Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6O-03953 on 10 October 2024. All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website

A domestic commercial fishing licence provides a general authority to fish within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (UK EEZ). UK Fisheries Administrations operate a restrictive licensing scheme, this means that a regulatory ceiling is maintained on the total fleet capacity (engine power - kilowatts and registered tonnage).

Individual licenses have attached a defined value of tonnage and kilowatts which may be transferred (moved to another vessel/owner), detached from a vessel and placed on an entitlement document, aggregated or disaggregated. There can be multiple changes involved in one licence transaction, for example, transfer of vessel and/or licence between owners or Fisheries Administration and a change of vessel name.

Fishers also trade licence commodities across the UK market. It is important to note that this happens externally to the Scottish Government (and likewise the other UK fisheries policy authorities) and as such we do not ascribe a monetary value and do not participate in any financial transaction.

For the reasons detailed above recorded licence transactions do not directly correlate with the Scottish fleet and fishing method data provided in table 41 of the Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics series of publications.

We have provided the number of Scottish recorded licence transactions by year:

The Scottish Government recognises the value and special characteristics of Scotland’s traditional and protected buildings. Traditionally built properties make up around 18% of all homes in Scotland and may have different requirements to other homes because of their construction type, location or status.

Although Edinburgh College ceased delivery of the Stonemasonry Modern Apprenticeship in 2023, there are still three centres of stonemasonry MA training across Scotland: City of Glasgow College (CoGC) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) at Stirling and Elgin.

The Scottish Government continues to work to ensure traditional skills needed to undertake retrofitting work are available. Scotland’s revised strategy for the historic environment “Our Past Our Future” has as one of its three key priorities “Delivering the transition to net zero”. Collaboration will be key to achieving success, as is working across different sectors and employer groups, and working nationwide across regional borders.

On 3 April 2025 it was announced that a new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional skills, had secured £3.7 million of National Lottery support. Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills will be located near Lock 16 on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal in Falkirk. The centre, which will see Scottish Canals partner with Historic Environment Scotland, will focus on developing pathways into heritage skills training, volunteering, and employment within the historic environment sector.

On 8 April 2025, Historic Environment Scotland, Historic England and Cadw, published a new retrofit training handbook to support learners undertaking retrofit qualifications.

There has been a consistent rise in applications due to increased demand from developers seeking consent to build renewable energy developments in Scotland.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Combined sewer overflows are licensed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and are designed to prevent the sewer network from becoming overwhelmed during times of heavy rainfall and putting homes and businesses at risk of internal flooding.

Scottish Water does not hold information for reported spills during dry weather, or the reasons for spills, however it publishes all reportable pollution events each year to SEPA and this information is available in its annual reports, which can be found at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports. In addition, Scottish Water has recently launched an online map to provide customers with near real-time information about the operation of their monitored storm overflows and this map, as well as information about storm overflows, is available on its website at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Live-Overflow-Map. To help address the issue of pollution incidents, Scottish Water is already expanding its intelligent sensor network to predict and prevent incidents and help speed up the operational response.

Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process.

When an application is received, a full public consultation is carried out. Scottish Ministers invite representations from members of the public, appropriate community councils and other public bodies, seeking their expertise to assist in examining applications.

The decision whether to grant consent is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations.

Currently no application for the Cross Border Connection has been submitted to Scottish Ministers by SP Energy Networks (SPEN), and it is important to note that proposals can change significantly during the development phase. As such, it is not appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on potential projects, so as not to interfere with or prejudice any decisions on projects that may come before Scottish Ministers for determination.

It is the responsibility of the Transmission Owner, in this case SPEN, to analyse the impact of their proposals and ensure the views of local communities and the relevant statutory and local bodies are fully considered as the plans develop. I would encourage anyone with views on the proposals to submit them to SPEN directly as part of this process.

Any proposals that do come forward will be subject to robust planning and consenting processes. Scotland has some of the most stringent environmental impact assessment regulations anywhere in the world, and our planning and consenting systems ensure that local communities can have their say. Our fourth National Planning Framework ensures that potential impacts on communities, nature and cultural heritage, including cumulative effects, are important considerations in the decision-making process.

The post of Traffic Commissioner for Scotland is currently vacant but I understand the role has been advertised on the UK Government’s Public Appointment website. The closing date for applications is 28 April 2025.

On 2 April, I received a letter from the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt. Hon. Heidi Alexander MP advising that Richard Turfitt (Senior Traffic Commissioner) will cover the role on a temporary basis. I welcome Mr Turfitt’s temporary appointment to allow work to progress on improving bus services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is not considering establishing anything further to the already publicly available information previously noted in the answer to question S6W-29364.

The Scottish Government is carefully considering the recommendations of Project Willow, which shortlisted nine potential viable alternatives for the Grangemouth refinery site including two projects aligned to the production of SAF, demonstrating that a long term, new industrial future is achievable there. We continue to work closely with Scottish Enterprise, UK Office for Investment and the UK Government to realise these opportunities. Our enterprise agency, Scottish Enterprise, stands ready to support inward investors looking to progress any of these potential projects.

Ministers have previously sought assurances from the UK Government that all efforts are being made to secure for Scotland a share of the jobs and economic benefits that SAF could provide. We are pleased that the UK Government will now introduce a revenue certainty mechanism bill, which should encourage SAF production.