Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not have plans to produce a joint net zero delivery framework with local authorities. We continue to support public sector leadership on the climate emergency through ongoing engagement with key bodies such as the Sustainable Scotland Network, Scottish Leaders Forum, COSLA, Environment and Economy Leadership Group and the Scottish Cities Alliance.

The Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plans include proposals and policies to deliver Scotland’s emissions reduction targets and the updated Climate Change Plan, published in December 2020, sets out a framework for all sectors of society to contribute to our journey to net zero including the role that local authorities and other parts of the public sector must play. This is supported by a legislative framework for local authorities delivery of net zero, where local authorities are required to report annually on their climate duties. Looking ahead, we have committed to publish our next Climate Change Plan in the first half of this Parliament.

The Scottish Government continuously reviews energy consenting frameworks, and looks for opportunities for further efficiencies and improvements while ensuring protection of our natural resources. In line with an existing Programme for Government commitment, Marine Scotland Directorate are putting in place the resources, processes and structures to respond to the challenge of the additional volume of applications which will flow from ScotWind.

Our homes and workplaces account for around a fifth of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions. We can and must make very significant progress towards eliminating these emissions over the next decade and reduce them to zero by 2045.

As set out in the Heat in Buildings Strategy, we see a limited role for bioenergy in domestic heating, in line with advice from the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

Warmer Homes Scotland provides heating systems and insulation measures to enable these systems. Warmer Homes Scotland does not provide fuel to customers and, where a heating system technology allows for a choice of fuels, the scheme cannot influence the customer’s ongoing choices. Scottish Government has no plans to reintroduce LPG heating systems to the list of measures available under Warmer Homes Scotland.

On 2 September 2021 the Scottish Government published the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, which replaces the 2014 National Child Protection Guidance.

The revision of this guidance was undertaken through a collaborative process informed by extensive public and stakeholder engagement over a period of two and a half years. The review was overseen by a National Guidance Steering Group comprised of representatives from stakeholder organisations and other key interests.

The Scottish Government ran a formal public consultation on draft guidance between 21 October 2020 and 31 January 2021. A total of 159 consultation responses were received from a wide range of organisations and individuals. Where respondents have given their permission, responses have been published on Citizen Space . In addition to the public consultation, seven virtual stakeholder engagement events were held during November and December 2020. These events were used to engage with Child Protection Committees and practitioners, with a facilitated discussion structured around the consultation questions. An independent analysis of consultation responses was commissioned and engagement was undertaken with many respondents to better understand their views and reflect in final draft.

The key themes emerging from the engagement process were: status of the guidance and degree of local variance; ensuring an appropriate balance between the current context and direction of travel as the aspirations of The Promise are realised; clarity on the timing of the refresh of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and further guidance on the role of the named person; the balance of support and protection regarding poverty and neglect; accessibility and usability of the guidance; inclusion of practice notes; expectations of timescales for implementation.

Feedback and proposed changes were considered by the Steering Group at every stage of the engagement process. Where there was agreement, the drafts were updated. Feedback along with rationale for decisions was then given to those who had provided comment. On 2 September 2021 the Scottish Government published a consultation report which included the independent analysis of consultation responses and engagement activity and the Scottish Government’s response.

As confirmed on 14 January 2022, the Scottish Government has offered financial backing of up to £80 million from the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF) to help the Scottish Cluster project accelerate its development.

As set out in our Climate Change Plan Update 2018-2032, £80 million of funding from the EETF will be directed to projects supporting the development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) transport and storage network that will further enable negative emissions technologies (NETs) projects to develop in Scotland. This is the basis on which the figure of up to £80 million was developed.

The Scottish Government first offered this financial backing to the UK Government in a letter dated 12 October 2021 (i.e., prior to the UK Government’s announcement of Track-1 clusters on 19 October 2021) to the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and Her Majesty’s Treasury. Our offer was reiterated in a meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport and the UK Government’s Minister for Energy, Greg Hands, on 13 January 2022.

Our offer of support was made on the basis that the Scottish Cluster is given certainty of its due status within the UK cluster sequencing process.

The Scottish Cluster demonstrated full suitability for Track-1 status based on the competition criteria, but has been designated as a ‘reserve’ cluster. Awarding the Cluster its ‘due status’ would therefore mean ensuring it can continue its development on a Track-1 timeframe.

Despite repeated requests to the UK Government from both the Cluster and Scottish Ministers, the designation of ‘reserve’ status has come with little clarity and no guarantees of future support for the Cluster. As the First Minister stated in her letter to the UK Prime Minister on 04 November 2021, this uncertainty risks delaying the delivery of crucial and strategically important projects including the decarbonisation of Scotland’s largest point industrial emitter at Grangemouth.

The Scottish Government does not hold all the necessary legislative and regulatory powers to allow us to support the Cluster alone; key levers, including access to BEIS business models, are reserved to the UK Government. Further detail on how the financial backing of up to £80 million could best be spent will therefore be determined in due course following further engagement with the UK Government on the Scottish Cluster’s status within the cluster sequencing process.

As detailed above, our offer of support has been made on multiple occasions to the UK Government. Officials also consulted with representatives of the Scottish Cluster.

Today I am announcing a new Network Support Grant which will run from 1 April 2022 to help maintain bus services while passenger numbers recover from the effects of the pandemic.

The Network Support Grant will replace the COVID Support Grant, COVID Support Grant - Restart, and the Bus Service Operators Grant. The Network Support Grant will provide more flexibility than the emergency COVID funding schemes, allowing services to adapt to changed travel patterns and will be available on the same terms to new as well as established operators to help improve efficiencies and the offer to passengers. The level of support provided under the grant will reduce as passenger numbers recover and we will retain key controls and obligations on participating operators

The draft Scottish Budget for 2022-23 provides up to £93.5 million for this, including £40 million in additional funding. Full details of the Network Support Grant can be found on the Transport Scotland website.

As I noted in my previous response to the member, the indoor events capacity limits were introduced in regulations from 26 December 2021 in order to mitigate the greatly increased transmission rates of the omicron COVID-19 variant, recognising that large capacity events indoors pose a high risk of transmission of the virus. The capacity limits were removed from 24 January.   The Scottish Government does not assess risk on a sector by sector basis as the risks of a significant number of people gathering together indoors is the same regardless of the activity that brings them together.   For the purposes of the capacity limits on indoor gatherings the Scottish Government considers a live event to be something that brings together a significant number of people for communal participation in a leisure or entertainment activity.

As independent Chair, it is for Dr Church to determine and manage the process of the review. I am, therefore, unable to respond on his behalf regarding the number of meetings he will hold with waste industry representatives.

However, Dr Church has assured me he wishes to hear from all interested stakeholders during the review and I would encourage anyone interested to respond to the Call for Evidence which is open until 21 February.

Our Fuel Poverty Strategy recognises the challenges that households in Scotland’s remote rural and island communities face in heating their homes for an affordable price, including the high proportion of properties located off the gas grid. That is why the new fuel poverty definition takes account of the additional costs associated with living in these areas, as well as other unique issues they face like differences in weather and housing stock characteristics.

We are determined to address the higher levels of fuel poverty found in remote rural communities and have already taken action to ensure our energy efficiency schemes spend more per head on installations in such areas, where we know costs are higher.

Through Warmer Homes Scotland we have also made available a number of renewable heat and micro generation measures some of which may be particularly beneficial to rural and remote communities not served by the gas grid. These include: ground source heat pumps, micro-wind and micro-hydro systems.