Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29611 on 20 September 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.

FLS has a portfolio of 25 operational windfarms on the national forests and land, amounting to a total of 1217MW installed generation capacity. FLS is not currently aware of any community ownership in this portfolio.

Pilots of a new pre-application consenting process developed by the Consenting Task Group commenced in January 2024 in the Shetland and Highland local authority areas.

Our priorities for this year, developed by the Consenting Task Group and agreed by the Scottish Aquaculture Council, include delivering more pilots, completing and responding to evaluation activities to improve the process, exploring opportunities to better coordinate Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) activities and working to align onward application processes.

We are also taking action to clarify the consenting process for aquaculture developments beyond 3 nautical miles.

As part of this work we have recently published a consultation on proposals for plans to address an existing gap in aquaculture planning regulations by extending Local Authority planning controls through marine planning zones further offshore out to 12 nautical miles.

The public consultation will run until 11 December and can be viewed at Extending marine planning zones: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.

The National Electricity Supply expires on 31 March 2026, the framework has 3 optional 12 month extensions.

Variations to the framework can be made, however these must be in accordance with procurement law and be non-material changes and in agreement with the Supplier.

There are 107 entries in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme. Entries in the pilot can comprise a single block or building, or a development, or part of a development consisting of multiple blocks or buildings.

Only a Single Building Assessment meeting the Scottish Standards can identify what cladding if any, a building has and further identify whether the cladding is unsafe.

Developers, homeowners or other organisations could have commissioned assessments without informing the Scottish Government. Therefore, the true number may be higher and could increase as further information becomes available.

£97.1m in Barnett consequentials was received in 2021-22. The cumulative spend of the programme to date is £9.m, spend of £0.5m was incurred in quarter one 2024-25 to support programme delivery works. Details on spend to date are on the Scottish Government website Single Building Assessment programme: spending information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

All 32 local authorities use the national Framework for the Supply of Electricity, however if local authorities are also getting electricity from another source or another contract, then Scottish Government do not have visibility of this and this information would only be available from each individual local authority.

The Managing Deer for Climate and Nature: Consultation Analysis report was published on the Scottish Government website on 9 September 2024.

The Scottish Government has not made a recent assessment of the legislative requirement for Crown Estate Scotland to obtain market value in its transactions. An assessment is not required under the Scottish Crown Estate Act 2019.

It is not practical to estimate the behavioural response of businesses to any change in the Higher Property Rate that may arise from restoring parity with the English Standard Multiplier in order to assess the economic impact robustly.

It is however possible to assess the financial impact of changes in liability for an individual business. The median rateable value for properties liable to pay the Higher Property Rate in Scotland is £191,000. The additional gross non-domestic rates liability for a property with that rateable value in Scotland in 2024-25 is £2,483.