Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a just transition to net zero and to meaningful involvement of the people of Scotland in decisions that affect them. We recognise the importance of individuals and communities being able to engage in shaping the society wide response needed to achieve a net zero future. We are exploring the most effective ways to do this at all levels across society. I’ve set out below a number of ways in which the Scottish Government is enabling this engagement:

Open Government Partnership (OGP)

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to OGP values of transparency, accountability and participation, a working group was convened in summer 2021. Its remit is to develop options for embedding the use of a broad range of participation and democratic innovations, and using this system as a basis for routine Citizens’ Assemblies in Scotland.

The working group’s report is due to be published in early 2022. It will include recommendations on how to encourage the routine use of deliberative methods across all areas of public services working on complex issues, such as Climate Action. We are also in the process of developing a climate stakeholders network as part of our latest OGP Action Plan, which as a first step will create opportunities for deliberative engagement.

Green Participatory Budgeting (PB)

We committed, in our response to the Just Transition Commission’s recommendations, to exploring the use of Green Participatory Budgeting (PB). We have now dedicated resource within the Scottish Communities Development Centre to aid the development and adoption of Green PB activities and processes across Scotland in 2022, which will include working with local authorities to embed net zero commitments into wider participatory budgeting initiatives.

Place Standard tool

The Place Standard tool is a simple and effective tool to support communities’ and organisations’ engagement in holistic conversations around a place to inform positive action. A supplementary Climate Lens toolkit for the Place Standard tool is currently being developed and piloted in partnership with climate change organisations to further enhance the potential of the tool to contribute to net zero and climate action.

Local Place Plans

Local Place Plans provide communities with an opportunity to influence local planning policies through a community led, collaborative process, setting out a community’s proposals for the development and use of land. It is for the Community Body preparing the Local Place Plan to consider what is the most appropriate method of engaging with its wider community.

Community-led Climate Action

The Scottish Government is committed to empowering people to take action in their own communities and in their own lives. We are building a new model to support community climate action via a developing network of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns. In September 2021 we launched two pathfinder regional Community Climate Action hubs – one in the North Highlands and one in the Northeast of Scotland. These initiatives will provide a vehicle for communities to come together and engage in collective climate action.

The Climate Action Towns initiative is a place-based programme focussing on small towns with little historical engagement on climate action. Architecture and Design Scotland have been commissioned to work collaboratively with local people and organisations in seven towns to support communities to develop local plans focused on tackling the crisis. This will provide opportunities to deliver real change in a collaborative and coordinated approach, learnings from which can be applied in places across Scotland.

Agricultural Transformation now reflects the roll-out of the National Test Programme which will be worth £51m over the next three years; significantly increasing the expenditure on ‘low carbon’ activities. Work on the Programme is being driven by the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) which was established in August 2021 as part of the 100 Days’ commitment. The Programme will have a twin-track approach; Track 1 will be open to all to provide farmers with the tools to start or continue baselining the environmental impact on their land; and Track 2 will develop Conditionality Tests working with a cross section of around 1500 farmers and crofters to learn from them how it can work effectively and appropriately. As part of the overall Agricultural Transformation budget for 2022-2023, £5 million has been allocated to the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS) 2022 which will be will be focussed on the provision of support for low emission slurry spreading equipment and slurry store covers that are proven to reduce harmful ammonia emissions and reduce adverse impacts on water quality resulting from the storage and spreading of livestock slurry and digestate.

The Scottish Government will publish its vision shortly.

The vision outlines our aim to transform how we support farming and food production in Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

The Scottish Government is required by statute to publish progress on our proposals for rural support no later than 31 December 2024 and we will do so well ahead of that deadline.

The draft of the next Climate Change Plan will set out how we will continue to reduce emissions from agriculture and include policies and proposals to ensure the agriculture sector plays its part in meeting our ambitious net zero national target.

This government has also committed to maintaining basic payments at their current level for the lifetime of this Parliament, to provide farmers and crofters with financial stability and certainty.

The draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) supports the protection of soils, including peat and carbon rich soils, which have a critical role to play in helping the country reach its net zero target by sequestering and storing carbon. In relation to commercial peat extraction, the draft NPF4 sets out that development proposals for new commercial peat extraction, including extensions to existing sites, should not be supported unless the extracted peat is supporting an industry of national importance to Scotland.

We have also pledged to ban the sale of peat related gardening products as a part of our wider effort to phase out the use of peat in horticulture and will launch a consultation on this matter in due course.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that robust child protection measures are in place across Scotland. To fulfil this commitment the Scottish Government has ongoing engagement through a variety of fora with statutory public bodies, Commissioners and other key stakeholders to identify any issues in relation to child protection policies, processes and procedures and resolved collaboratively.

The following issues have been raised in the last 12 months:

• Bairns’ Hoose and the Scottish Child Interview Model for Joint Investigative Interviews: Partnership working on the development of these initiatives including collaboratively resolving issues as they arise.
•  Coronavirus: The operation and continued need for Coronavirus (Scotland) 2020 Act provisions relating to Child Protection Orders, Child Assessment Orders and other aspects of Children’s Hearings processes. The use of other flexibilities and streamlining of certain requirements detailed in the Coronavirus (COVID-19): supplementary national child protection guidance Adaptations to local child protection responses and learning from earlier stages of the pandemic which informed the updating of this guidance.
• Domestic abuse: Support and protection for children experiencing domestic abuse, with a focussed discussion at the Children and Families Collective Leadership Group and follow up cross-Government engagement and action.
• Education: The role of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) in sharing information about child protection concerns, with follow up engagement with GTCS planned.
• Human trafficking and exploitation: Reviewing the application of Lord Advocate’s Instructions for Prosecutors when considering Prosecution of Victims of Human Trafficking and Exploitation . The Scottish Government worked closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Office of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland, Police Scotland and Scottish Prison Service to assess the application of the instructions in cases where individuals may have been victims of trafficking or exploitation.
• Implementation of the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 : National resources and action to support local implementation with discussion and decisions on next steps taken by the National Child Protection Guidance Implementation Steering Group.
• Online safety: Developing a Scottish response to the UK Government’s draft Online Safety Bill, working closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Ofcom, the Office of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland and Police Scotland on the devolved implications and agreeing where the legislation needs to go further to ensure children are as safe as possible when using the internet.
• Orkney: Progress in addressing areas for improvement identified during the 2019 joint inspection of services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney, with follow up engagement with the Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Orkney Partnership.
• Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children: Working closely with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Office of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland and Social Work Scotland on the UK Government’s decision to mandate the National Transfer Scheme; and the child welfare implications arising from the Nationality and Borders Bill, particularly changes to how Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children have their ages assessed. This work has underpinned the decision of the Social Justice Cabinet Secretary to lodge a Legislative Consent Memorandum recommending that consent be withheld in relation to two clauses Bill.

Offshore wind development and operation provides a strong route for a Just Transition, helping high carbon sectors and staff transition into low carbon activity. The forthcoming pipeline of ScotWind projects has the potential to transform the energy sector and economy in Scotland, including the potential to diversify our existing industries and generate thousands of new jobs. We therefore welcome the public commitment made by developers who have been awarded lease options to invest a combined £25bn in the Scottish supply chain via ScotWind projects, and their aspiration to invest a further £10bn as indicated in their ‘high ambition’ statements. We need to make the most of, and focus on, the opportunities from this investment and for diversification and skills transfer from oil and gas to drive forward offshore wind skills development. The knowledge and experience of the oil and gas sector, and its supply chain, will be a differentiator for Scotland in developing floating offshore wind technologies, in line with our commitment to a just transition.

In addition, the introduction of Supply Chain Development Statements by Crown Estate Scotland will help to release wide ranging economic benefits across Scotland. We expect the successful ScotWind projects to be fully engaging with the domestic supply chain and to work in collaboration with the public sector and with communities to ensure their commitments come to fruition.

Renewable energy is a crucial element of our transition to deliver a net-zero economy and we are determined to maximise the economic opportunity for the Scottish supply chain from our offshore wind potential. We remain fully committed to using every lever within our devolved competence to support and grow the offshore wind supply chain here in Scotland.

To demonstrate this, applicants to the ScotWind leasing round were required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) setting out the anticipated level and location of supply chain impact. Developers can update their Statements throughout the development phase. Failure to deliver the commitments laid out in the final SCDS can trigger remedies ranging from financial penalties to an inability to progress to seabed lease.

The introduction of Supply Chain Development Statements demonstrates how serious the Scottish Government is about holding developers to account if they do not honour their supply chain commitments. We fully expect developers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to be engaging with the domestic supply chain from the outset and to work in collaboration with the public sector and with communities to ensure that those commitments come to fruition. We have also been calling for, and welcome, the additional conditionality required by the UK Government for supply chain commitments in Contracts for Difference (CfD) rounds.

Dr Colin Church was appointed as independent Chair of the review into the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland in November 2021.

SEPA, as with other stakeholders, has the opportunity to submit a response to the ongoing call for evidence and to participate in the review process led by Dr Church . I do not expect Mr A’Hearn’s resignation to have an impact on SEPA’s participation in the review process but this is a matter for SEPA and Dr Church to determine.

SEPA have started the process of recruitment and expect a Chief Executive to be in post later this year.