Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-27855

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many North Sea oil and gas (a) top side, (b) subsea infrastructure and (c) specialist vessel decommissioning projects are scheduled to start in each year from 2020 to 2023, and what support it is providing to Scotland's (i) ports and (ii) companies in securing future contracts for offshore decommissioning work.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of North Sea decommissioning projects scheduled from 2020 to 2023.

Information on decommissioning programmes is available from the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED). All information on decommissioning programmes for the UK Continental Shelf, including proposed and approved decommissioning projects, can be found through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-decommissioning-of-offshore-installations-and-pipelines

The decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure, at the end of its life, presents great potential for Scottish ports and companies to capitalise on a market that is forecast to reach £15.2 billion over the next decade. The Scottish Government is committed to maximising the economic benefits available to Scotland from decommissioning, ensuring Scotland is a thriving centre for decommissioning activity and allowing the supply chain to continue to develop competitive capabilities.

The Scottish Government has provided support to ports, harbours and companies through the Decommissioning Challenge Fund (DCF), which supports projects designed to enhance Scottish decommissioning capabilities. The DCF has so far supported 28 projects, with funding awarded totalling £10 million. DCF Projects include port infrastructure upgrades and innovative technological development, from improvements in well plugging and abandonment through to onshore decommissioning and waste handling.

Examples of supported projects include Isol8’s ground-breaking and innovative work on developing a thermite-based well barrier tool string for the well plugging and abandonment market, and infrastructure improvements at Kishorn Port which has supported the port in now being ready to win decommissioning contracts.

The fourth round of the DCF was launched in July 2019 with £4 million funding available. The results of this round will be announced shortly.

Scottish Government has also made commitments to establish an ultra-deep water port at Dales Voe, Shetland, which would allow the largest decommissioning contracts to come to Scotland. This would bring benefits not only for a single location, but as part of an integrated and networked Scotland wide decommissioning offering.

Question reference: S5W-27859

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many North Sea oil and gas (a) top sides, (b) subsea infrastructure and (c) specialist vessel decommissioning projects have been carried out in Scotland's port facilities since January 2017.

The decision about where to decommission topsides, other infrastructure and specialist vessels is a commercial one for asset owners. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of North Sea decommissioning projects carried out in Scotland’s port facilities since January 2017.

There are, however, many examples of oil and gas decommissioning successes in Scotland. A number of ports are actively winning contracts, and building the capability to do so. Scottish Ports have distinct advantages and infrastructure that can be utilised to increase capacity to undertake decommissioning projects of all sizes and nature, and for fixed and floating assets. Examples include:

- The Ninian North will be decommissioned in Shetland this year

- The Port of Cromarty Firth is now fully licenced, and with plans for a new £28 million quayside in the pipeline, is actively engaged in decommissioning subsea infrastructure from Fairfield Energy's Greater Dunlin Area

- Nearly 2,000 tonnes of material have crossed the quayside at Aberdeen Harbour from high-profile projects like the Shells’ Brent Alpha, and Maersk’s Leadon and Janice projects

- Peel Ports are continuing to develop Hunterston which will enable it to support a range of circular economy opportunities including decommissioning

The Scottish Government is committed to maximising the economic benefits available to Scotland from decommissioning, ensuring Scotland is a thriving centre for decommissioning activity and allowing the supply chain to continue to develop competitive capabilities.

This commitment is demonstrated through the Decommissioning Challenge Fund (DCF), launched in 2017 by the First Minister. The DCF supports ambitions outlined in our Energy Strategy, building on Scottish Enterprise’s Decommissioning Action Plan and industry feedback highlighting that Scottish companies have been successful in winning offshore decommissioning work, such as high value plugging and abandonment work, but that investment is required at Scotland’s ports and harbours to increase our capture of dismantling and disposal contracts. The DCF has so far supported 28 projects, with funding awarded totalling £10 million.

The fourth round of the DCF was launched in July 2019 with £4 million funding available. The results of this round will be announced shortly.

Question reference: S5W-27857

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) duration and (b) value is of the Crown Estate Scotland contract with Arup for a team of specialist reviewers to assist in (i) preparing evaluation systems and processes and (ii) evaluating applications to the ScotWind Leasing round.

Crown Estate Scotland advise that their contract with Arup covers preparing for and evaluating applications. The contract value will vary depending on the number of applications which are received, but on the basis of Crown Estate Scotland’s present planning assumptions the central estimate of the value of the contract is approximately £80,000. The contract was concluded on
‎ 18 December 2019 and its duration will depend on the timescales for ScotWind Leasing, which in turn depend amongst other things on the timescales for the Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind.

Question reference: S5W-27858

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 19 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the Crown Estate Scotland’s (a) budget and (b) in-house staffing level is for ScotWind Leasing (i) in 2019-20 and (ii) for 2020-21.

Crown Estate Scotland advise that they do not record the sub-allocation of staff time specifically to ScotWind Leasing but it forms a significant part of the work undertaken by the Energy & Infrastructure team which is made up of 8 members of staff. That team’s remit also includes other offshore renewables, as well as cables and pipelines. The ScotWind budget, not including staffing costs, is £305.5k for 2019-20.

Question reference: S5W-27856

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government by what date ScotWind Leasing will be launched.

Question reference: S5O-04142

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what communication it has had from the UK Government on how it will protect Scotland’s crofters in upcoming trade deal talks with the EU.

Question reference: S5W-27103

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 5 February 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many seats ScotRail planned to provide on its services in 2019, and how many of these it did not provide, broken down by route.

A reduction from ScotRail’s planned seat delivery may be caused either by a cancellation, or by a train running with fewer than the planned number of carriages.

Details of cancellations may be found at Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 61301) as previously advised in response to the answer to SW5-26845.

Transport Scotland holds details of reduced seat provision due to shorter trains for the routes in the following table:

Data for twelve months ended 4 January 2020
Route	Number of seats planned	Number of seats not provided as a result of short-formations of trains	% of total seats not provided
Express – Intercity	9,120,651	71,081	0.78%
Express – E&G	8,593,211	4,572	0.05%
Suburban East	18,299,423	90,311	0.49%
Suburban West	99,900,672	85,040	0.09%
Total	135,913,957	251,004	0.18%

On other routes, services are provided by trains formed of two carriage diesel units – the contracted minimum. Therefore failures to provide the contracted seat numbers are included in the cancellation figures.

The Scottish Government expects ScotRail to run all services as planned. Therefore we are pleased to note there has been a reduction in number of both the cancellations and short trains in 2019 compared with 2018.

Question reference: S5W-26675

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 29 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26417 by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 December 2019, what the operational carbon footprint has been for each ferry in the NorthLink Ferries fleet in each of the last five years.

The operational carbon footprint for each ferry in the NorthLink Ferries fleet in each of the last five years is given in the following tables:

	2015 tonnes CO2	2016 tonnes CO2	2017 tonnes CO2	2018* tonnes CO2	2019 tonnes CO2
Hjaltland	30,345.6	30,211.2	29,107.2	29,842.1	29,550
Hrossey	31,939.2	31,024	29,088	30,166.09	28,651
Hamnavoe	13,337.6	13,078.4	12,979.2	12,589.37	13,054
Hildasay	9,792	11,875.2	11,238.4	11,783.34	12,007
Helliar	12,425.6	12,723.2	13,564.8	12,380.72	12,624

The operational carbon footprint (in tonnes) per trip for each ferry (port to port) in NorthLink Ferries fleet is given below:

	2015 tonnes CO2/trip	2016 tonnes CO2/trip	2017 tonnes CO2/trip	2018* tonnes CO2/trip	2019 tonnes CO2/trip
Hjaltland	59.263	59.346	59.513	58.734	59.282
Hrossey	62.376	60.914	59.474	59.370	57.477
Hamnavoe	8.339	8.088	8.107	7.861	8.063
Hildasay	44.21	45.39	43.23	45.43	34.969
Helliar	43.16	44.67	43.36	45.59	33.144

*Independently verified data

Question reference: S5O-04082

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for improving rail infrastructure in the Highlands.

Question reference: S5W-26674

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 22 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26417 by Paul Wheelhouse on 2 December 2019, what the operational carbon footprint of NorthLink Ferries has been in each year since 2012.

2012*	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018**	2019
55,972	110,092	105,328	97,840	98,912	95,977	96,761	95,885