Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government and Building Digital UK (BDUK) have worked together to develop a number of potential Type A (local) and Type B (regional) Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland. The Scottish Government will lead delivery of these procurements, so that Project Gigabit and our own Reaching 100% (R100) programme can work together in Scotland.

A potential procurement in the Fife, Perth and Kinross areas has been identified as part of this process. It is expected that this procurement will launch later in 2024, so long as the Scottish Government is confident that there is the continued supplier interest necessary for it to succeed.

a) A formal staff consultation was not triggered prior to the announcement as there are no compulsory redundancies.

Staff are VisitScotland's priority, and they are engaging with them to discuss their options such as re-skilling, redeployment and voluntary redundancy.

VisitScotland have established a staff engagement programme, which involves every iCentre and allows for both collective and individual engagement and representation throughout the change programme.

b) VisitScotland consulted with Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union prior to the announcement and continue to work with them during the on-going change programme.

The Hydrogen Innovation Scheme (HIS) aims to support the development and demonstration of renewable hydrogen technologies and products needed to support our ambition of 5GW installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The HIS targets support for innovation under the themes of renewable hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and distribution, and integration of hydrogen into our energy system.

Successful applicants were announced by the then First Minister Humza Yousaf at the All Energy Conference in May 2023. Over £7m in HIS funding grant awards were made to 31 to feasibility and demonstration projects in Scotland.

To date, 10 projects have been successfully completed, with the remaining 21 projects due for completion by March 2025. All have performed or are performing well in meeting their agreed outputs.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of the Acorn project and the Scottish Cluster, which are essential for the production of low carbon hydrogen at scale. I attended the Inter-Ministerial Group in February and sit on the UK CCUS Ministerial Forum to represent Scottish interests and make the case for progress on Acorn to be accelerated. The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, and the previous Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy have also written to the UK Government in recent months to make the case for the acceleration of the Acorn project.

The decision to award the Acorn project is reserved to the UK Government and despite announcing in July 2023 that the Acorn project is ‘best placed’ to meet the criteria, there is still no final decision from the UK Government. This adds further delays to the deployment of CCUS in Scotland.

The Mossmorran Just Transition Plan proposal is at very early stages of consideration and will be initiated fully following delivery of the Grangemouth Plan. The Scottish Government has held early discussions with both operators at the Mossmorran complex regarding the proposal. In line with the principles of co-design, it is our intention to engage extensively with all stakeholders including industry, the workforce, the local authority, UK Government, MSPs and the wider community.

Delivery of the Scottish 4G Infill Programme completed in November 2023 and no further funding has been allocated to this programme for 2024-25.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on current 4G and 5G mobile coverage. Ofcom’s mobile and broadband checker provides predictions of mobile coverage at postcode level and is available on its website at: https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage .

Ofcom also produces an annual Connected Nations Report ( www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research ) report including coverage and performance of mobile networks at local authority area.

The Scottish Government will evaluate the approach taken in developing the Grangemouth Just Transition Plan and derive lessons learned when planning engagements with Mossmorran stakeholders. We will apply a place-based approach that will ensure that the views of all stakeholders are considered, working to reach collective agreement on the plan’s long-term vision and actions.

In 2023-2024 the Scottish Government awarded Youth Scotland £120,000 to support the delivery of the Young Islanders Network.

In 2024-2025 the Scottish Government will provide a grant of up to £130,000 to Youth Scotland.

You can find ICIAs completed by the Scottish Government on the publications section of the Scottish Government website alongside other impact assessments.