Chamber and committees

We are committed to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 which is equivalent to an average reduction of more than 3% per year. Continuous progress to reduce emissions is essential and the Scottish Government believe that reporting an annual measure of progress within a multi-year budget process is the best means of achieving this. Independent, expert advice would be taken on the trajectory of emissions needed to meet our 2050 target.

We are considering our final approach in light of responses to our consultation on a Scottish Climate Change Bill. In the meantime, we have committed to reduce emissions over the period to 2011 from a baseline of 2005.

It is the responsibility of each Local Authority to manage its common good assets and funds in accordance with all current statutory requirements and non-statutory guidance.

The protection of common good assets and their retention for community ownership will be given careful consideration in any future legislative proposals on the conversion of long leases.

Officials in Constitution, Law and Courts Directorate are currently giving consideration to the Scottish Law Commission’s report and the Scottish Government will take a view in due course about a response to its recommendations and the timing of any bill.

There is already legal protection for common good assets held in perpetuity. The question of whether the existing legislation is sufficient is being considered by my officials in consultation with local government.

Threshold values, established for various pollutants under the terms of the Groundwater Directive, are used in assessing the chemical status of a groundwater body. The exceedance of a threshold value is used as a trigger for investigations of whether the pressures on the groundwater body concerned would compromise the quality of drinking water sources, the quality of surface water into which the groundwater flows, or the quality of any wetlands connected to the groundwater. The standards applied for the regulation of pollution or the remediation of contaminated land are therefore specific to the groundwater body concerned.

The Scottish Government will be a member of the recently established UK National Brownfield Forum, which is being sponsored by the Department of Communities and Local Government and Defra. We will await further developments with the UK National Brownfield Forum before considering whether there is any requirement for the establishment of a distinct brownfield forum for Scotland.

In addition to the statutory guidance which was last revised in 2006, the Scottish Government is working with DEFRA, the other devolved administrations, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment Agency to review the current technical guidance on risk assessment, known as the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) framework, used in the determination of contaminated land. This guidance, first issued in 2002, provides a methodology to help assess whether there is a significant risk to human health from exposure to a particular contaminant on a given site.

An assessment of the emissions from traffic predicted to use the crossing will be undertaken as part of the environmental impact assessment. The findings will be published in an environmental statement in 2009.

The new traffic management arrangements at the Forth Road Bridge came into effect on 26 May 2008, and major works are continuing at the Tay Road Bridge which restrict traffic flows southbound. It is therefore too early to make any realistic assessment of the traffic and other impacts of the abolition of tolls. We will work with the bridge boards and neighbouring local authorities to monitor the situation and to see how any impacts arising directly from the abolition of tolls might be addressed.