Chamber and committees

This plan will be developed by Historic Environment Scotland in partnership with government and the historic environment sector, in line with the strategy set out by the sector in Our Place in Time. We are currently at a very early stage of considering how a long term infrastructure investment plan might operate to the optimum benefit of Scotland’s historic environment. Funding levels will be determined in the light of developing spending plans as part of the forthcoming spending review.

This plan will be developed by Historic Environment Scotland in partnership with government and the historic environment sector, in line with the strategy set out by the sector in Our Place in Time. We are currently at a very early stage of considering how a long term infrastructure investment plan might operate to the optimum benefit of Scotland’s historic environment. Funding levels will be determined in the light of developing spending plans as part of the forthcoming spending review.

This plan will be developed by Historic Environment Scotland in partnership with government and the historic environment sector, in line with the strategy set out by the sector in Our Place in Time. We are currently at a very early stage of considering how a long term infrastructure investment plan might operate to the optimum benefit of Scotland’s historic environment. Funding levels will be determined in the light of developing spending plans as part of the forthcoming spending review.

This plan will be developed by Historic Environment Scotland in partnership with government and the historic environment sector, in line with the strategy set out by the sector in Our Place in Time. We are currently at a very early stage of considering how a long term infrastructure investment plan might operate to the optimum benefit of Scotland’s historic environment.

Scottish Government funding for the historic environment is channelled via Historic Environment Scotland’s grant schemes. Funding levels will be determined in the light of developing spending plans as part of the forthcoming spending review.

We are providing both financial and practical support to new integrated health and social care partnerships. Additional funding of more than £500 million for health boards enables investment of an additional £250 million to support the integration of health and social care and build the capacity of community-based services.

Further support is also available to partnerships via the improvement hub at Healthcare Improvement Scotland and also NHS National Services Scotland.

While the Scottish Government believes all decisions on Scotland's energy sector should be determined by Scottish Ministers and accountable to the Scottish Parliament, it is currently the case that these matters are reserved. The Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme and cost recovery mechanism for Shetland’s new energy solution are policies of the UK Government and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change leads government consultations on those matters.

However, the Scottish Government seeks to influence decisions of UK Ministers to deliver optimum benefits for Scotland and Scottish Ministers therefore have regular discussions with a range of stakeholders concerning all matters that affect energy costs and fuel poverty issues, including from time to time issues surrounding network charging and this informs our approach to discussion with UK Ministers on Scotland's behalf. For example, ministers met with members of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands on 7 March 2015, to hear members' views, and as an action arising from that meeting Ofgem and National Grid will be invited to brief members of the convention on network charging issues at the convention's next meeting in the autumn 2016.

The Scottish Government, alongside our agencies and partners, in recognising the importance of the sector to the Northern Isles, is supporting the energy industry in Orkney and Shetland through a wide variety of measures across oil and gas, renewables and community energy.

In response to the downturn in oil and gas we set up the energy jobs taskforce that is coordinating action across the sector, and have introduced a £12 million skills fund (Transition Training Fund or TTF) to support individuals transition to other employment.

Through our enterprise agencies we are providing practical support to enable our oil and gas supply chain to take advantage of decommissioning opportunities demonstrated through the £2.4 million of public support from Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop the Dales Voe Quay in Sheltland.

We recognise the potential of the islands to support our renewables targets - Orkney and Shetland possess some of the best renewable energy resources in Europe and those resources present a greater opportunity for the local economy. We have invested significantly in renewables development on the islands, from the establishment of the European Marine Energy Centre, Wave Energy Scotland and investment in the MeyGen Tidal Array and Nova Innovation's Tidal Array -both of which are making use of the local supply chain in Orkney and Shetland. We are also supporting investment in low carbon projects through the Scottish Government Local Energy Challenge Fund and our Low Carbon Infrastructure Programme.

Further large-scale development of renewables in the Northern Isles will require investment in new grid infrastructure, as I am sure you are aware. Scottish Ministers established the Scottish Island Renewables Delivery Forum and have been at the forefront of inter-governmental work to deliver enhanced electricity connections for Orkney and Shetland, working closely with the two local authorities and UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Building on joint research co-funded by the Scottish Government, DECC has designed a policy instrument to support onshore wind projects on the Scottish Islands and the regulator Ofgem has made substantial progress in streamlining its regulatory approval processes for the proposed grid connections.

The system of charges levied for use of electricity distribution networks is the responsibility of the independent regulator, Ofgem, who lead formal consultations on that matter. As referenced in the answer to question S4W-30367 on 23 March 2016, Ofgem published a report on regional differences in network charges in October 2015, which explains their rationale for the current cost-reflective charging framework.

Scottish Ministers have regular discussions with a range of stakeholders concerning all matters that affect energy costs and fuel poverty issues, including from time to time issues surrounding network charging. For example, ministers met with members of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands on 7 March 2015 and as an action arising from that meeting Ofgem and National Grid will be invited to brief members of the convention on network charging issues at the next meeting in the autumn.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

In line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics the publication month was set by the responsible statistician, and was announced in October 2015.

An announcement on the new islands strategic group, including its membership will be made later in summer 2016 following discussions with elected members, local communities, local authorities and other key stakeholders.