- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how communities will be consulted on spending priorities arising from benefits received from Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
Representative communities who engage with the developers will receive the level of benefit and direct investment agreed on their behalf by Forestry Commission Scotland with the developer for each lot. As such it will be entirely up to the properly constituted body to decide how to make use of such income going forward.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason it decided to put the whole of the forest estate out to tender at the same time.
Answer
Every exercise like this is heavy on resource and time. Progressing these opportunities will contribute significantly to the delivery of the Government''s renewable energy targets and generate an additional revenue stream for Forestry Commission Scotland which will avoid the need for taxpayers to support the cost of delivery of social and environmental outputs from the national forest estate.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits it expects communities will receive from the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland has secured leading edge community benefits of up to £5,000 per mw per annum for both wind and hydro developments. Communities, if they so wish, will be able to invest this payment in a share of the development. Also, they have the choice to add extra cash of their own to build a greater stake for the community.
We estimate that this new programme could generate up to 500mw per annum and if this is realised then it could mean a windfall of £2.5 million per annum for communities.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how the community benefits from Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 will be administered and which organisations will oversee this.
Answer
It will be for the appointed development companies for the different lots to engage with and agree the details with communities based upon the template agreed with Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS). FCS will additionally publish guidance for communities on the options available and Community Energy Scotland has been contracted by the Scottish Government to provide advice to communities on these possibilities.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive which banks provided assistance in drawing up the contracts for the Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
No banks were involved in drawing up the contracts but financial advice was provided by Grant Thornton''s Edinburgh office. However, prior to the tendering exercise FCS received advice on renewable energy developments from Fortis Bank.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates it has made of the renewables potential of the forestry estate.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland estimate having 2GW of capacity installed (wind and hydro, excluding large-scale pumped storage) on the national forest estate by 2020.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contracts for Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 have review points where increasing payments from companies with access to the commission’s estate might be considered.
Answer
The lease arrangements are structured to provide income to Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) based on a share of the gross income generated by specific projects or a share of net income where FCS is joint venture partner or a combination of both. Therefore if income rises due to increasing energy costs FCS will benefit.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of community renewables development scheme that have previously been worked up to the appropriate level for consideration under the provisions of the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts out to tender.
Answer
Where Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) was aware of community schemes that had started doing some preparatory work before the renewables contracts were announcement on 22 February, FCS built that knowledge into the arrangements by withholding the relevant forest blocks from the process. This has happened in the case of Dalavich, Strathyre and Mull.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 give exclusive rights to the whole of the commission’s estate to those companies that won the contracts.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland split the geographical areas of the national forest estate into five lots.
In four of the five lots there are two companies given exclusivity for the eight month period, one dealing with schemes under 5MW site potential and the other over 5MW. In the fifth lot both development segments are dealt with by the same company. It is not intended that exclusive options will be granted on all of the forest estate in each lot at the end of the exclusivity period, instead a select list of potential sites will be taken forward and the rest of the land can be open to communities or others to take forward if possible.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the antisocial behaviour framework debate in the Parliament on 16 December 2010 (Official Report, c.31759), whether it will provide details of how Edinburgh is benefiting from the Community Wellbeing Champions Initiative.
Answer
In March 2010 I announced £100,000 in support of the Community Wellbeing Champions Initiative. So far the Initiative has been piloted in five areas across Scotland: Fife; Shetland; North Lanarkshire; South Lanarkshire, and Stirling.
Evaluation of these pilots is currently taking place, and a full report of the Initiative will be included in the second annual report to Parliament.
