Chamber and committees

Yes. Timber value co-products will be one of the three main feedstock areas to have a feasibility study as part of delivering on our commitment in The Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not carried out the modelling specifically referred to in the question, however, European Directive 2002/91/EC on the energy performance of buildings required:

“For new buildings with a total useful floor area over 1000 m², Member States shall ensure that the technical, environmental and economic feasibility of alternative systems such as:

- decentralised energy supply systems based on renewable energy,

- combined heat and power,

- district or block heating or cooling, if available,

- heat pumps, under certain conditions,

is considered and is taken into account before construction starts.”

A similar requirement is maintained with the current recast Directive (2010/31/EU).

In order for Scotland to meet these requirements for new buildings (including new housing), research was carried out in 2005 by the Building Research Establishment, which recommended the approach for low and zero carbon technologies (of which solar is one) to be considered and recognised through building regulations. The subsequent report ‘Low and Zero Carbon Technologies in the Scottish Building Standards’ is no longer available on the Scottish Government website, however a copy is available upon request from officials in the Building Standards Division.

The information specific to the request is not held centrally. Scottish Planning Policy encourages electric vehicle charging points to be considered as part of any new development and provided where appropriate. Planning authorities should make decisions based upon the provisions and policies within their development plans. It is therefore for them to discuss and agree provisions for electric vehicles in new developments on a case by case basis with developers.

However we do know that the Our ChargePlace Scotland network has expanded from a limited base just five years ago to over 600 charging points and 1,200 charging bays across Scotland. This includes over 150 ‘rapid’ charge points, one of the most comprehensive networks in Europe. Transport Scotland also provides grants to EV owners to enable them to have a charge point installed at home with figures at October 2016 showing that over 870 domestic units have been installed.

Provision for electric vehicle charging points will be one element considered in the forthcoming review of building standards in Scotland, as proposed in the draft Climate Change Plan 2017.

The Scottish Ministers announced, on 4 October 2016, that it would undertake a full review of the penalties under existing animal health and welfare legislation. As I announced, in response to S5W-06556 on 3 February 2017, initial communication has taken place with key stakeholders and enforcement agencies with a view to consulting in due course on proposed amendments to aid deterrence of offences, and to provide for better enforcement and prosecution of any offences committed.

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

The following table sets out the number of trips undertaken by all Scottish registered fishing vessels in the specified period against the recorded number of trips undertaken by the vessels participating in the Fully Documented Fishing Schemes in the each year. The number of individual hauls is not recorded.

Remote Electronic Monitoring equipment is not deployed for compliance purposes. Participation in the Fully Documented Fisheries scheme is voluntary and primarily focused on scientific data gathering in collaboration with Masters and crew.

Of a total of 5,368 designated features of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Natura sites across Scotland, 556 have been included in a Delivering Favourable Condition Partnership Action Plan. After three years of these features being included in an Action Plan:

i) 183 (32.9%%) have improved in condition;

ii) 201 (36.2%) have not yet improved from an unfavourable condition; and

iii) 58 (10.4%) have declined in condition.

In addition, 114 features (20.5%) have retained their ‘favourable’ status or their ‘unfavourable recovering due to management’ status by renewing arrangements to support sympathetic management, where failure to take this action would result in the features slipping into unfavourable condition.

The Marine Scotland Science (MSS) scientific observer programme is scheduled to carry out a total of 80 trips on demersal trawlers and 226 trips on Nephrops trawlers. The programme is expected to cover around 2% of the fishing trips of Scottish demersal trawlers and 1 % of the fishing trips of Scottish Nephrops trawlers and amount to 0.5% of fishing trips of the entire Scottish fleet.

The aim of the scientific observer programme is not for enforcement but to fulfil the requirement of EU regulation 199/2008 to collect biological information (quantity, species, length and age) on the fish caught, for the purposes of stock assessment and fisheries management.

Up to 4 trawlers are anticipated to participate in the 2017 Saithe and Monkfish FDF scheme, which will run between April 2017 and December 2017. Up to 10 scallop boats may also participate in a separate FDF scheme scheduled to run between June and December.

The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it. All interested parties who have made representations in respect of each appeal are given the opportunity to confirm their objection or support to each proposal in writing or to participate at hearing or inquiry sessions where relevant.

The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it.