Seòmar agus comataidhean

Emissions for incineration with energy recovery are not separately reported in Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics: 1990 – 2019 . These emissions are included under “Power stations” in the Greenhouse Gas Dataset, which is published as part of the statistics.

Following a meeting of the Food Sector Resilience Group, a short-life Food Security and Supply Taskforce is being established by the Scottish Government jointly with key food and drink industry leaders.

The taskforce will monitor, identify and respond to any potential disruption to the food and drink supply chain resulting from the impact of the war in Ukraine. It will also seek to recommend any short, medium and longer term actions that can be taken to mitigate impacts, resolve supply issues and strengthen food security and supply in Scotland. This will include actions to be taken by business and Government.

The taskforce will draw on technical and scientific knowledge and expertise from across a range of sectors, agencies and organisations. It will also consider any future structures and policy measures needed to monitor, address and strengthen food security and supply in Scotland.

Crucially, the Taskforce will support the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to use all powers it has available to support people in Ukraine.

Membership will be drawn from relevant sector organisations and the Food Security and Supply Taskforce will be co-chaired by myself and Chief Executive of Scotland Food and Drink, James Withers. It is intended for the Taskforce to meet frequently in the coming weeks.

The governance body of a Green Freeport, which will need to be approved by the Scottish and UK Governments, will be required to maintain a record of all businesses operating, or applying to operate, within the tax site. That record must be kept up-to-date, contain information about the beneficial owner of the business, and be readily accessible to law enforcement agencies, including HMRC and the National Crime Agency. Law enforcement will use this information to carry out checks on the businesses and their beneficial owners before businesses are authorised to operate within the tax site.

Prior to the Scottish Government taking control of the yard leading to Nationalisation, it was not possible to undertake a detailed analysis of the work required to complete the vessels. The detailed design and planning was the responsibility of the former owners of the yard.

It was only once the yard was in Scottish Government control that the full information was available and the full extent of issues with the design and approval of the ship become known. On 18 December 2019, the Turnaround Director submitted a report on the conditions of the two ferries, together with a revised programme and cost to complete the vessels. A copy of the report can be found on the Scottish Government website – Ferguson Marine: report on cost and programme for vessels 801 and 802 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The CEO of Ferguson Marine is preparing an update, for the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, on the delivery timetable and budget for vessels 801 and 802 which will be submitted before the end of March 2022.

The Northern Isles Ferry Services contract awarded in June 2020 was reviewed before contract initiation to ensure lifeline ferry services were supported throughout the Covid pandemic.

Zero Waste Scotland’s report on the Climate Impacts of Burning Municipal Waste in Scotland, published in 2021, considered how converting to combined heat and power systems may change the carbon intensity of electricity only energy from waste (EfW) plants that were operating in Scotland in 2018 as part of a sensitivity analysis. This indicated that the average carbon intensity of EfW plants was reduced by an estimated 30%. The report is available here .

Evidence from a report published by ClimateXChange in 2022 on behalf of Scottish Government also suggests that retro fitting carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to 6 existing energy from waste facilities and 3 facilities expected to be completed in the next year could deliver up to ~1MTCO2/year of negative emissions, although the potential for negative emissions will depend on the biogenic content in the processed waste. The report is available here.

The independent review of the role of incineration in the waste hierarchy in Scotland, being led by Dr Colin Church, is considering what the potential options are to decarbonise the residual waste infrastructure that is already in place in Scotland and work is being progressed to inform the Review’s considerations.

The existing national planning framework has ensured that all EfW facilities have prepared detailed heat and power plans which seek to identify opportunities for local use of heat from the plant. It also encourages local development plans to co-locate sources of heat demand and heat generation. There are examples of such heat use - currently or in development - at Lerwick, Grangemouth, Shawfair in Midlothian and Torry near Aberdeen.

Only the interim voucher portion of the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (R100 SBVS) – worth up to £400 per connection – is closing on 31 March 2022, and there are no plans to extend it beyond this date. The main voucher portion of the R100 SBVS – worth up to £5,000 per connection – will remain open for applications beyond that date.

Telecoms is entirely reserved to the United Kingdom Government, which means that the Scottish Government does not have the powers to intervene in commercial matters. Therefore, in the absence of further action by the UK Government, it is ultimately up to suppliers themselves to decide how and where they choose to stimulate demand for connections and/or services. However, we do work closely with communications providers and encourage new entrants into Scotland’s fibre infrastructure market – for example, by extending non-domestic rates relief to fifteen years for newly laid and lit fibre, ten years more than the UK Government currently offers.

The value of the purchase order for the main engines and shaft alternators for vessels 801 and 802 totalled 5,270,000. The agreement for this scope of work was put in place prior to the yard coming into public ownership by Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited on 14 January 2016.