the scale, pace and location of network investment needed.

Ofgem’s draft determinations on these plans have proposed a combined allowance of £2.5bn for both Scottish Network companies with additional allowance being made available, should the rate of deployment be higher than anticipated.

Since its launch in August 2020, the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund has committed £15.3 million for the retrofit of 1804 Social Housing properties across Scotland. The fund offers grant support of up to 50% of the total eligible costs of the project, with the average amount of support provided per property being £8,300.

The Scottish Government is introducing the New Build Heat Standard from 2024 in direct response to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change on how to meet the net-zero legal obligations legislated for by the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government has previously commissioned research which considered the capital costs associated with delivering zero direct emissions heating (ZDEH) technologies within new homes.

The research found that the installation of ZDEH systems ranged from £2,000 to £5,000 more than compared to a gas boiler counterfactual. However, these costs are highly variable and depend on a range of factors from the choice of system used to the nature of the construction of the individual development. It is also expected that both innovation and economies of scale will reduce the price of ZDEH systems as Scotland and many other countries increase their deployment.

Conversely, in off-gas areas, the capital costs of ZDEH systems were found to be comparable with fossil fuel alternatives (such as oil boilers).

Copies of the research papers are available here:

• Renewable and zero emissions heating systems in affordable housing projects: evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Costs of zero emissions heating in new buildings (climatexchange.org.uk)

At the introduction of these regulations, a full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) will be published – and the findings from these research reports and other relevant information will be incorporated into the final BRIA.

The sale price of a new building is a matter that is determined by each individual developer and takes into account a range of variables related to the cost of construction of the building and the local housing market.

Security of electricity supply is a reserved policy area, delivered through UK Government electricity policy, Ofgem as the independent GB energy regulator, and National Grid ESO (the GB Electricity System Operator).

A mixture of renewables, storage and increased interconnection across GB and to the continent – as well as a potential role for carbon capture in some scenarios – can support a secure and decarbonised power sector in Scotland.

Transport Scotland holds information on charge points registered on the ChargePlace Scotland network only and by local authority boundary and not by parliamentary constituency.

Across the local authority boundary areas that this constituency covers there were a total of 28 public charge points commissioned onto the ChargePlace Scotland network between 01 June 2021 and 31 May 2022.

Our approach, which includes our new £60m fund, is designed to attract private investment and create the conditions for the public network to be largely financed and operated by the commercial sector.

The answer to your question is outlined in the following tables. Please note, data for 2021-2022 Area Based Schemes are still being collected and will be published on the ABS webpage in due course: Area Based Schemes: annual final measures reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Warmer Homes Scotland

I reaffirm the answer to S6W-06416 on 25 February 2022, and in my letter of 6 May to you as convener of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee about the National Public Energy Agency. Specifically, as set out in the Scottish Government’s a Fairer, greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22, we made a commitment to create a dedicated National Public Energy Agency by September 2025. This is an ongoing area of work, and issues such as staffing and budget will be considered as the work to develop and design the Agency progresses over this parliamentary period.

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