Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

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 ��˿�� 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: S6W-14323

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the next Climate Justice Fund independent evaluation will be conducted and concluded, and whether it will include analysis of (a) the £2 million loss and damage funding announced around COP26 and (b) the £5 million loss and damage funding announced at COP27.

The next evaluation is planned for the end of the current funding cycle (to March 31 2026) and will include all funding that has been allocated from within the Climate Justice Fund. The evaluation will cover whether or not the funding has achieved it’s strategic objectives, and whether the Fund as a whole is continuing to demonstrate best practice in delivering climate justice against the three pillars of justice that were adopted following the previous evaluation.

Question reference: S6W-14313

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 7 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13349 by Mairi McAllan on 10 January 2023, whether it is the case that it can now confirm how much funding will be allocated to the Climate Justice Fund in financial year 2023-24, and, if it is not the case, whether it will provide a draft figure, prior to final budget allocations being made, of how it expects to allocate for this purpose.

Question reference: S6W-13818

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to submit its Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan to the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to assess whether it is sufficiently "deep thinking" to meet the Scottish Government’s policies, and what its response is to reported comments by the CCC chief executive that its ministers are relying on "magical thinking".

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan sets out our vision for the transformation of Scotland’s energy system and includes a route map of milestones and actions to deliver this vision – including actions that the UK Government must take in reserved policy areas. The draft Strategy is out for public consultation until 4 April 2023.

The draft Strategy has been made available to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), but there is no statutory procedure for submitting such plans to the CCC. There is regular official-level engagement with the CCC on key aspects of the draft Strategy.

A response is being prepared to the CCC’s annual progress report and Scottish Ministers will request advice from the CCC on the draft version of the next Climate Change Plan as part of the procedure for finalising climate change plans.

Question reference: S6W-13970

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.

Question reference: S6W-14307

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many ScotRail passengers experienced delays during their train journey in 2022, broken down by the main reason for the delay.

Question reference: S6W-14180

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-12923 by Jenny Gilruth on 10 January 2023, which refers to "key areas of work completed to date", where information on these completed works is published, and whether it will provide the results of this work.

Question reference: S6W-14234

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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-14253

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.

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

Question reference: S6W-14254

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.

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: . 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.

Question reference: S6W-14236

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.