- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance it will give NHS Lothian for the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.
Answer
The Scottish Government's position on funding support for revenue financed projects was set out in a letter to NHS chief executives from the Director General Health and Social Care on 22 March 2011. That letter detailed those elements of unitary payments made under hub initiative Design Build Finance and Maintain projects and non-profit distributing projects that would attract Scottish Government revenue support. These arrangements state that 100% of the approved capital and financing elements, and 100% of special purpose vehicle costs and insurances would be covered by Scottish Government support. In addition, 50% of the charge relating to lifecycle maintenance will be supported. Funding support will be dependant on the approval of appropriate business cases by Scottish Government with technical and commercial input provided by the Scottish Futures Trust. In addition to support for elements of the unitary payments due, the Scottish Government will be providing capital support for those elements of enabling works and equipment contained within approved business cases.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will give NHS Lothian for the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.
Answer
The Scottish Government is fully committed to the delivery of the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh. With support and advice from Scottish Government Officials and the Scottish Futures Trust, NHS Lothian will take the project forward as quickly as possible.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what the duration will be of the contracts for the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
It will only be possible to say which communities will benefit once the developers have identified potential sites on the national forest estate. It is expected that this process will take up to eight month to complete.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what options were explored by Forestry Commission Scotland prior to concluding that private companies be awarded the renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
A series of options were modelled ranging from the current leasing arrangement through joint ventures to Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) self development. Given FCS cannot borrow funding for such purposes the lease/joint version option was seen to be the best route to follow.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates it has made of the renewables potential of the forestry estate.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland estimate having 2GW of capacity installed (wind and hydro, excluding large-scale pumped storage) on the national forest estate by 2020.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the option of joint investment opportunities to develop the forestry commission estate has been considered.
Answer
Yes, and the deals announced provide for Forestry Commission Scotland to become a joint venture partner in specific schemes should they chose to do so.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason it decided to put the whole of the forest estate out to tender at the same time.
Answer
Every exercise like this is heavy on resource and time. Progressing these opportunities will contribute significantly to the delivery of the Government''s renewable energy targets and generate an additional revenue stream for Forestry Commission Scotland which will avoid the need for taxpayers to support the cost of delivery of social and environmental outputs from the national forest estate.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 give exclusive rights to the whole of the commission’s estate to those companies that won the contracts.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland split the geographical areas of the national forest estate into five lots.
In four of the five lots there are two companies given exclusivity for the eight month period, one dealing with schemes under 5MW site potential and the other over 5MW. In the fifth lot both development segments are dealt with by the same company. It is not intended that exclusive options will be granted on all of the forest estate in each lot at the end of the exclusivity period, instead a select list of potential sites will be taken forward and the rest of the land can be open to communities or others to take forward if possible.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the report commissioned from Atkins Consultants Ltd on the potential for wind farm development on the national estate.
Answer
The project Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) undertook with Atkins Consultants had the main objective to build a GIS based analytical model to enable FCS to assess potential wind resource on the national forest estate. This objective was achieved and FCS routinely uses this to assess the potential of various forest blocks for different reasons. Atkins also ran the model as a part of the exercise and produced a report covering the NFE as part of the deliverables of the project. This, along with the analytical model was handed over to FCS in September 2008. Any report like this has its limitations and the main project output was the working model however, the report did provide the necessary confidence that there remained a reasonably significant wind energy resource on the NFE and that therefore it would be worth pursuing its development strategically. FCS has had no requests to release the report but would be happy to publish it on their website if required.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will delay the eight month limit from the agreement of exclusivity arrangements for communities to put forward their own proposals for renewables contracts the Forestry Commission Scotland estate.
Answer
Communities are welcome to flag up their interest during the eight month period if they want to pursue a renewables project under the National Forest Land Scheme (NFLS) prior to the list of sites being finalised by the developer. Once that list is established communities will have another opportunity to take forward sites via the NFLS scheme for non allocated sites. They will be able to engage with the developers to avail of the negotiated Forestry Commission Scotland deal for a longer period after the exclusivity period prior to a planning application being made.
