Chamber and committees

I can confirm that a Scottish Government official with specialist knowledge of CCUS policy attended the European High Level Conference on CCS in Oslo on the 05 September 2019.

The UK Government is responsible for security of fuel supply, and we continue to press them to manage this effectively, ensuring that all necessary plans are in place to protect the flow of fuel to Scotland’s consumers and businesses. There are existing national plans for Fuel Disruption which are long established via the National Emergency Plan for Fuel and although not directly linked to EU exit, elements of the plan could be deployed if necessary.

The Scottish Government has engaged closely with Petroineos. I have written to the UK Government, urging them to use the limited time remaining and reconsider these harmful tariffs as a matter of urgency. I have also stressed the importance of this issue when meeting the Secretary of State for BEIS on 20 August 2019.

Fuel supply is a matter reserved to the UK Government. As a responsible government, however, we continue to do everything we can to ensure that we are as prepared as possible for a potential ‘no deal’ exit, and this includes engaging with the refinery operators. Petroineos’ focus remains on the safe and reliable provision of fuels for its customers.

An independently led review has now been completed and the report setting out the conclusions and recommendations has been published today. The report makes 10 general recommendations and 38 specific recommendations covering a wide range of policy areas. The review was led by Professor Campbell Gemmell and I would like to place on record my thanks to him and those who contributed for their work on this review.

The Scottish Government will now consider the recommendations and consult on changes to its air quality strategy in due course.

The cost of conducting the Public Local Inquiry relating to this appeal, was £2,965.53.

Parties to an appeal are expected to meet their own costs. DPEA paid for the travel and subsistence costs of the reporters and the administrative costs of setting up the inquiry - including the hire of the venue and newspaper advertisement of the inquiry arrangements. The costs noted exclude staff salary costs incurred by DPEA.

Bòrd na Gidhlig is one of the key partners in the LearnGaelic.scot website and discussions have taken place via that route with Duolingo. Duolingo is a commercial product and any decision to develop a course in a particular language is made on that basis. Our understanding at this time is that Duolingo are actively considering the potential for developing a Gaelic course.

The Scottish Government recommends the LearnGaelic.scot website as a one-stop shop for Gaelic learning through from beginner to advanced levels – with a huge variety of helpful resources and clear signposting to courses across Scotland and internationally.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with Duolingo regarding the development of a Scots language course.

Forth Valley College’s Falkirk campus construction phase is expected to be completed by November 2019. The new campus is due to open its doors to students in January 2020.