- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which of its vehicles, and those of its agencies, based in (a) Glasgow, (b) Edinburgh, (c) Aberdeen and (d) Dundee it projects will not comply with Low Emission Zone rules when they come into force.
Answer
There are only five vehicles in the entire SG and wider SG agency fleet which would not comply, zero in Glasgow, two in Aberdeen and three in Edinburgh, out of a total fleet of 197 vehicles.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13620 by John Swinney on 17 January 2023, whether it will provide the information requested regarding whether another budget line was reduced in order to allocate a further £60.9 million to deliver Hulls 801 and 802 in its draft Budget, and, if so, which budget line, or lines, was, or were, reduced; for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer, and, if no other budget lines were reduced, where the extra money has been sourced from.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s capital budget increased from £5.8 billion in 2022-23 to £5.9 billion in 2023-24, a rise of £115 million. In my previous response, I explained the process the Scottish Government undertakes when agreeing annual budgets. It considers a whole range of factors, including the phasing of and the delivery arrangements for projects, particularly those which span several years, and this allows resources to be allocated accordingly to meet our commitments and our priorities while delivering a balanced financial position.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide any data it has on which Scotland-based industries are the largest emitters of carbon in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency publish detailed data on industrial carbon dioxide emissions. There are three different, but complementary, sources of such data with each defining industries in different terms.
The first source of data relate to a commissioned study in 2020 which defined industries using the Standard Industrial Classification (2007), a classification scheme used in economic data. The ten largest emitting industrial groups in Scotland during the calendar year 2018 are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 - Largest CO2 emitters by industry group, excluding residential emissions, Scotland, 2018.
Industry (SIC 2007) Group | CO2 emissions (Kilotonnes) |
Coke, refined petroleum products and petrochemicals | 3884 |
Crude petroleum, natural gas and metal ores; other mining and quarrying | 2910 |
Electricity production - gas | 2673 |
Land transport services and transport services via pipelines, excluding rail transport | 1625 |
Agriculture, hunting and related services | 1362 |
Construction | 1255 |
Electricity production - other | 1176 |
Manufacture of cement, lime, plaster and articles of concrete, cement and plaster | 761 |
Water transport services | 700 |
Gas; distribution of gaseous fuels through mains; steam and air conditioning supply | 614 |
The second source is the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics publication. The main focus of these data relate to processes and activities conducted by industries. Table 2 shows the ten processes with the largest carbon dioxide emissions in Scotland during the calendar year 2020.
Table 2 - Largest CO2 emitting processes (IPCC category), excluding residential and land use emissions. Scotland, 2020.
Process Type (IPCC_category) | National Communications Category | CO2 emissions (Kilotonnes) |
1A3bi_Cars | Transport | 3912 |
1A4ai_Commercial/Institutional combustion | Business | 1006 |
Public | 909 |
Transport | 0 |
1A2gviii_Other_manufacturing_industries_and_construction | Business | 1882 |
1A3biii_Heavy_duty_trucks_and_buses | Transport | 1830 |
1A1ai_Public_Electricity & Heat_Production | Energy Supply | 1710 |
2B8g_Petrochemical_and_carbon_black_production:Other | Business | 1546 |
1A1b_Petroleum_Refining | Energy Supply | 1502 |
1A3d_Domestic_navigation | Transport | 1446 |
1A3bii_Light_duty_trucks | Transport | 1380 |
1A2c_Chemicals | Business | 1201 |
Note: the cars category includes use by households as well as commercial uses.
The third source is Scottish Environment Protection Agency published data from the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory. This source provides installation-level data on carbon dioxide emissions. The latest data from this source relate to the year 2021 and the ten largest emitters of CO2 in that year are shown in Table 3. These data have been adjusted to exclude CO2 emissions arising from the use of bioenergy, where declared by operators.
Table 3 - Largest CO2 emitting installations, excluding bioenergy emissions. Scotland, 2021.
SITE_NAME | Adjusted Release (Kilotonnes CO2) |
Peterhead Power Station | 1128 |
Petroineos Manufacturing, Grangemouth Refinery | 775 |
Fife Ethylene Plant, Mossmorran | 687 |
INEOS Chemicals Grangemouth Ltd, Grangemouth | 602 |
INEOS Infrastructure (Grangemouth) Ltd | 564 |
Grangemouth CHP, Boness Road, Grangemouth | 514 |
Tarmac Ltd, Dunbar Plant, E.Lothian | 429 |
Dunbar ERF , Dunbar | 307 |
Caledonian Paper Mill, Shewalton, Irvine | 301 |
Shell UK Ltd, St Fergus Gas Plant | 277 |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average daily demand for electricity is in Scotland; what it projects the demand will be in 2030, and whether it will provide the evidence on which this projection is based.
Answer
The current average daily demand for electricity in Scotland (a 12-month rolling average figure, for the 12 months ending November 2022) is 70.4 GWh. This data is from National Grid Electricity System Operator’s data explorer and is published on Scottish Energy Statistics hub here: Scottish Energy Statistics Hub (shinyapps.io) . This is an average figure, within a minimum-maximum range (for the same period) of between 45-100 GWh.
There are no projections available on the daily demand for electricity in 2030.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the study to map the net zero gap skills on Scottish islands, as referred to on page 12 of the Carbon Neutral Islands Project Progress Report, commenced as intended in December 2022, and, if not, when it is expected to do so.
Answer
As stated in the previous answer to S6W-13831 on 26 January 2023 this work is in its early stages. Initial meetings were held in December 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 .
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 1 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether any assessment has been conducted and will be published regarding its support to Scottish industry in relation to the research and development, manufacturing of, and the required skills to ensure the long-term maintenance of wind turbines.
Answer
Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan set out a series of actions, including the development of a refreshed Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan by the end of 2023.
Alongside this, as part of the ScotWind leasing round, developers were required to complete a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS). The SCDS outlines the supply chain activity that each project is committing to undertake within Scotland, the UK and overseas. These commitments amount to billions of pounds of investment in the Scottish supply chain and economy, with initial projections showing an average spend of £1.4bn across each of the 20 ScotWind projects.
Our Enterprise Agencies, including Scottish Development International, are engaged with a number of leading businesses that have the products, technology, skills and know-how to support robust supply chain development. We are encouraging developers to work with our Agencies and partners to identify how best to support and anticipate business needs as well as operational challenges to delivery of these projects.
We are already starting to see examples of companies establishing Operations and Maintenance (O&M) bases for their offshore wind farms in Scotland. In addition to the vast potential opened up by ScotWind, the Neart na Gaoithe O&M base was officially opened by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport on 25 January. This base will bring up to 50 high quality jobs to the Eyemouth area for the 25-year lifespan of the wind farm. The base is also large enough to handle potential staff expansion in summer months when the weather is calmer and maintenance can be increased.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions (a) ministers and (b) its staff have flown (i) out of and (ii) in to Prestwick Airport since 2013, broken down by year.
Answer
There have been five flights out of Prestwick since 2013:
Calendar year | Ministers | Officials |
2013 | 0 | 2 |
2014 | 1 | 1 |
2015 | 0 | 1 |
2016 | 0 | 0 |
2017 | 0 | 0 |
2018 | 0 | 0 |
2019 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 0 | 0 |
and six flights into Prestwick since 2013:
Calendar year | Ministers | Officials |
2013 | 1 | 2 |
2014 | 0 | 0 |
2015 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 0 | 1 |
2017 | 0 | 0 |
2018 | 1 | 1 |
2019 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 0 | 0 |
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to the Workplace Parking Levy, how much money the policy has collected since March 2022; how many local authorities (a) currently implement the policy and (b) have signalled their intention to introduce the levy in the future.
Answer
The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced a discretionary power for local authorities to implement workplace parking licencing (WPL) schemes. It will be for local authorities to decide whether they wish to implement WPL locally and to shape proposals to suit local circumstances.
To date, no local authorities have implemented a WPL scheme and therefore no revenue has been collected under a WPL scheme.
The Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022 require local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers when publishing notification of a scheme proposal. There is no requirement for local authorities to register their interest in introducing a WPL scheme with Scottish Ministers before they have formally published a scheme proposal (such as during initial scoping or exploration of a scheme).
While no notifications of scheme proposals have yet been received, I am aware that local authorities may be considering how best to use the new powers. For example, the City of Edinburgh Council has included plans to take forward a WPL scheme as part of its published City Mobility Plan 2021-2030 and are continuing to scope such a scheme. I am also aware that WPL is under consideration in Glasgow as part of their Local Transport Strategy policy framework.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government on which dates the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has visited police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons in the North East Scotland region since his appointment in May 2021, and whether it will provide specific details of each visit.
Answer
All Ministerial engagements, including visits to police stations, fire stations, courts and prisons, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether any new staff will be recruited in 2023 to support the delivery of the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, and, if so, at what grades, and in what numbers.
Answer
Workforce planning for the next phase of the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan is ongoing and therefore we are at present unable to provide a comprehensive overview of recruitment for 2023.