Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31602 on 4 December 2024. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31366 on 5 December 2024. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31366 on 5 December 2024. 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.

The re-introduction of passenger services onto the existing freight only rail line to Grangemouth was considered as part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). The option was taken forward to the Preliminary Options Appraisal stage but was not selected as an STPR2 Recommendation on the basis of its performance against the appraisal criteria and the fact that it would have adverse impacts on the freight capacity and the Glasgow – Edinburgh mainline. It was also deemed unlikely to generate sufficient passenger demand.

Instead, recommendations set out in STPR2 for rail focus on the decarbonisation of the remainder of the network; measures to increase the amount of freight travelling by rail and on improving connectivity between our major cities.

However, there remains a path for regional or local rail projects to come forward, and Transport Scotland will consider these subject to a strong business case being developed in accordance with Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) and suitable funding being available.

The Retail Industry Leadership Group discussed the Public Health Supplement at its meeting in March 2024. The minutes of the Retail Industry Leadership Group are published on the Scottish Government's website. The group also discussed its priorities for non-domestic rates in November 2024, and the minute will be published in due course.

The following data was aggregated to create a broad national picture of the scale of land across Scotland with consent which has not yet been built out. It is not intended for comparison at authority level. The national figure provided contextual information for the development and publication of our Planning and the Housing Emergency Delivery Plan.

We will shortly publish new guidance on Housing Land Audits, to help build a clearer picture of the availability of housing land across Scotland.

The source data is the published schedules of the most recently available Housing Land Audit for each local authority (in most cases this is the 2023 audit), where those schedules included site level data on both planning/construction status and remaining site capacity.

I recognise that it is essential that the culture sector has an opportunity to engage in this work and I can confirm that this engagement will begin early next year with a short survey about the scope of the review.

I will write to the member when the survey is launched and would welcome his assistance in ensuring that as many of the sector have the opportunity to respond to the survey as possible.

This will be the first stages of engagement with the sector and there will be further opportunities as the review progresses.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Through our Good Practice Principles for Onshore Developments, the Scottish Government continues to encourage developers to offer community benefits as standard on all renewable energy projects. This includes pumped storage hydro projects, and we welcome the recent announcement on new community benefit funding to support community projects within areas that host existing hydro power infrastructure across Scotland.

Community benefits are a well-established and integral part of renewable energy projects in Scotland, with over £26 million of community benefits offered to Scottish communities in the last 12 months. The Scottish Government continues to work with industry and communities to build on this success. We are currently considering feedback from stakeholders on the potential for a review of the Good Practice Principles for a wider range of technologies.