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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 13 September 2025
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Displaying 6073 contributions

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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

I am sure that that gives absolute confidence to people in rural areas who rely on private transport to get them to places because there is no public transport. I must also say that people in rural areas often have to travel to cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow for treatment, because there is no treatment in rural areas. They will be penalised for doing that if there are congestion charges. I think that a lot of work needs to be done in order to explain what the effects of the proposals would mean for individual households.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

Thank you, Kevin, and thank you for not missing a beat when I came to you when I should have gone to Douglas Lumsden first. Apologies to you and to Douglas. I will come to you in a minute, Douglas, but Monica Lennon has a follow-up question, and I also have one.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

I am tempted to ask Eoin Devane how many more battery storage sites that would mean are dotted around Scotland—as well as the size of each of them—but that is maybe too difficult to work out.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

That would be helpful. People also know that installation costs come up front when their boiler breaks down, and they have to meet them all at once; as a result, they have to carry the interest. Politicians are asking people to sign up to policies, and individuals want to know the price of them. I would love to be in a position to say that I will be better off in 2050, but I suspect that I will not be around to benefit.

With that, we will now have a question from Mark Ruskell and then go to Monica Lennon.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

No. I was simply going to suggest that, before you go on to your next line of questioning, which I think is on agriculture, it might be appropriate to take a wee break. We have been going for an hour and 45 minutes, so I suggest that we take a 10-minute comfort break until 10.55 to allow everyone to stretch their legs before we continue.

I suspend the meeting for 10 minutes.

10:44 Meeting suspended.  

10:55 On resuming—  

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

Welcome back. Bob Doris, I apologise for cutting you off as you were about to launch into the next bit. Over to you.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

Before we move on from the issue of heat pumps, I have a question. I am thinking about a two-bedroom, two-public room house with a kitchen and a bathroom, which was built before 1950. As a surveyor, I would estimate that, by the time you have put in the heat pump, insulated the house and replaced all the equipment in it, it would cost between £30,000 and £40,000. Those are the sort of figures that I have been given by the industry. If electricity prices were to reduce the price of heating the house by £500 a year, it would take 70 years for somebody to pay back that cost.

How will you encourage somebody to buy in to replacing an oil system that is running at the moment and to spending, say, £30,000 to £35,000 on a heat pump system for their house if they do not have that money in the first place and it will take them 70 years to pay it back? I am just trying to get a price for individuals so that they understand what this will cost them. It will then be up to them to make a decision. Are the figures that I have quoted unreasonable?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

I have a couple of questions. One of my concerns is that, in Scotland, herd reduction has been going on apace for many years. Numbers have been decreasing naturally, as Mark Ruskell suggested. The problem is that reducing livestock numbers will undoubtedly affect small-scale producers, who will feel that it is no longer possible for them to continue farming if the returns from their animals are reduced because they are asked to keep fewer of them. In my opinion, it will disadvantage small-scale producers.

I support the Government making some moves to reduce the calving interval, but farmers as a whole have increased maternal traits of their cows, which means that less is driven by bags. There is also earlier finishing. Most farmers can produce an animal for the table in 11 months, but they are not allowed to sell it as Scotch beef until it is 12 months old. They are forced to keep it for another month until it becomes Scotch beef, in effect, which seems bizarre to me.

Farmers have also driven with less intervention and they have followed the old principles of Turnip Townshend. Eoin, I am sure that you have looked back at those. They are about crop rotation and making sure that mixed farming is going on. That is what we should be driving towards, rather than, say, putting trees in pastures, which to my mind comes with problems regarding flies. That causes problems with all the cows and livestock that are there.

Do you not think that having a more integrated and clever farming system, with mixed farming at the core of farming in Scotland, would be a better approach than just having a blanket reduction in livestock numbers?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

While you are there, Dr Devane, could you just answer a simple question for me? As a more balanced pathway to net zero, the Climate Change Committee suggested a 6 per cent shift from car use to public transport use. What does that mean per car user in the UK? How many kilometres will they have to shift? Six per cent does not mean very much to me, and I doubt that it means very much to the car user.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 2 September 2025

Edward Mountain

I will bring in Mark Ruskell before I delve into that too deeply.