Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to building resilience to the locked-in impacts of climate change, as part of a just transition.

The approach to planning for climate change adaptation and resilience in Scotland follows the statutory requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Alongside continuing to deliver the wide range of actions set out under the current statutory Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme 2019 – 2024, the Scottish Government is also now developing the next such Programme for publication in 2024. This Programme will respond to the full range of current and future climate risks for Scotland, as independently identified by the Climate Change Committee in its evidence base for the January 2022 update to the statutory UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

Over the remainder of 2022 and across 2023, the Scottish Government will be working with local authorities, public bodies, communities, the private sector and other stakeholders to develop enhanced approaches to building Scotland’s resilience to climate change. We also continue to fund the Adaptation Scotland Programme which works with local authorities and others to support adaptation capacity building, for example via the Adaptation Capability Framework, and support for place-based climate adaptation partnerships.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-10883 and S6W-10888 on 21 September 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

In addition, it is recognised that the migratory routes of wild salmon through the coastal zone are not fully understood and we are committed to filling these knowledge gaps. In December 2021, £400,000 of funding was announced to support The West Coast Tracking project, in collaboration with Fisheries Management Scotland and The Atlantic Salmon Trust, which will provide data on the routes salmon take as they migrate from rivers out to sea. The findings from this work will be used to inform future planning and policy decisions.

Under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 Ministers can only give the Water Industry Commission Scotland directions of a general or specific character as to the financial management or administration of the Commission

Consumer Scotland already has a statutory role and actively engages in the scrutiny arrangements underpinning the delivery of Scottish Water’s investment programme to ensure that Ministers’ objectives are being delivered. As a member of key strategic stakeholder groups Consumer Scotland advocates on behalf of customers on key industry policy issues, including on questions of affordability. Scottish Water’s Board must consider questions of affordability in finalising its Scheme of Charges; there are currently no plans to give Scottish Water additional functions in relation to charge setting.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11009 on‎ 30 September 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

Building upon the good work already undertaken, Atkins WSP Joint Venture will take forward the engineering and environmental assessments to determine the preferred options for the medium and long term solutions, developing the subsequent detailed designs in consultation with stakeholders. They will also assist in completion of the statutory processes including acquisition of land, and in the procurement and construction supervision activities. Given the number of potential solutions and variability of scope and length of each project stage, it is not possible to provide a meaningful breakdown of estimated costs at this stage in the process.

The £25m of Scottish Government investment represents an estimate of the contract value to Atkins WSP Joint Venture to undertake the design, promotion, procurement and construction supervision of both the medium and long-term solutions. Whilst there is no allocation of spend of this estimate to either the medium term or long term solutions, it is anticipated that the vast majority of spend will be on the long-term solution as all of the options require complex civil engineering.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-10758 on 20 September 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11081 on‎ 29 September 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

We are aware from other infrastructure projects that construction costs have been impacted by increases in inflation, as well as a rise in materials, fuel and wages as a result of the pandemic, exit from the European Union and the situation in Ukraine. The full impacts will not be known until the tender bid and evaluation stage for the Ardrossan project has been undertaken.