Chamber and committees

A final decision on the number of hubs has not yet been taken. A paper to the Restorative Justice Stakeholder Group, published on the Scottish Government website in 2021, set out a proposal to develop up to 6 administrative restorative justice hubs based on sheriffdom areas, and discussion is underway with our stakeholders and partners on this. The precise number of regional hubs in place by 2023 will be subject to these discussions and a range of factors such as level of demand, and cannot be confirmed at this stage.

Hospitality businesses, like all other businesses, may seek advice on SME funding sources from the Business Gateway ( https://www.bgateway.com/ ) who have a network of offices across Scotland and will tailor the advice dependant on the particular business needs and location. This could include advice on possible grant support in areas such as Research and Development to help bring new ideas to market, on technical and commercial feasibility studies, or on knowledge transfer partnerships with educational institutions. Hospitality businesses can also search the ‘FindBusinessSupport’ portal ( https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ ) which lists all the main sources of advice, training and funding – including the loans and equity funds under the Scottish Growth Scheme - for businesses in any sector.

COVID-19 has reduced the number of flights to/from Scotland and resulted in a sharp decrease in aviation emissions. As we work with the aviation sector to restore and grow the connectivity which is essential to Scotland’s economy, we are committed to doing so without restoring previous levels of emissions.

In the short term, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation. Longer term hydrogen/electric aircraft could play an important role, and we remain committed to working to decarbonise all scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040.

Regarding the implications for Heathrow expansion, it is for the UK Government to respond to the Climate Change Committee recommendations for airports in England. The Scottish Government has been clear that the expansion of the UK’s only global hub airport should deliver economic benefits for all the nations of the UK, which is why the memorandum of understanding remains in place.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-06653 on 17 March 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Zero Waste Scotland’s report on the Climate Impacts of Burning Municipal Waste in Scotland, published in 2021, considered how converting to combined heat and power systems may change the carbon intensity of electricity only energy from waste (EfW) plants that were operating in Scotland in 2018 as part of a sensitivity analysis. This indicated that the average carbon intensity of EfW plants was reduced by an estimated 30%. The report is available here .

Evidence from a report published by ClimateXChange in 2022 on behalf of Scottish Government also suggests that retro fitting carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to 6 existing energy from waste facilities and 3 facilities expected to be completed in the next year could deliver up to ~1MTCO2/year of negative emissions, although the potential for negative emissions will depend on the biogenic content in the processed waste. The report is available here.

The independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland, being led by Dr Colin Church, is considering what the potential options are to decarbonise the residual waste infrastructure that is already in place in Scotland and work is being progressed to inform the Review’s considerations.

The existing national planning framework has ensured that all EfW facilities have prepared detailed heat and power plans which seek to identify opportunities for local use of heat from the plant. It also encourages local development plans to co-locate sources of heat demand and heat generation. There are examples of such heat use - currently or in development - at Lerwick, Grangemouth, Shawfair in Midlothian and Torry near Aberdeen.

The Improvement Service (IS), which manages the application process, has confirmed that at close of business on 15 March 2022 there had been a total of 226,484 online applications submitted.

Because the offline application process is undertaken by local authorities using multiple routes, including schools, libraries and council offices, there are practical challenges currently to providing an accurate national picture of offline applications. However, it is possible to provide details of how many applications in both settings have been processed.

By close of business on Tuesday 15 March 2022, IS confirmed that a total of 187,345 National Entitlement Cards with free bus travel had been produced and dispatched. This total includes cards generated from both online and offline applications.

In addition, by the end of 14 March 2022, 4,696 travel products have been added to existing National Entitlement Cards through the Transport Scot Collect App which was launched on 28 February 2022.

Emissions for incineration with energy recovery are not separately reported in Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics: 1990 – 2019 . These emissions are included under “Power stations” in the Greenhouse Gas Dataset, which is published as part of the statistics.

The Fair Fares Review is part of a broad package of work being undertaken to ensure that there is a viable and sustainable transport system for the future. As part of this work we are taking forward activities to facilitate a safe and confident return to public transport as more people begin to travel between their home and their place of work, and as demand for leisure travel also increases.

The Fair Fares Review is being taken to forward to address a range of issues for public transport alongside our activities to support Covid Recovery. The recommendations and findings of the Fair Fares Review will be provided as they emerge on an ongoing basis throughout the review.

I have responsibility for Ferguson Marine and the vessels under construction there. I meet with the yards management on a fortnightly basis to drive faster progress, as well as receiving detailed monthly reports. Our last meeting was on 14 March 2022.

I am aware that the Minister for Transport visited the yard on 16 March 2022 for a tour and an introductory meeting with the new CEO.

The Northern Isles Ferry Services contract awarded in June 2020 was reviewed before contract initiation to ensure lifeline ferry services were supported throughout the Covid pandemic.