Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S7W-03122

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 23 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on the number of recipients of Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) funding, broken down by constituency and type of funding, in each year since the inception of the scheme.

Question reference: S7W-03119

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 23 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what budget allocations have been made to the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) in each year since its inception.

Question reference: S7W-03118

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 23 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of projected, either planned or anticipated, funding allocations to the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), in light of the Programme for Government commitment to increase the CARES budget.

Question reference: S7W-03123

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 22 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when the contracts for future Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) funding delivery are due for renewal.

Question reference: S7O-00290

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consider reviewing the MSP staff travel expenses scheme to ensure that it takes account of the differences in travel distance and costs between geographically smaller parliamentary regions and larger ones, such as the Highlands and Islands.

Question reference: S7W-02151

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2026
Current Status: Holding Answer by Stephen Gethins on 27 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what community consultation took place prior to the renewal of the lease for Whitelee Windfarm and whether any opportunities were provided for local community organisations to bid for the lease and, if so, what those opportunities were.

Question reference: S7W-02152

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2026
Current Status: Holding Answer by Stephen Gethins on 27 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that opportunities for community ownership are maximised as part of the repowering of Whitelee Windfarm.

Question reference: S7W-02150

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that local communities are consulted and given an opportunity to bid for leases on publicly owned land where existing wind farms are due to be repowered and the associated land leases are due for renewal.

In 2025, the Scottish Government and Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) announced a pilot to give communities priority access to renewable energy assets on public land due for repowering.

The pilot provides a protected window for local groups to make an asset transfer request to lease FLS sites due for repowering and gives advance notification of upcoming lease opportunities so communities have time to prepare asset transfer requests before sites go to market.

These measures will apply to projects with a maximum generation capacity of 50MW, and ten FLS sites have been identified to be part of the pilot. Communities can access support to enable them to take up these opportunities through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES).

Question reference: S7W-01769

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 July 2026
Current Status: Answered by Stephen Gethins on 7 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set out the process by which the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP), which it is co-sponsoring with the UK Government, will be approved, and when it expects that process to be concluded.

The process for the development and approval of the SSEP is set out in the Commissioning letter and the SSEP methodology both of which are publicly available. The decision on the initial pathway for the SSEP will be made by the Secretary of State in autumn 2026, following input from Scottish and Welsh Governments. The finalised Pathway Options Report prepared by NESO will be issued to UK, Scottish and Welsh Government at the end of August. It is expected that the chosen pathway will go out for public consultation in early 2027 with the final SSEP agreed in Autumn 2027.

Question reference: S7W-01423

Asked by: Kristopher Leask, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 28 July 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to uphold the commitments of the 2023 Scottish Onshore Wind Sector Deal, including the 12-month and 24-month determination targets, and how many applications have (a) met and (b) missed these targets since the sector deal was agreed.

In recent years, the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) has undergone significant recruitment and training to bolster the workforce and match the rising demand in applications. In addition, the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 provided Scottish Ministers with new regulation-making powers that seek to streamline the consenting process. We will consult later this year on how we intend to use these powers, with findings informing secondary legislation. Taken together, these actions will help Ministers meet our ambitions for faster decision-making timescales of onshore wind applications.

The Onshore Wind Sector Deal included the ambition that from 2025 we would aim to determine section 36 applications for new sites and for the re-powering of existing operational sites within 12 months, or 24 months if there is a Public Local Inquiry (PLI). We remain committed to this ambition, ensuring that the energy consenting process delivers timely results and takes a pragmatic approach.

Between January 2025 and June 2026, the ECU received 46 onshore wind applications. By 14 July 2026, at the time of answering:

none of these applications have been determined
27 applications can no longer meet the 12 month determination timescale
19 applications remain within 12 month determination timescale
all applications still remain within the 24 month determination timescale (where a PLI may be required)

This summer, the ECU will publish an Annual Report for the first time which will include data and performance monitoring associated with their work. The report will provide further analysis relating to the factors which impact determination timescales.