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The preparation of the second report on proposals and policies to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is overseen by the Scottish Government’s Emissions Reduction Programme Board chaired by the Director-General Enterprise, Environment and Digital. Membership comprises directors from the key areas within the Scottish Government involved with delivering emissions reductions:

Director for Energy

Director for Environment and Forestry

Director for Housing, Regeneration and Commonwealth Games

Director for Business

Director for Agriculture, Food and Rural Payments

Chief Executive Transport Scotland.

Co-ordination of the work on the second report is carried out on a day to day basis by a team of four staff within the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Energy and Climate Change. In addition, policy and analytical staff from across the Scottish Government are contributing, as part of their wider responsibilities, to the development of content with regard to specific areas of emissions reduction.

The second report on proposals and policies (RPP2) was a substantive agenda item at Emissions Reduction Programme Board meetings in January and March 2012. In addition, RPP2 development was the focus of a special session for members of the Emissions Reduction Programme Board in February 2012.

There has been ongoing development of RPP2 following these meetings. Notes of these meetings will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

The preparation of the second report on proposals and policies to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is being overseen by the Scottish Government’s Emissions Reduction Programme Board. This board, chaired by the Director General for Enterprise, Environment and Digital, comprises senior civil servants with responsibility for policies affecting greenhouse gas emissions from key sectors across the Scottish economy. The members of the board are responsible for ensuring that their teams of officials and analysts consider all reasonable options for achieving potential emissions reductions and, in so doing, contribute towards the Scottish Government’s strategic priority of facilitating the transition to a low carbon economy.

Work on the second report on proposals and policies builds on that already carried out for the first report and advice received from the independent Committee on Climate Change, it also draws on relevant research, analysis and experience of how emissions reduction measures have worked in practice.

The transport proposals and policies within Low Carbon Scotland: Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2010-2022 were published in March 2011 following a series of workshop discussions with stakeholders in June and July 2010 on a long list of potential devolved policy measures, including demand-side regulatory measures. Ministers regularly meet stakeholders to discuss sustainable transport.

The review of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board will take place in 2013. I am happy to give an assurance that Unite the Union will, along with others, be given the opportunity to feed in their views at the appropriate time and that these views will be fully considered within the review.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work in partnership with a range of public bodies and private land managers to improve the condition of Scotland’s protected nature sites. We have therefore asked Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to develop and provide advice on a range of options for one or more specific targets to guide the future programme of work that it will take a lead role in delivering. This advice will be completed by the summer and will be used to inform the development of SNH’s and partner bodies’ strategies and plans for implementation from April 2013. The revised Scottish Biodiversity Strategy will set out a new approach to our delivery of biodiversity conservation in Scotland and will provide the basis for the form that the target or targets will take.

The revised Scottish Biodiversity Strategy will set out a new approach to our delivery of biodiversity conservation in Scotland. Scottish Natural Heritage is currently working on advice to the Scottish Government on possible options for the form a new target will take and expects to report on this in May 2012.

As part of the UK representation at relevant OSPAR meetings, Marine Scotland has participated in OSPAR discussions on progress and guidance on MPA network development. The last OSPAR Biodiversity Committee was held in February 2012 and the last OSPAR Intersessional Correspondence Group on MPAs met in September 2011. Marine Scotland officials meet regularly with UK Government, Department for Environment Northern Ireland, and Welsh Assembly Government officials to discuss MPA issues and the last meeting was held in Edinburgh on 26 January 2012.

Guidance has been developed under the Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) to support the agreement on development of a network of Marine Protected Areas. The guidance outlines key design features associated with ecological coherence. The Key elements are:

Representation – To support the sustainable use, protection and conservation of marine biological diversity and ecosystems, areas which best represent the range of species, habitats and ecological processes (for which MPAs are a suitable measure) should be considered for inclusion.

Replication – Replication of features in separate MPAs in each biogeographic area is desirable where it is possible in order to contribute to resilience and the aims of the network.

Size of site – The appropriate size of a site should be determined by the purpose of the site and be sufficiently large to maintain the integrity of the feature for which it is selected.

Adequacy – the MPA network should be of adequate size to deliver its ecological objectives.

Connectivity – the MPA network should take into account the linkages between marine ecosystems and the dependence of species and habitats on processes that occur outside the MPA concerned.

Management – MPAs should be managed to ensure the protection of the features for which they were selected and to support the functioning of an ecologically coherent network.

The guidance is being used to develop the MPA network in Scottish waters. When finalising advice based on the MPA guidelines, SNH and JNCC will consider the extent to which proposals for inclusion in the network will contribute to an ecologically coherent network and ministers will report progress on contributing to a network of MPAs in accordance with sections 79 (2) and 103(3) of the Marine (Scotland) Act.

A report on the status of the OSPAR network of MPAs is prepared on an annual basis. The reports summarise the number and locations of MPAs included in the network and assesses whether the network is coherent based on assessment of the spatial distribution of the network and coverage of OSPAR threatened and/or declining habitats and species. Further details can be found in the latest 2010 Status Report on the OSPAR Network of Marine Protected Areas:

http://www.ospar.org/documents/dbase/publications/p00548_Status%20report%20MPAs.pdf.