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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-13550

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12998 by Fergus Ewing on 5 March 2013, what funding packages are in place for the ports not listed in the answer and how much private sector funding has been leveraged; how many jobs have been delivered, and what economic benefit has been assessed in each case.

Question reference: S4O-01930

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many adults in the NHS Orkney area are on a waiting list to be registered with a NHS dentist.

Question reference: S4W-13329

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the demand for (a) electricity and (b) heating was in the last year for which information is available.

(a) Demand for electricity in Scotland in 2011, against which the renewable electricity target is measured, was 37,857 GWh.

(b) The renewable heat target is measured against Scotland’s forecast 2020
non-electrical heat demand, estimated to be 60,089 GWh. We are consulting with a wide range of key data providers and stakeholders, including DECC, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the Energy Saving Trust, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and Scotia Gas Networks, to establish a robust method of annually monitoring heat demand in Scotland.

This approach will ensure that a wide evidence base is being considered and that the expertise and views of the entire sector are being utilised. Scottish Government will provide an update on this work in the Heat Generation Policy Statement which will be published before the end of 2013.

Question reference: S4W-13323

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what average (a) amount of electricity is produced and (b) number of homes and businesses are heated by each district heating scheme.

Question reference: S4W-13327

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to encourage the development of new combined heat and power plants for industrial and commercial use.

Support is available for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) from a number of sources. Most are available to any organisation who wishes to develop Combined Heat and Power Plants (CHP), such as the main direct support mechanisms for renewable Combined Heat and Power (CHP): the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) and the UK Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive.

The Renewables Obligation (Scotland) gives 2 Renewables Obligation Certificates (SROCs) for every megawatt hour of electricity generated by biomass electricity generating plants with CHP. Following its recent consultation on changes to the Renewables Obligation (Scotland), the Scottish Government proposes to go further by setting an eligibility requirement for plants over 15 MW to meet good quality CHP standards to further drive uptake of CHP.

In the current Parliamentary session, finance for renewable CHP plants is also available through the £103 million Renewable Energy Investment Fund. Finance for both renewable and non-renewable CHP is available through the £5 million District Heating Loan Fund. The District Heating Loan Fund has limited grant funding available for technical feasibility studies. These schemes fund a range of renewable heat-only, CHP and district heating projects and are open to commercial and industrial organisations, large institutions and Universities.

The uptake of CHP depends largely upon the availability of markets for heat. The Scottish Government is working with local authorities to help them identify suitable locations and support planning for CHP and district heating through its Heat Mapping Programme. The heat maps help identify, plan for and maximise opportunities for local heat use and to support investment decisions on strategic heat infrastructure. The maps will not only benefit local authorities, but can also support feasibility work of developers or local communities.

Feasibility support for the development of anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities by communities, industrial sites and the NHS is also available from Zero Waste Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland is also planning to offer financial support for AD development in remote and island communities in 2013-14.

From April 2013, the new Resource Efficient Scotland programme will provide advice and support to businesses, third sector and public sector organisations to reduce overheads through implementation of energy, material resource and water efficiency improvement measures, and in doing so it will help cut carbon across public and private sector organisations. The programme will also provide a suite of sector-focused activities tailored to meet the specific needs of particular business and public sector across Scotland in order to deliver resource efficiency savings.

Scottish Further and Higher Education establishments have also been access specific funding schemes:

Since 2008, Salix Finance have managed a £5 million revolving loans fund on behalf of the Scottish Government to fund low carbon investment projects in Scottish Further and Higher Education establishments.

In 2012, the Scottish Funding Council set up a Programme to fund a small number of large-scale carbon reduction projects in Scottish universities, with funding of up to £20 million over the next two years.

Question reference: S4W-13328

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what national incentives and subsidies are in place for large institutions that wish to develop their own combined heat and power plants.

Question reference: S4W-13326

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many district heating schemes will be developed by 2020.

We do not currently have projections for the number of district heating that will be developed by 2020. We are considering how to set out projections for district heating, across the range of different district heating models, in our response to The Expert Commission on District Heating’s recommendation that “the Scottish Government should set stretching yet realistic targets for penetration of district heating in 2020”.

We will developing projections as part of our long term heat vision for Scotland. We published a draft outline heat vision in January 2012, including a heat hierarchy which sets a framework to guide heat policy development and decision making. As part of our wider heat strategy we have developed draft deployment options guidance and will publish a district heating action plan and Heat Generation Policy Statement (HGPS) later this year. The HGPS will present our understanding of how heat is delivered now, and set out scenarios for meeting our heat vision, highlighting the pros and cons for each.

Question reference: S4W-13336

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many combined heat and power plants there are and what each plant’s (a) daily and (b) annual output is.

Question reference: S4W-13321

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many district heating schemes are active.

The Energy Saving Trust in Scotland (EST) carried out a survey of district heating in Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. The results of the survey indicate that there are 103 active district heating schemes in Scotland. These vary considerably in size and can be broadly categorised based on estimated heat production:

Estimated heat production	Number
10,000 MWh a year and above	7
1,000 MWh to 9,999 MWh a year	14
500 MWh to 999 MWh a year	19
Less than 500 MWh a year	63

The largest number of district heating schemes is made up of small-scale networks in rural areas, mainly heat-only networks using woodfuel, typical examples of which are on farms and estates (case studies are available from the Usewoodfuel website www.usewoodfuel.co.uk/using-woodfuel/case-studies/woodfuel-in-practice-farms-and-estates.aspx). A small number of large systems, such as Aberdeen Heat and Power’s district heating network in Aberdeen supply many more properties. Aberdeen Heat and Power have three gas-fired CHP energy centres supplying around 1,200 flats in multi story blocks and eight public buildings (www.aberdeenheatandpower.co.uk).

Question reference: S4W-13325

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 13 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many combined heat and power plants will be developed by 2020.