Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government held a consultation on its draft thermal guidance, which included questions on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture Readiness (CCR), which closed earlier this year. Following the consultation, we have had on-going engagement with stakeholders on the development of CCS through workshops and meetings. We have decided to await the completion of the UK consultation process on clean coal before issuing our final thermal generation guidance. This will ensure that the regulatory framework in broad terms is similar across the UK as a whole, with the overall objective of encouraging CCS deployment and the objective of decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2030. In the meantime, we have set out our position on CCR for all thermal stations above 300MW.

This was set out in an answer to question S3W-24912 on 17 June 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

My officials regularly meet with key industry stakeholders regarding electronic identification (EID) and they keep me informed of these discussions. Over that last few months I have discussed EID with various industry members, amongst other issues, at meetings and events I have attended. I have also met with the Scottish EID Working Group on the 10 September 2009 to discuss this issue.

A new clean coal power station and a transhipment hub at Hunterston were among the projects proposed by stakeholders as additional national developments in representations on the NPF Discussion Draft. These projects were assessed against the criteria for national developments announced in a statement to Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth in September 2007 and subsequently included amongst the candidate national developments which were subject to a Supplementary Strategic Environmental Assessment, including consultation, in autumn 2008. The NPF has also been the subject of detailed consideration by three committees of the Scottish Parliament and a debate in Parliament on 5 March 2009, ensuring a high level of scrutiny of the spatial strategy and national developments. The National Planning Framework Participation Statement available on the Scottish Government''s website details the full extent of consultation during the preparation of NPF2.

The question of an emissions performance standard was raised in response to our consultation on draft thermal guidance last year. It was also discussed in the recent UK consultation on clean coal. Responses to this consultation have been copied to the Scottish Government. We are working closely with the UK Government on this matter and will consider our position once this process is complete.

The climate change delivery plan sets out four transformational outcomes which the Scottish Government is working towards. The first of these is a largely de-carbonised electricity generation sector by 2030, primarily using renewable sources for electricity generation with other electricity generation from fossil fuelled plants utilising carbon capture and storage. The development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of our ten energy pledges and CCS and other low carbon technologies will play a vital role in meeting that challenge.

The Scottish Government will issue its final thermal guidance later this year following consideration of responses to our own consultation and the subsequent UK consultation which closed on 9 September 2009.

There are a range of measures to support conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in agriculture in a number of Scotland Rural Development Programme schemes, including Rural Priorities and Land Managers'' Options. More information is available on the SRDP website at www.scotland.gov.uk/SRDP.

The Scottish Government is awaiting the completion of the UK consultation process before finalising its own thermal generation guidance to ensure that the regulatory framework in broad terms is similar across the UK as a whole, with the overall objective of encouraging CCS deployment and the objective of decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2030. The UK consultation invited respondents with a particular interest in Scottish Government policy to copy their responses to Scottish ministers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27009 on 18 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I met with Commissioner Vassiliou in March this year and the Director of Animal Health, Bernard Van Goethem, in June. I was informed that the principle of the Regulation would not be overturned. However I received assurances that the Commission were well informed of our issues and they would take account of these in development of the legislation, which they have duly done. I requested a further meeting in July with Commissioner Vassiliou, but due to other commitments it was not possible to secure a meeting with her.